
DE WITT CLI NTON 



HISTORY 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY 



CITY OF NEW YOEK 



PORTRAITS OF THE PRESIDENTS OF THE SOCIETY. 



WM. OLAND BOURNE. A.M. 




NEW YORK: 
WM. WOOD & CO., 61 WALKER STREET. 

LONDON: SAMPSOX LOW, SON & CO., 188 FLEET STREET. 

BEBLI>f : STILKE & VOK MUTDEN, LINDEN N°. 21. 

PARIS : GUSTATE BOSSANGE, 25 QUAI VOLTAIKE. 

1870. 







■Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1809, by 

WM. OLAND BOURNE, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the TTnited States for the Southern District 

of New Yorlc 



§m^t i. irimbk, 

THE LAST PRESIDENT OF TOE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY, 

WHOSE S ERTICES 

DUKINO THE LONG PERIOD OF TIURTT-FITE TEAES 
WERE DEVOTED 

TO THE IKTEEESTS OF POPULAR EDCOATIOS IN NEW TOEK : 
TO 

f |rj f rustas anil Utmhrs ai iht fitMit StUal Sflritlg 

i.ND TO 

THE FRIENDS OF COMMON SCHOOL EDUCATION 

INDEPENDENT OF SECTARIAN CONTROL, 

THIS VOLUME 
IS DEDICATED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE, 



The Histoet of the Public School Society of the City 
OF New York, presented in this volume, has been prepared in 
compliance with the request of the Society, and the repeatedly 
expressed wishes of numerous friends of the cause of public 
education. At the last meeting of the Society previous to its 
dissolution, held on July 22, 1853, a resolution was adopted 
authorizing " the President and Agent to place at the disposal 
of a competent writer such documents in possession of the Socie- 
ty as illustrate its rise, progress, and history." This resolution 
was not acted on until the close of 1854, when a very numer- 
ously attended- meeting was held, at which a committee of five 
was appointed to superintend the work, and under whose re- 
vision it should be finally submitted to tlie public. This com- 
mittee consisted of George T. TRiirsLE, the President, Joseph 
B, Collins, the Secretary, Samuel W. Seton, the Agent of the 
Society, Assistant Superintendent of Common Schools, Hieam 
Ketchum, and Charles E. Pieeson, M.D. 

The committee elected a secretary for the performance of the 
work, whose fitness for the task was to be found more in the 
enthusiasm of his admiration for the Society, and his earnest 
sympathy with the cause of public instruction, than any other 
merit that he might possess. It is, perhaps, not impertinent tc 
remark, that tlie author had for several years previously enter- 
tained the purpose of writing a History of the Society, while 
there were yet probabilities of its permanence as an educational 
establishment. 

In the preparation of the History, the author has had the 



assistance and recommendations of the Committee, and has had 
occasion to make use of the records of the Corporation of the 
citj', the City Library, the Society Library, the Library of the 
Historical Society, tlie Journals of the Legjislature, and the 
u'.imerous records of the schools established by the Society. 
The ackuowledgmeDts of the author are made for the politeness 
and attention he has received from the Committee, to J. W. C. 
Leveeidge and W. P. Cooledge, late Trustees of the Society, and 
also to the Hon. "William B. Maclay, the late David T. Valen- 
tine, Clerk of the Common Council, Geoege H. Mooee, LL. D., 
Librarian of the Historical Society, Kichaed Field, of the late 
Manumission Societ;7, and to the late Clerk of the Board of 
Education, Hon. Aleeet Gilbeet, and also his successor, 
Thomas Boese, Esq., together with the teachers of the several 
ischools. Acknowledgments are also due to James McMas- 
tee, Esq., editor of the Freeman''s Journal, and to the editors 
of the Commercial Advertiser and Evening Post, for the use of 
their files in collecting the materials for the work. The labor 
has been rendered less onerous by the courtesies and attentions 
which have been so uniformly extended during its progress. 

The author will not anticipate criticism upon the style of the 
work. He lays no claim to authorship other than that of indus- 
trious compilation. His object has been simply to present a 
tnithful and impartial history of the rise and progress of common 
school education in the city of New York, as furnished by the 
proceedings of the Public School Society, and the kindred institu- 
tions which became identified with it. It was not designed to 
give a general history of the Church or other private schools 
which preceded the organization of the Society. It has been a 
constant aim to compile and present those facts which would be 
interesting to the public, or of value for future reference. 

While seeking to avoid too much detail, it has been the pur- 
pose to omit no fact which might be required to complete the 
record or to illustrate a principle. 

The author makes no apology for the absence of omamenta- 



tion, dissertations, or criticisms. The various papers and reports 
of the Society contain all that need be said in its defence ; wliile 
the speeches and debates of the learned controversialists, whose 
arguments are here collected, affoixl sufficient relief to the mat- 
ter-of-fact style of the History. The large amount of material 
clamoring for preservation has excluded original discussion. 

The plan of the work is simply chronological. The chapters 
are devoted to periods of longer or shorter duration, marked by 
some special event, which is made the occasion of a pause in the 
narrative. The controversy relative to the school fund, lS22-'25, 
the legislation and reorganization of the system in 1826, the 
Homan Catholic Orphan Asylum controversy in 1831, and the 
great school controversies of 1840-'4:2, are made the subjects of 
special chapters, in which the facts relative thereto are collected 
withoi:t disturbing tlie narrative of the text. ^ 

During 'nearly twenty-five years, the Public School Society 
was compelled, to become the defendant in the various discussions 
relative to the sectarian distribution of the Common School 
Fund. Having been organized for the express purpose of estab- 
lishing schools "/"or tlie children of sxoch parents as do not hekmg 
to, or are not provided for hy, any religious society^'' it bore the 
responsibility, in a special manner, of providing a common school 
education for the masses of the people. Hence, when the custo- 
dians of this broad trust witnessed the efforts made to obtain, 
for sectarian uses, the moneys secured by their agency, from a 
public which itself called upon the Legislature to be taxed for 
this special purpose, they felt that they would have been recreant 
to their duty, had they allowed these funds to be disturbed, 
without an emphatic protest. How earnestly and ably they 
carried on the defence, the pages of this volume will abundantly 
show. 

In placing on record the several controversies, the author has 
preferred to preserve the memorials, speeches, and printed ad- 
dresses in full, although some repetition thereby becomes un- 
avoidable. He has chosen to do this, rather than by revisions 



and abridgements to afford any reader grounds for surmise that 
he had excluded important passages from a desire to conceal on 
the one hand, or to magnify on the other. So far as the compass 
of the volume would permit, everything is given complete. Not 
one line has been omitted from a motive of partiality for the 
Society, or of antagonism to its opponents. 

It has been deemed proper to insert the various papers and 
documents in their order in the text, rather than in the form of 
lengthened notes, or an appendix. It is believed that this ar- 
rangement will be found the most convenient for the reader. 

In the hope that this work will be found valuable in connec- 
tion with the interests of popular education, it is committed to 

the press. 

W. O. E. 



NOTE TO THE READER. 



The reader of this volume may perhaps detect occasioEal errors iu the 
names of persons introduced in the history. They are requested to communi- 
cate all corrections to the author. 

All persons having documents, facts, and personal recollections relative to 
the Public School Society, or any of its officers in their oiEcial capacity, are 
requested to communicate them to the author, care of the publishers. All 
communications must be accompanied with the name and address of the ■writer. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY, AND PKOGEESS TO THE TEAK 1817. 

Large Cities — Public Instruction of tlie Poor — City of New Torlc in 1800 — Parocliial 
Charity Schools — An Unoccupied Field — Proposition to Establish a New School — 
The First Meeting — A Committee Appointed — Memorial to the Legislature — An 
Act of Incorporation Passed — The Society Organized — The First Board of Trus- 
tees — Address to the Public — Subscriptions — The Lancasterian System — The New 
School Opened — Lot of Ground Presented by Col. Rutgers — Clothing for Poor 
Children — Memorial to the Legislature — Application to the Common Council — 
The School Fund — " The Free School Society " — New Apartments for the School 
— Grant of Lots for a Building — New School House No. 1 — Donations — Opening 
of the School — De Witt Clinton's Address — The Law Amended — School No. 2 — 
Death of Benjamin D. Perkins — A School Library — Grant of Money by the Legis- 
lature — Land Presented by Trinity Church — Opening of No. 2. — Additional Trus- 
tees — Moral and Religious Instruction Page 1 



CHAPTER n. 

HISTORY FROM 1817-1822. 

New Schools Proposed — Lancasterian Teacher from England — A Legacy — Instruction 
of Monitors — Economy — Discipline — School No. 3 — School No. 4 — School Libra- 
ries — Teachers Trained — Charles Picton — The Freemasons — Monitors and Ap- 
prentices — " Morning Schools " — New Regulations — Manual — Shepherd Johnson 
— Joseph Lancaster — Visit to New York — Finances — Memorial to the Legislature 
— Grant of $5,000 — Address to the Parents and Guardians of Children — Sunday 
and Sunday Schools — The Female Association — School No. 4 Opened — Death of 
John Murray — New Building for No. 3 — Manual of Instruction — State of the 
Schools — Rev. J. N. MaSit's Address to the Schools — School No. 2 — Catechism 
Adopted — Visit of a Committee of the Legislature — The Bethel Baptist Church — 
Special Privileges — School No. 5 — Plans and Estimates for Extension of the Sys- 
tem — A Man of Fortune, aud a Man in Independent Circumstances — Lots for 
School No. 5 Purchased— The Bethel Baptist Church Page 28 



CHAPTER in. 

THE BETHEL BAPTIST CHUBCH CONTROVERSY. 

Sectarian Influence — Church Schools — The School Fjind — The Bethel Baptist Church 
— Privileges Granted — School No. 5 — Memorial to the Legislature — Memorial to 
the Corporation — Proceedings in the Legislature — Hiram Kctchum Elected a Trus" 



tee, and requested to proceed to Albany — Negotiations Between the Two Boards 
of Trustees— Tlie Bill Laid Over by the Legislature— The Bethel Schools— The 
" Trustees of the Fire-Department Fund " — Certificate of Mr. Andrews — Certifi- 
cate of Mr. Buyce — Certificate of Mr. Farden — New Church Schools — Proceed- 
ings in the Common Council — Memorial Adopted — New Memorials to the Legisla- 
ture — Proceedings of the Legislature — Report of the Committee on Colleges, &c. 
— Adjournment of the Legislature — The E.'ttra Session — The Bill Amended — The 
Common Council to Apportion the School Fund — The Bill Becomes a Law — The 
Controversy Closed Page 48 



CHAPTER IV. 

HISTORY FROM 1822-1826. 

The Annual Meeting — School-House No. 5 — Annual Exhibit and Expenses for 1S22 — 
Systematic Visitation — " Sections " — No. 6 Opened — Real Estate — Building Fund 
— Corporal Punishment — Hiram Ketehum — New School Law — Application to the 
Legislature — Committee of Ladies for Visiting Girls' Schools — School Sections 
Appointed — School at Bellevue Hospital — No. 6 — Visit of the Common Council 
to the Schools — Resolutions — Pay System — The School Fund Controversy — The 
Museum — Mrs. Scudder — Charles Picton Resigns, and Returns to England — Gen- 
eral La Fayette — Visit to New York — Inspection of the Schools — The New 
School Law — New Plans — The Pay System — The Common Council — Plans Ap- 
proved — Proceedings in the Legislature — The New Law — Name of the Society 
Changed — " The Public School Society " — Reorganization and Measures. . Page 76 



CHAPTER V. 

HISTORY FROM 1826-1 83 1. 

New Schools — No. T Opened — School No. 8 — Schools at Harlem, Manhattanville, and 
Bloomingdale — School No. 9 — Columbia College — New Locations — School No. 10 
Organized — School No. 11 — Finances and Attendance — High School — The Pay 
System — Lotteries — Sunday Scholars — Infant Schools — Death of the President, 
De Witt Clinton — New Measures — Additional Tax — Address to the Public — 
Vagrancy — Visitor — Samuel W. Seton — Memorials — Power to Mortgage and Con- 
vey Property — The New Tax Obtained — The Schools of New York City — School 
No. 12 — School No. 13 — The School Fund — Application of the Roman Catholic 
Orphan Asylum Page 104 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUSI AND METHODIST CHARITY 

SCHOOL. 

Application from the Asylum for a Portion of the School Moneys — Memorial and 
Remonstrance of the Society — Proceedings of the Common Council — Address 
of the Trustees, and Reasons for their Remonstrance — The Methodist Charity 
Free School — Report of the Law Committee — A Proposition — Report of the Com- 
mittee on Arts and Sciences of the Board of Assistants, on the Application of the 
Trustees of the Methodist School — Memorial of the Public School Society^ 
Report of the Committee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, of the Board of Alder 
men — Decision Thereon Page 124 



CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORY FEOM 1831-1834. 

Infant Schools — Primary Departments — Harlem School — Pay System Abolished — Lot- 
teries — Deaf and Dumb Institution — Transfer of Property to the Corporation — 
New Plans — Delegation to Boston — Primary Schools — Female Teachers Em- 
ployed — Vagrancy and Truantship — Ordinance of the Common Council — New 
Public Schools, Nos. 13 and 14 — The Asiatic Cholera — Hospital School-Houses — 
Evening Schools — African Free Schools — Report on Reorganization — Manhattan- 
ville Free School — Samuel P. Mott — Public School No. 15 — Opening of No. 14 — 
Normal School — Salaries of Teachers — Evening Schools Page 149 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BISHOP DUBOIS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 5. 1834. 

Application of Bishop Dubois to the Trustees — Action of the Board — Committee 
Appointed — Report of the Committee — Expurgation of School-Books.Page 160 

CHAPTER IX. 

HISTOKY CONTINUED. 1834-1839. 

Transfer of the African Schools to the Public School Society — The Manumission Soci- 
ety — School for Female Monitors — George T. Trimble — Transfer of Property to 
the Corporation — Library for Teachers — House of Refuge — School for Male Moni- 
cors — Public School No. 16 — School for Colored Children — Music in No. 10 — 
Death of Lloyd D. Windsor — School in Oak Street — Superintendent of Repairs — 
Workshop — Loan — Schools for German Children — Study of French — Public 
School No. 16 Opened — Surplus Revenue and the School Fund — Opening of Cen- 
tre Street — Public School No. 1 Removed to WilUam Street — African Schools — . 
Trustees' Hall — Death of Joseph Lancaster — Vagrancy — Rehgious Instruction — 
Primary Schools — School for German Children — Lots "for the Trustees' Hall Pur- 
chased Page 104 

CHAPTER X. 

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL QUESTION. 1840. 

Annual Message of Governor Seward — Petition of Roman Catholics to the Common 
Council — Remonstrance of the Trustees of the Public School Society — Remon- 
strance of the Executive Committee — Commissioners of School Money — Commu- 
nication from Rev. Felix Varela — School Books — Roman Catholic Association — 
The Freemaji's Journal Established — Public Meetings of Roman Catholics — Bishop 
Hughes — Resolutions — Address to the Public — Rev. Dr. Pise — Catholic Memorial 
to the Common Council — Board of Aldermen — Committee Appointed — Remon- 
strance of Public School Society — Remonstrance of Methodists — Special Meeting 
of Common Council to Hear the Petitioners and Remonstrants — Speech of Bishop 
Hughes — Speech of Theodore Sedgwick — Speech of Hiram Ketchum — Rev. Dr. 
Bond — Bishop Huglies — Samuel F. Mott — Second Session — Speech of Rev. Dr. 
Bond — Speech of David M. Reese, M. D. — Speech of Rev. John Knox — Speech 



CONTENTS. 

of Rev. Dr. Bangs — Speech of Rev. Dr. Spring — Closing Speech of Bishop 
Hughes — Rejoinder of Mr. Ketchum — Report of tlie Committee — Application of 
Roman Catholics for School Fund Distribution Negatived Page 178 



CHAPTER XI. 

EXPUKGATION OP SCHOOL BOOKS 1840-1841. 

Propositions of Bishop Dubois relative to School-Books — Rev. Felix Varela — Commit- 
tee of Examination and Correspondence Appointed — Report of the Committee — 
Letter of Rev. Felix Varel.i — Letter to the Frennan's Journal by Rev. John 
Power, D.D. — Letter to Dr. Power from the Committee — Address of the Roman 
Catholics — Reply of the Trustees of the Society — Letter to Bishop Hughes — 
Reply of Bishop Hughes — Letter of David Graham to the Society — Reply of the 
Committee — Expurgation of School-Books Page 324 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE SCHOOL CONTEOTEESY OF 1841-1842. 

Meeting of Roman Catholics at Washington Hall — Addresses by Rev. Dr. Power and 
Bishop Hughes — Central Committee Appointed — "Ward Meetings and Committees 
— Petitions to the Legislature — Hon. John L. O'SuUivan's Bill — Action of the 
House of Assembly — Action in the Senate — Governor Seward's Message — Re- 
monstrance from the City of New York — Hon. John C. Spencer — Report on the 
School Question — The Committee on Literature — Speech of Hiram Ketchum — 
Memorial and Remonstrance of the Public School Society — Proceedings in the 
Senate — Speech of Bishop Hughes — Public Meetings of Catholics — Election of 
Members of the Legislature — Roman Catholic Ticket Nominated. Note. — The 
Journal of Commerce — Review by one of its Contributors — Roman Catholic Ex- 
communications — Bishop Hughes — Tristam Shandy Page 350 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SCHOOL QUESTION OF 1842. 

Hon. John C. Spencer — The Legislature of 1842 — Appointment of Committees — Com- 
mittee on Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools — Hon. William B. Maclay — 
Hon. John A. Dix — Governor Seward's Message — Report on the School Question — 
Proceedings of the Legislature — Mr. Maclay's Bill Passed Page 496 

CHAPTER XIV. 

HISTORY FROM 1840-1853. 

Position of the Society — Views of the Board of Trustees — Policy oF the Board — 
Trustees' Hall Completed— Annual Exhibit — Powers of the Society under the 
Law of 1842 — Erection of New Buildings — Amendments to the Law — High 
School — School for Italians — Change of Official Year — ^Public Schools Nos. 17 
and 18 — Josiah Holbrook — Natural History — Text-Books — Uniformity of System 
— Committee on Condition of the Schools — Corporal Punishment — Female Asso- 



ciation — Death of Robert C. Cornell, President of the Society — Proceedings of 
the Society — Public School No. 18 — Board of Education and Normal Schools — 
Controversy of the Board of Education with the Society, relative to New Build- 
ings — Proceedings of both Boards — Speeches of Hiram Ketchum, John L. Mason, 
and Joseph S. Bosworth, Esqs. — Law of March 4, 1848 — Death of Lindley Mur- 
ray. President of the Society — Sale of Property in Oak Street — Deficiency — 
AppUcation to the Board of Education — Transfer of Property Proposed — Amend- 
ments to the School Law — Union of the Board of Education and the Society Pro- 
posed — Loan — Sale of Property in Twenty-Fifth Street — Sale of Public School 
No. 10 , Page 526 



CHAPTER XV. 

UNION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOI^ SOCIETY AND THE BOARD OF EDU- 
CATION 1853. 

Corporate and Popular Boards of School Officers — Resources — Importance of a Uni- 
form System — Proceedings of the Board of Education — Committee of Conference 
Appointed — Basis of Union Adopted — Proposed School Bill — Proceedings of the 
Society — Legislative Compromises — Extra Session — Bill Passed — Commissioners 
and Trustees Appointed by the Society — Transfer of Property to the Corporation 
— Report of the Committee — Address of Peter Cooper — Meeting of the Board 
of Education — Reception of the Members Appointed by the Society — Resolutions 
of Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, President of the Board — Remarks of William D. 
Murphy, Esq Page 676 



CHAPTER XVI. 

ADMINISTRATION OF THE SOCIETY. 

The Lancasterian System — Social Problems — ^Elevation of the Masses — Educational 
Systems — Progress and Development — The Public School Society — Visitation and 
Division of Labor — Teachers and Salaries — Monitors — Economy — Workshop — 
Depository — Rewards and Libraries — Corporal Punishment — Moral Power of the 
Teacher — Extract from the Manual — Lotteries — Music Introduced, but Discon- 
tinued — Vagrancy, Agent, and Visitors — How Shall the Poor be Reached ? — Com- 
pulsory Measures — The Social Problem Unsolved — Evening Schools — The Pay and 
Free Systems — Pay System Abandoned — Moral and Religious Instruction — Sec- 
tarianism — The Position of the Society — Sunday Schools and their Influence — 
Religious and Moral Education Essential to the Welfare of Society — Sectarian 
Movements — Concluding Observations Page 600 



CHAPTER XVn. 

NORMAL AND HI G^H SCHOOLS, 

Monitorial Classes Organized — Central School for Advanced Studies — High Schools — 
Normal Schools — Classical Institute — Free Academy Page 64 6 

CHAPTER XVIH. 

INFANT SCHOOLS AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

Female Association — Girls' Schools — The Infant-School Society — Experiment in No. 10 



CONTENTS. 



— Junior Department of No. 8 — Theory of Infant Schools — The System Approved 
— Delegation to Visit Boston — Primary Departments Established — Female Teach- 
ers Introduced to the Schools — Primary Scliools Established — Catalogue of Schools 
Under the Care of the Society Page 662 



CHAPTER XIX. 

SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN. 

The Manumission Society Organized — Objects and Measures — School for Colored Chil- 
dren Proposed — Committee Appointed — Report — Funds — Teachers Employed — 
School Organized — Purchase of a School Site — Grant of Land from Frederick Jay 
— Legacy from Estate of John Murray — Evening School — The Lancasterian Sys- 
tem Adopted — Manumission Society Incorporated — Change of Location of the 
School — Grant of Land in William Street by the Corporation — Building Erected 
— School in Mulberry Street — General La Fayette — C. C. Andrews — School No. 3 
— School No. 4 — School No. 5 — School No. 6 — Transfer to the Pul)lic School 
Society Proposed — Proceedings of the Societies — Committees Appointed — Author- 
ity to Transfer Granted by tlie Legislature — Transfer Completed — The Schools 
Reorganized — New School-IIouse in Laurens Street — School for Colored Monitors 
— Decline of Schools and the Causes — Name Changed — Dissolution of the Manu- 
mission Society Page 665 



CHAPTER XX. 

HISTORICAL NOTES OP THE SCHOOLS Page 680 

APPENDIX Page 715 



INTRODUCTION. 



At an early period after the adoption of the Constitution of 
the State, the enlightened men of that time took measures to lay 
the foundation of a system of common school instruction, ■which 
was endowed by successive appropriations of public lands and 
revenues, until it has become one of the most important institu- 
tions in the State. 

The local circumstances of cities and large towns made spe- 
cial organizations of the school systems exi)edient and necessary, 
and called for legislative action to meet the wants of the peojple. 
These modifications of the district system have all been found to 
justify the foresight of their projectors. 

The system, however, had not become developed at the com- 
mencement of the present century to such an extent as to meet 
the wants of the city of New York, where the schools of pri- 
vate instructors, and the parochial schools, were the only institu- 
tions of an educational kind then in existence. The necessities 
of a large portion of the population called for some effort on the 
part of benevolent men, and the institution known as the Pub- 
lic School Society was the proud development of those early 
labors. The expansion of the system under the administration 
of the Society, until it should become the finest in the country, 
was fondly looked for by its friends ; and then* plans would 
doubtless have been realized under their control, had they not 
been anticipated by the organization of the Board of Education, 
in 1842. 

The rise, progress, and termination of the Society afford a 
noble illustration of the voluntary system in our country, and 
presents an example of disinterested and faithful labor seldom, 
if ever, equalled. The long periods of service of many of the 
trustees are worthy of special notice, as an evidence of their self- 



mXEODUCTION. 



denying and zealous labors. The following schedule shows the 
time of service of the gentlemen whose names are given : 



Stephen Allen, 


1824-'52 


28 


Leonard Bleecker, 


]805-'30 


25 


Micah Baldwin, 


1827-'45 


18 


James B. Brinsmade, 


1827-'53 


26 


De Witt Clinton, 


1805-'28 


23 


Benjamin Clark, 


1814-'39 


26 


Eobert C. Cornell, 


1820-'45 


25 


"William W. Chester, 


1827-'51 


24 


Joseph B. Collins, 


1828-'53 


25 


Lyman Cobb, 


1834-'53 


19 


James F. Depeyster, 


1824:-'53 


29 


Mahlon Day, 


1829-'53 


24 


John Groshon, Jr., 


1827-'3S; '41- 


-'53 23 


John R. Hurd, 


1821-'53 


32 


Timothy Hedges, 


1828-'53 


25 


Lewis Halleck, 


l-831-'53 


23 


Hiram Ketchiim, 


1824-'50 


26 


Abraham H. Lawrence, 


1834-'53 


19 


Lindley Murray, 


1816-'45 


29 


Samuel F. Mott, 


1826-'46 


20 


James McBi-air, 


1828-'49 


21 


William Mandeville, 


1835-'53 


18 


Charles Oakley, 


1829-'48 


19 


James Palmer, 


1818-'47 


29 


George Pardow, 


lS28-'46 


18 


Samuel W. Seton, 


1824-'53 


29 


Najah Taylor, 


1816-'53 


37 


George T. Trimble, 


1818-'53 


35 


Samuel Wood, 


1818-'38 


20 


A. V. Williams, 


1830-'53 


23 



It appears, from the above table, that thirty trustees gave 
seven hundred and seventy-six years of service to the public 
schools, being an average of nearly twenty-five years. In addi- 
tion to the above, twenty-five other gentlemen served an average 
of fifteen years, among whom were Peter Cooper, Anson G. 
Phelps, J. O. Pond, M. D., Pelatiah Pcrit, Col. Henry Eutgcrs, 



INTRODUCTION. XTll 

and James I. Koosevelt, Jr. These facts are probably without a 
parallel. The objector to the Public School Society cannot 
urge, ill this connection, thftt the men rendering the service were 
of an inferior grade, or that their services and duties were either 
of an indifferent character or iudifierently performed. The list 
above given presents a rare collection of men distinguished alike 
for their moral and intellectual character, their philanthropy, 
their positions as business and professional men, and the stations 
which some of them have held in the State. The facts thus pre- 
sented will ever be remarkable in the history of public educa- 
tion in New York. 

One of the grandest features of the system was the opportu- 
nity it thus gave to philanthropic men to labor for the public, 
untrammelled by political influences and considerations. The 
officers were independent of the teachers, as they were of the 
intrigues of the political councils, and knew nothing of the polit- 
ical opinions of the teachers, or of their personal influence at the 
ballot-box. The Society was conducted — as a literary and phi 
ianthropic institution should ever be — entirely fi'ee from partisan 
interests and attachments. 

Its organization and supervision in the higher sphere ot 
morals and religion was not less catholic and conservative. Yet, 
in reference to the nature and extent of its religious teachings, it 
was compelled to pass through a severe ordeal of prejudice and 
antagonism. The principles and the practice of the Society in 
relation to this delicate duty are so fully exhibited in the pages 
of this work, that it would be superfluous to review them in this 
place. The author, however, avails himself of the opportunity 
aftbrded by this Introduction, to obtrude the only attempt at a 
presentation of his own views which is made in this volume. 

Systems of education, however perfectly they may be adapt- 
ed to develop the intellectual faculties, and to stimulate the 
inquisitiveness of the unfolding mind of youth, must, neverthe- 
less, possess other powers and develop other elements of charac- 
ter, or they must necessarily fail of their true end. The educa- 
tion of man consists not in merely training the eye to see, or 
the mind to tliink, or the observation to seize upon its object of 
attention. It consists not in giving it a knowledge of handi- 
craffe, or of professions — nor in imparting a knowledge of fac- 
tors, of exponents and coefficients, of sines and co-sines, of logi- 
B 



INTEODDCTION. 



cal processes or of metaphysical subtleties. It is not iu impart- 
ing a knowledge of facts or principles, as though the mind of 
man were a mere tablet of record, or a bundle of abstract ideas. 
The highest province of education is that which it gains by its 
EELATiON — an intimate and inseparable relation to the moral cul- 
tivation of an immortal being, whose character is to be the sub- 
ject of a final award. 

There is a wide distinction between mere mental operations 
and the moral activities of the soul. An educated man may be 
a monster, viewed from the moral standpoint ; but the converse 
is not true, for a man whose life is the exhibition of a high 
standard of morality must be more or less enlightened ; for an 
obedience to a pure moral law involves tliat acquaintance with 
the higher principles of action which unites with it a good de- 
gree of intelligence and mental development. Education is of 
two kinds : that of a highly advanced moral standard, which is 
accompanied with sjiiritual refinement and elevation ; and a 
merely intellectual training, which assigns to the moral a subor- 
dinate rank. 

"Which of these two systems is best adapted to meet the 
wants of the State ? 

The answer to this question has received, of late A'ears, and 
is still receiving, the profound attention of many of the master 
minds of both the Old and the New Worlds. In our own coun- 
try it is deepened by the imperative law of necessity growing 
out of the structure of our political institutions, in which the 
popular will governs through the silent and UTCsistible verdict 
of the ballot-box. Old institutions, founded on a firmly com- 
pacted basis, which have been strengthened by hundreds of 
years of custom and usage, and seem to be invested with a jjre- 
scriptive and " divine right," may be perpetuated and upheld by 
the centralization of power in the hands of the few ; but in the 
young and swiftly-extending States of our great confederacy — a 
power more fluctuating and without centralization — a power 
divided among millions of citizens, and combined only by the 
attractive force of opinions and sympathies — a power more ca- 
pricious and mighty, which reverses its judgments without noise, 
and executes its volitions without arms — a power which rolls 
over the land with the tremendous pressure of an ocean swelling 
on and overbearing every obstacle — in our land, such a power 



INTRODrCTION. XIX 

must be controlled and guided, or its exercise will be the destinic- 
tion of every thing dear to the citizen and the philanthropist. 

If we look at the forces which are in action at the present 
time in our country, we shall find them to be somewhat different 
from those which operated at the foundation of our institutions. 
At that time there was a comparatively high degree of intelli- 
gence in certain classes, who were moved, however, not so mucli 
by intellectual convictions as by that saci'ed obligation of duty 
to man and to God, whicli led them on, "appealing to the Judge 
of all the earth for the rectitude of their intentions." At tlje 
present time, literary and scientific knowledge, or intelligence, is 
more popularly difiiised ; but while the amount of intelligence is 
greater, the moral forces have not increased in proportion. This 
arises, in part, from the vast and rapid imn:igration of a popiila- 
tion now reaching nearly five hundi*ed thousand per annum, the 
most of whom have never enjoyed liberal provisions for their 
education, and have been brouglit up under the State establish- 
ments of the Old World. Yet tlie forces which act now belong 
to tlie same class as those which produced the Declaration of 
Independence and the Constitution of the United States, but 
they are of a lower order. They are not intellectual ; they are 
moral. But while the founders of the Government acted from 
the very highest moral convictions, multitudes of our recognized 
citizens act from impulses, prejudices, and influences which be- 
long to the lower grade of moral powers. 

The foundation of character is laid in the moral nature. The 
heart is exercised while the mind is yet just unfolding its earli- 
est power. The child loves before he reasons, and exhibits 
anger before he has learned to utter his first monosyllables. His 
moral powers are in action long before his judgment has begun 
to discriminate between right and wrong. It is only when the 
mind, by years of education and a force of character developed 
out of the moral nature, has learned to act in certain directions, 
that the man may be at all claimed as the subject of simply 
intellectual convictions. In truth, it may be asserted that no 
man has ever been a moral man simply by convictions gained 
from reasoning alone. "When truth, honesty, love, temperance, 
and self-denial can be demonstrated by mathematical problems 
or purel}' metaphysical abstractions, \ve may hope to make men 
good men and upright citizens by intellectual training alone. 



XX LNTEODUCTION. 

But the profoundest mental acquisitions have no sucli force. 
They fail of exerting a controlling influence in conduct and 
character. The crystal, no matter how smooth its planes, no 
matter how brilliant and transparent it may be, let it reflect 
never so much light, will never be softened and remoulded until 
the solvent shall have been applied. So the simply enlightened 
mind can never be made to crystallize into beautiful and harmo- 
nious proportions of character, unless it be united with the nobil- 
ity and fervor of a pure moral nature. Education, while it de- 
velops one, must rest, for all its force in the individual and 
national life, upon the moulding and superior power of the other. 

It is a common remark, that our free institutions depend for 
their perpetuity upon the intelligence and virtue of the people. 
This is true. Eut the permanence of a popular form of govern- 
ment in this country depends more upon the pure and elevated 
moral character of the people than upon its intelligence. Intel- 
lect is not enough. Tlie diftusion of knowledge will not secure 
permanence and national honor. The only strong, sufficient, and 
reliable bond of union and guaranty of our national permanence 
is in the virtue of the nation — in virtue like that of the men who 
framed the Government, inspired by the same motives, controlled 
by the same sense, and weighed in the scales of the same solemn 
responsibility. "Whatever is less than this, or substitutes any 
thing else for this, will fall short of the imperative demands of 
the national mind and heart. 

Regarding the subject in this liglit, it must be evident that 
the moral training of the people becomes an act of self-preserva- 
tion for the State. There is no danger to be apprehended to our 
civil institutions while every man is governed by a strict rule of 
obedience to the moral law. The danger is discernible, and 
magnified just in proportion as men violate and overturn this 
law in their daily practice. 

Hei'e naturally arises the question, how much and what 
moral instruction shall be given in schools supported by the 
State or towns at the public expense? There are some who 
maintain that secular schools — the common schools — are not de- 
signed to teach systems of morals or of theology, but simply to 
afford to the children of the State that amount of mental train- 
ing which shall at least prepare them for entering u^jon the 
duties of citizenship, and be so far a safeguard against the social 



INTRODUCTION. 



disasters and civil dangers which arise out of an ignorant and 
unrefined population. The pi'ovince of tlie moral teacher, they 
contend, is at the fireside and the place of worship, where each 
parent and pastor can teach the moral and religious doctrines 
which they severally believe. This view is too narrow, if it is 
not impracticable. To divest our school literature of all that is 
moral, would be to destroy its best claims. It is safe to say it 
can hardly be done. The mere teaching of arithmetical rules, 
and the arts of reading and penmanship and grammar, will 
never be conducive to the highest purposes of education, while 
they may serve a lower. To reject all moral lessons, will be to 
proscribe, in one sense, every thing like the moral and religious 
principle in the minds of the rising generation. In tens of 
thousands of cases it will serve to deprive the young mind and 
heart of almost the only certain chance of obtaining moral 
teaching. There are many parents who are compelled to labor, 
often early and late, for a subsistence. Many are not qualified 
to instruct their children, and, if they were, are disinclined, 
being both indolent and vicious. As a consequence, the philan- 
thropist, the patriot, the Christian, and the State itself, must 
step in and exert all their combined power to train up for good 
citizenship and for immortality the more than orjDhaned chil- 
dren who throng our thoroughfares. 

There is a standard of moral teaching which can be reached, 
and easily so, without prejudicing the rights of conscience of 
any but those who positively ignore it altogether, and prefer the 
dangers of a helmless skepticism to the elevated obligations of 
duty. Morality all will agree in teaching, to a greater or less 
extent ; but when a child is taught to love good and avoid evil, 
and the lessons of moral rectitude are pressed upon his mind, 
there is a step higher than this. Why should he do right ? 
Now, unless the higher motives of Divine love or displeasure, 
and the obligations of the law of God, are written upon his 
heart, there is little reason for his doing right except that of in- 
terest, convenience, and policy. But selfish appeals to the moral 
sense of a child are about as powerful as they are to that of the 
convict who finds it inconvenient to be in a State prison — 
although, had not that condition befallen him, his blind vision 
would have persuaded him that it was for his interest to steal 
instead of work. Take away all religious motives for the observ- 



XXU INTEODUOTION. 

ance of the moral law, and its requirements ar« made subordi- 
nate to a mere principle of seliisliuess — that very principle 
which is the root of all our evils. 

We are forced, then, to choose one of two paths of action. 
We must either reject all moral and the fundamental religious 
truths together, or we must teach those principles of duty which 
will satisfy the wants of a moral being. To adopt the first 
course, would be disastrous to the welfare of society, and fatal to 
our civil institutions. To declare that moral lessons shall not be 
taught because they require and involve the sanctions of re- 
ligion, would be to unhinge all the bonds which maintain social 
order and I'estraint. It would be a surrender of the highest 
rights of conscience and of the wants of the soul to a compro- 
mise with moral death. 

However desirable it be that the moral and religious educa- 
tion of the young be conducted by parents, and their recognized 
religious instructors, universal moral and religious instruction 
will not soon be secured by those means. As already remarked, 
thousands of parents have neither the literary nor moral qualifi- 
cations to fit them for this work, and the consequences are seen 
in the great disregard of law, order, and virtue on the part of 
himdreds of thousands of the youth of our land. Tliese children 
are growing up like their parents, and will only propagate the 
seeds of moral ruin. If the State, then, to secure a sj'stem of 
common school education in which all shall harmoniously unite, 
emasculate the system by rejecting all that moral teaching which 
has any true power over the minds and hearts of the young, it 
will inaugurate the era of recklessness and corruption, by a 
withdrawal of the safeguards against it. There are tens of 
thousands kept away from school, not because of the rights of 
conscience, but because of the l)limti7\g of conscience, by the im- 
perfect and wretched training under which their parents grew 
up. Thousands of parents are intemperate, vicious, thriftless, 
and imjn-ovident. They employ their children in begging, steal- 
ing, and imposture, in order to obtain the means for their miser- 
able subsistence, and the unhappy growth of the young. This 
growth is more than a simply physical growth — it is accompa- 
nied by a development in moral deformitj', a muscular depravity 
of heart and soul, which, Samsonlike, snaps the bonds of moral 
obligation like threads, and defies the control of the wise and 



INTKODrCTION. 



good. It is well to talk of tlie rights of conscience, and to de- 
fend them to the last ; but to speak of the rights of conscience 
in regard to a class of the people ■who know no conscience, is to 
degrade the question to the lowest level. 

Higher ground than this must be taken. It must come to bo 
received as the doctrine of public education, that morality shall 
be taught in all our common schools, if for no other reason than 
because it is essential to the safety of the State. It will be far 
better to teach morals to the young, than to teach and practise 
the laws of legal vengeance and expiation in the hardened crim- 
inal. It will be incomparably cheaper to the State to train up 
children in morality and industry at the public expense, than to 
pay five times the amount to punish and incarcerate one in fifty 
of the population over twelve years of age, for crimes against 
virtue, order, and human life. It will be a grander achievement 
of our institutions to see American youth growing up under the 
power of a pure moral code and religious inspiration, than to see 
them c:spert accountants, accomplished penmen, and moral de- 
formities. 

What is that amount of moral teaching which shall be given 
in our schools ? is a question of the greatest importance, and it 
must sooner or later press itself upon the people of this country. 
The distinction must be fairly drawn between the fundamental 
truths of all religion, and those which are recognized by the pro- 
fessions of the several sects. All unite in the belief of a God 
superintending and sustaining all things by His power and good- 
ness, and all unite in their estimate of the Holy Scriptures. Yet 
there are minor denominational questions which may, and always 
will; be excluded from every school. So long, then, as these 
fundamental principles are taught, there need be no danger that 
tlie rights of conscience will be invadech It is only when press- 
ing upon the fields of sectarian usages and peculiarities, that any 
one can justly complain of invasion of the rights of conscience. 
Around the cardinal truths all may unite, if they will. They 
who reject them, and refuse to learn these lessons, in common 
with their fellow-citizens, have no just gronnd of complaint. 

It is not proposed to construct a national creed for our com- 
mon school text-books. There is no danger to be apprehended 
from the teaching of the highest moral truths in our schools. 
The danger is in their exclusion. But when, beside their exclu- 



XXIV INTRODUCTION. 

sion, private schools shal] be established, to be supported by the 
public treasury, the danger will be largely increased. A com- 
mon school creed cannot be established by law. Such a legal 
abortion would be a grand step toward an ecclesiastical estab- 
lishment, and such an establishment would be the precursor of 
an era of despotism. A State creed is not necessary to entitle a 
nation to a specific religious character. Are Great Britain and 
France Christian nations because they have establishments, and 
the United States not a Christian nation because it has no estab- 
lishment ? E-^idently not so. But if either of them is Christian 
above the others, then is that character due to our own country, 
because here the law of Christian liberty is more fully exhibited 
than anywhere else on the globe. 

The Creator has endowed us with a class of fiiculties which 
are easily and naturally aflected with the ideas. of a God, and of 
His goodness, compassion, and power. Whether these ideas are 
or are not intuitions, which would spring up in the minds of an 
isolated and untaught individual or community, is not to the 
present purpose. It is enough to know that we are so circum- 
stanced that these ideas become a part of our mental habit, and 
in some sense constitute our religious nature. It is this convic- 
tion which leads the mind to feel a shock at the words of the 
blasphemer, and shrinks from the chilling and negative proposi- 
tions of the skeptic. It is this religious nature which must be 
cherished, fed, and developed, or the nation will become a nation 
of skeptics, and ^drtue almost a forgotten name. 

These religious habitudes must be fully recognized in the set- 
tlement of this question. The moral nature of man must be 
weighed in the balauce with all the other mighty considerations 
which cluster around it. Whatever the ultimate decision may 
be, it seems plain that no system of education can be productive 
of very durable advantages which shall entirely reject and ex- 
clude that amount of moral teaching which shall not only co- 
operate with the lessons of the Sundaj' school, the church, and 
the parent, but which shall aim to impart it where no such 
instruction is given. 

This fact seems to be too much lost sight of in the discussion 
of this whole theme. Were all the children of the people under 
that wholesome moral discipline and religious training which is 
required to ensure, so far as such instrumentalities can ensure. 



INTRODUCTION. XXV 

their becoming virtuous and God-fearing members of the com 
munity, the common school couki dispense with such lessons as a 
prominent feature. Yet the history of the world will show that, 
where the most scrupulous care has been taken of the moral 
training of the young, the highest estimate has been attached to 
its value in connection with literary culture. But while tliere 
are many who jealously maintain the standard of moral training, 
there are multitudes wlio are entirely reckless of these obliga- 
tions. 

The question, placed in its civil aspect, then, is, Can the 
State be safe while hundreds of thousands of its youth are grow- 
ing up without any moral education ? If this question be an- 
swered in the negative, we have our justification for making 
moral lessons an important part of our system. If, in order to 
give the people of the country that education with which they 
sympathize, and which they desire their childi'en to enjoy, a few 
objectors should be inconvenienced and disregarded, the demand 
for rights of conscience on the part of a few should not be a bar 
or an offset to the conscieritious rights of the rest. There is 
nothing taught in our systems of popular education, in any part 
of the Union, to which any truly American mind and spirit 
might object as a fatal or serious invasion of his rights. Free- 
dom is ours, in obedience not to merely intellectual attainments, 
but to the pressure of moral and religious obligation upon the 
consciences of the noble men who constructed our civil edifice. 
Tliis same moral power is to be conservator of our institutions. 
It must be so from their very nature. The delegation of politi- 
cal power to the hands of half a million or a million of voters 
who shall have grown up without moral restraint or education, 
will be placing the balance of power in the hands of men whose 
ignorance and prejudices will lead them to vote blindly for meas- 
ures which will precipitate disaster upon tiie nation. While an 
equilibrium of power may exist between parties of cultivated 
men acting imder a conscientious regard to duty, the balance of 
power, fearful and irresistible in its consequences, will be wield- 
ed by the ignorant and the vicious. Partial exhibitions of this 
spirit have already been seen since the date of the confederation. 
A jealous regard for the rights of conscience must be main- ; 
tained ; but the ajipeal to this element in our national character, 
come from what sources it may, must not be allowed to blind us 



XXVI INTRODUCTION. 

to the consequences of too strict a construction of tlie meaning 
of the term. To exchide and override all moral teaching in our 
common schools, will be to give the ultimate control of our insti- 
tutions to ai mass of unthinking men, moved by their passions, 
and governed by the superior influence of designing but edu- 
cated men, destitute of moral principle, and scorning the control 
of moral power. Such a state of things would soon see our 
liappy Union become the prey of a social and civil despotism, in 
which the rights of conscience would be altogether obliterated, 
and the rule of might would make the ride of right. 

The law of Massachusetts embodies a provision which covers 
the ground in a manner fully in harmony with the spirit of our 
institutions, and, at the same time, meets the vants of the State. 
It is as follows : 

It shall be the duty of the president, professors, and trustees of the Uni- 
versity at Cambridge, and of the several colleges, and of all preceptors and 
teachers of academies, and all other instructors of youth, to exert their best 
endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to 
their care and instruction the principles x)f piety, justice, and a saciied 

EEGAKD TO TRUTH, LOVE TO THEIR COUNTRY, HUMANITY and UNIVERSAL 

benevolence, sobriety and frugality, charity, moderation and tem- 
perance, and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society 
and the ham vj:on which a republican constitution is founded ; and it shall be 
the duty of such instructors to endeavor to lead their pupils, as their ages 
and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the 
above-mentioned virtues, to preserve and perfect a rcpuhlican constitution, and 
secure the llessings of liherty, as well as to promote their future happiness, and 
also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices. 

A common school system which does this, teaches religion in 
its practical relations to God, to man, and to the State — in its 
manifestations in the family circle, the highway, and the busi- 
ness of life — as a child and as a man — as a citizen and as a mor- 
all}' responsible being. It seizes and writes in deep lessons upon 
the minds and hearts of youth the principles of religious truth 
and conduct, without which no grouping of ideas or principles, 
in the form of any creed whatever, can be called in the least 
sense, religion. Divest religion of the principles comprehended 
in the above scheme, and its spirit and its practice are alike anni- 
hilated. Teach these, and the specific religious preferences or 
professions of the parents may be reserved, and properly so, for 
inculcation at the domestic or the church altar. 



OFFICEES AND TRUSTEES 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY, WITH THEIR TIME OF SERVICE, 



PKESIDENTS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



De Witt Clinton, . 
Henry Rutgers, . 
Peter A. Jay, , . 
Robert C. Cornell, 
Lindley Murray, 
George T. Trimble, 



from 1805 to 1828 
" 1828 to 1830 
" 1830 to 1837 
" 1837 to 1845 
" 1845 to 1847 
" 1847 to 1853 



VICE-PRESIDENTS. 



John Murray, Jr., . 
Thomas Eddy, . 
Leonard Bleecker, . 
Robert C. Cornell, 
Lindley Murray, 
George T. Trimble, 
Stephen Allen, 
Peter Cooper, 



from 1805 to 

" 1820 to 

" 1821 to 

" 1830 to 

" 1837 to 

" 1846 to 

" 1847 to 

" 1852 to 



1820 
1821 
1830 
1837 
1846 
1847 
1852 
1853 



TREASURERS. 



Leonard Bleecker, . 
Rensselaer Havens, . 
George T. Trimble, . 
Samuel F. Mott, . . 
inthouy P. Halsey, 
Joshua S. Undeihill, . 



from 1805 to 1819 
" 1819 to 1820 
" 1820 to 1830 
" 1830 to 1843 
" 1843 to 1850 
1850 to 1853 



SECRETARIES. 

Benjamin D. Perking, from 1805 to 1810 

Thomas Buckley, . . " 1811 to 1818 

Lindley Murray, . . " 1818 to 1837 

Anthony P. Halsey, . " 1837 to 1843 

Joseph B. Collins, . . " 1843 to 1853 

TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Aspinwall, Gilbert, 1805 

Aspinwall, John, .... 1814, '15, '25 

Adams, John, 1816 to '22 

Allaire, James P., .... 1821, '22 
Allen, Stephen, . . . 1824 to '46, '52 
AverilJ, Heman, 1826 to '34 



Averill, Augustin, .... 1839 to '53 

Adams, John T., 1840 to '53 

Atwood, Geo. W., 1842 

Atterbury, B. B 1850 to '63 

Anderson, H. U 1851, '52 

Bleecker, Leonard, .... 1805 to '30 
Burling, William S., ... 1807 to 'OU 

Buckley, Thomas 1810 to '18 

Barker,' Abraham, .... 1810 to '15 

Bethune, Divie, 1810 to '12 

Boyd, Samuel, 1813 to '27 

Bowne, Walter 1816, '28, '33 

Brown, Noah, 1817 to '18 

Brown, Adam, 1817 to '18 

Britton, Stephen P., 1819 

Burtis, Arthur, 1819 to '22—1826 to '30 

Bowne, John L., 1820 to '29 

Burtsell, William, .... 1825 to '29 

Baldwin, Micah 1827 to '45 

Brinsmade, James B., . . . 1827 to '53 

Brumlev, Reuben, 1829 

Brown,' Silas, 18.33 to '37 

Bussing, Thomas, . . . . 1835 to '46 
Birdsall, William, .... 1837 to '42 

Bartlett, Caleb, 1838 to '51 

Benjamin, Meigs D., . . . .1838 to '41 
Blaisdell, James H., . . . 1838 to '41 
Betts, Geo. W., . . . . • 1839 to '41 
Blackstone, WyllU, . . . 1843 to '46 

Benedict, H. S., 1845 to '49 

Balen, Peter, 1846 to '49 

Barton, William, 1847, '48 

Burke, W. C, 1848 to '50 

Bussing, J. S., 1849 to '51 

Bussing, E. K., 1849 to '51 

Barrow, H. H., 1849 to '53 

Brown, E. H., 1849 to '53 

Buckingham, G. A., 1853 

Brady, Wm. V., Mayor, ex offi., 1847, '48 

Clinton, De Witt, . . . . 1805 to '28 
Clarkson, Matthew, . . . 1807 to '09 

Clark, Benjamin, 1810 to '39 

Collins, Thomas 1811 to '10 



OFFICEKS AJJD TEU8TEES. 



Coklen, Gadwallader D., . . 1812 to 
Crosbv, William B., . . . 1812 to 
Caldwell, John E., . . . . 1812 to 
Conistock-, Natban, . . . 1815 to 

Cooper, Francis, ISlSto 

Collins, Isaac, 1818 to 

Cairns, William, 1818 to 

Cornell, Robert C, ... 1820 to 
Cowdrey, Samuel, . . 1824, '26, '27, 

Coles, Isaac U., 1826, 

Chester, William W., . . . 1827 to 
Collins, Joseph B., . . . . 1828 to 

Coit, Levi, 1829, 

Cox, Abraham L., 1829, 

Cummings, Thomas, . . . . 1831 to 
Childs, Samuel R.,. . . . 1832 to 
Collins, Benjamin S., ... 1832 to 
Cromwell, Richard, .... 1832, 
Clapp, Henry W., . . . . 1833, 
Cleaveland, Elisha W., . 1834 to 

Cobb, Lyman, 1834 to 

Corse, Barney, 1837, 

Cooper, Peter, 1838 to 

Curtis, Joseph, 1839 to 

Chrystie, Albert, 1841 to 

Cornell, J. F., 1841 to 

Cummings, John P., . . 1843 to '50, 

Cobb, James N. 1845, 

Colden, D. C, 1847 to 

Clapp, Isaac H., . . . . 1850 to 

Crosby, R. R., 1851 to 

Cooledge,W. P., . . . . 1851 to 

Cock, G. E., 1861 to 

Clark, E. S., 1852, 

Clark, Aaron, Mayor, ex offi. 1837 to 



De Peyster, Fred'c, 1810 to 
Dickinson, Charles, . . 
Dodge, Daniel L,, . . 
Doan, Israel, .... 
De Peyster, James F., 
Du Bois, Cornelius, . . 
Demilt, Samuel, . . 
Day, Mahlon, .... 
Deianiatcr, John, . . 
Dwight, Theodore, Jr., 
Dunnel, Henry G., . 
Davies, Henry E., . . 
Durfee, Charles, . . 
Denmai), Asahel A., . 
Dusenbury, William, . 
D'Aguair, L. H. F., . . 
De Forrest, H. G., . 
Davenport, John, . . 
Downer, F. W., . . 



15-1838 to '46 

. 1812 to '16 
.1810, '11, '16 

. 1822 to '2S 
. 1824 to '53 

. 1826 to '28 
. 1828 to '45 

. 1829 to '53 
. 1832 to '38 

. 1833 to '37 
. 1834 to '37 

. 1839 to '43 
. 1839 to '46 

. 1841 to '47 
. 1845 to '48 

. 1848 to '50 
1849 

. 1849 to '53 
1852 



Eddv, Thomas, . . 1805, '12 to '19, '22 
Eckford, Henry, . . . . 1817, '19 
Ellsworth, Erastus, . 1826 to '29, '31, '32 
Everitt, Nicholas C, . . . 1826 

EUiott, Daniel, 1837 

Ellis, Benjamin, .... 1837 to '53 
Edwards, Ogden 1850, '61 



Ely, John, 1862 

Franklin, Thomas, .... 1806 

Franklin, Matthew, . . . 1805 to '09 
Franklin, William, .... 1807 to '09 
Fox, William W., . . . . 1826 to '38 

Fish, Hamilton 1834, '35 

Field, Hickson W., 1835 to '89—1845 to '46 
Ferris, Edward, 1841 to '50 

Grinnell, Joseph, .... 1821 to '28 

Gibbons, Thomas 1822 

Groshon, Jno., Jr., 1827 to '38—1841 to '63 
Gray, John, . . 1828to'31— 1847 to'53 
Glover, Thomas, .... 1828 

Greene, William, Jr., . . . 1831 

Gilbert, Clinton, .... 1S35 to '49 
Gibbons, James S., . . . . 1838 

Griffing, Samuel, .... 1840 to '49 
Gabandan, A. AV., .... 1846 to '48 

Graham, J. A., 1847 

Goodwin, Eli, 1861, '52, '53 

Hegeman, Adrian, .... 1807 to '11 
Hicks, Samuel, .... 1808 to '09 
Hicks, Valentine, .... 1810 to '11 
Hicks, Whitehead, . . . 1812 to '22 
Havens, Rensselaer, . . . 1818 to '33 
Havens, Philetus, .... 1819 to '24 
Hicks, Oliver H., .... 1819 

Hyde, John E., ... 1819 to '30, '32 

Hurd, John R., 1821 to '53 

Howard, William, . . . . 1821 to '28 
Haines, Charles G., . . . . 1822 to '24 
Halstead, Caleb 0., . . . 1826 to '37 
Hasbrouck, Stephen, . . . 1827 to '30 
Hedges, Timothy, . . . 1828 to '63 

Heard, James, 1830 to '36 

Holbrook, Lowell, . . . 1830 

Halloek, Lewis, 1831 to '53 

Huntington, Thomas M., . 1831 to '32 

Haff, Stephen, 1833 to '37 

Halstead, John B., . . . 1833 to '40 

Hall, WiUis 1833, '34 

Hallidav, Robert, .... 1833 to '39 

Hoxie, Joseph, 1833 to '36 

Halstead, Matthias 0., . . 1834, '35 

Haff, James D 1834 to '37 

Halsey, Anthony P., . . . 1834 to '53 
Havilaud, Edmund, 

1835, '36, '38, '39, '40 to '4? 
Hinsdale, Henry, .... 1835 to '39 

Halsted, Oliver, 1838 to '40 

Howell, B. B., 1838, '39 

Hogan, Robert 1839 to '41 

Holmes, Silas 1840 

Harsen, Jacob, 1841 to 53 

Howe, John W., .... 1841 to '63 

Harvey, Silas, 1843 

Havcmeyer, F. C, . 1845, '46— '50 to '53 

Horn, James, 1845 to '53 

Hawley, Irad 1 845 

Harper, James 1846 to '49 



OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES. 



XXIX 



Howe, Timothy A., . . . 1847 to '51 

Howe, B. F., 1847, '48 

Hutchinson, E. F., 1848, '49 

Hibbard, J. C, 1S49 

Hepburn, J. C, 1850 to 'Co 

Hibbard, William, .... 1850 to '63 

Hussey, G. F., 1851 to '53 

Harper, James, Mayor, ex officio, 1844, '45 
Havemeyer, \V. F., Mayor, 

ex nffino, . . . 1845, '46— '48, '49 

Ireland, G., Jr. 1846 to '51 

Johnson, William, .... 1805 

James, Samuel 1818, '19 

Jay, Peter A., 1830 to '36 

Jewett, Thomas L., ... 1835 to '37 

Jay, John C, 1837 

Jay, John, 1840, '41 

Johnson, Leonard L., 1845, '46 — '49 to '53 

Jones, Jidward, 1845 to '48 

Jones, George F., . . . . 1846, '47 

Kirby, Edmund, 1820 to '22 

Ketchum, Hiram, 1823, '28 to '34, '41 to '50 
Ketehum, Morris, . . . .1829 to '31 
Knox, Alexander, Jr., . . . 1832 

Kennedy, Samuel L,, . . . 1834 to '40 
Knapp, Shepherd, .... 1889 to '41 
Kellogg, J. W., . . 1847—1850 to '53 

Kello-rg, J. R., 1848, '49 

Kingsland, A. C, Mayor, ex qffi., 1851, '52 

Lawrence, John B., . ... 1810 '17 

Lorillard, Jacob 1817, '18 

Lord, Eleazer, 1822 to '28 

Lee, Gideon, 1822 to '24 

Lyon, David 1822 

Lovett, James, 1825 

Leavitt, J. W., 1826, '27 

Lord, Daniel, Jr., .... 1 827, '28 

Lasala, J. B., 1829 

Lawrence, Thomas, . . . 1829 

Lockwood, Roe, 1830 to '32 

Leveridge, John, . . . 1832, '34 to '36 

Lawrence, W. B 1834, '35 

Lawrence, Abrm. R., . . . 1834 to '53 
Lawrence, Richd. M., . . . 1834 to '43 
Leggett, T., Jr., .... 1842 to "46 
Leveridge, J. W. C, ... 1847 to '53 

Lee, Wm. P 1848 to '53 

Leigh, Chas. C., 1850 to '53 

Lee, Gideon, Mayor, ex officio, 1833, '34 
Lawrence, C.W., Mayor, ex offi., 1834 to '37 

Miller, Samuel, 1805 

Miuturn, Benjamin G., . . 1805 

Murray, John R., .... 1814 to '21 
Murray, John, Jr., . . 1805, '20, '22 
Murray, Lindley, . . . . 1816 to '45 
Marshall, Benjamin, . . . 1818 to '22 

Miller, Charles, 1818 to '22 

Masop, John, 1820 to '22 

Mott, Robert F., .... 1822 to '25 



Mead, Henry, 1824 to '23 

McDonnell, James J., . . . 1824 

McCarthy, Dennis, . . . . 1825 to '35 
Mott, Samuel F., .... 1826 to '46 
Mercein, Thomas R., . 1827, '34, '35, '86 

McBrair, James, 1828 to '49 

McDonald, James, . . . 1833 to '40 

Morris, Wm.L,, 1833 to '39 

McElrath, Thomas, . . . 1834 to '39 

Maxwell, Hugh, 1834, '35 

Morrison, John, .... 1834 to '43 
McNevin, Wm. James, . . 1835, '36 
Mandeville, William, . . 1835 to '53 
Murphy, William D., . . . 1835 to '43 
Macy, William H., . . . 1838 to '53 
Mercein, Wm. A., . . . . 1839 

Mills, Abner, 1841 to '53 

McBride, Abraham, . . . 1843 to '45 
Miller, Nehemiah, ... 1843 to '53 
McClure, Alexander, . . . 1845 to '53 
Murray, Hamilton, . . . 1845 to '46 
Mott, Samuel C, .... 1845 to '49 
Minturn, Wm. H., . . . 1845 to '48 
Mason, John L., . ... 1845 

McCrackan, John L. H., . 1845 to '46 

Merwin, Almon, 1846 to '53 

MeClain, Orlando D., . . 1847 to '63 

Marsh, James, 1848 to '53 

Martindale, S., Jr 1850 to '52 

Mott, J. H., 1850 

Mott, M. Hopper, .... 1861 to '53 
Morris, R. H., Mayor, ea; officio, 1841 to '44 
Miokle,A. H., Mayor, ex officio, 1846, '47 

Newbold, George, .... 1812 to ""IS 
Kevins, Richard, .... 1829 

Nelson, James B., . . . . 1842 to '60 
Neilson, William H., . . 1850 to '53 
Nelson, George P., . . . . 1850 to '63 
Nevins, David H., . . . . 1850, '51 

Ogden, John L., .... 1816 

Ogden, David L., .... 1816 
Ogden, Thomas L., . . . .1816 to '18 

Ogilvie, Peter 1817 

Olmstead, James, .... 1822, '23 

Olmstead. Ralph, .... 1820,'27 

Oakley, Charles, .... 1829 to '48 

Owen, Thomas 1836 

Ogden, Benjamin, .... 1838 

Perkins, Benjamin D., . . . 1805 

Palmer, James, .... 1817 to '47 

Pintard, John, 1818 

Palmer, Drake B., ... 1826 to '28 
Peters, John R , .... 18-J8 to '33 
Palmer, John J., .... 1829, '30 

Pardow, George, .... 1828 to '46 
Pearson, L Greene, . . . 1831, '32 

Piielps, Anson G., . . . 1832, '34 to '49 

Pollock, James, 1832 to '39 

Pond, J. 0., 1833 to '49 

Peek, Hiram N., 1834 to '38 



OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES. 



Peck, Lewis, 1837 

Pierson, Charles E. , . . .1838 to '53 

Piie.', Thompson, .... 1838 to '53 

Perit, Pelatiah, 1838 to '53 

Page, Richard, .... 1841 

Pessinger, George, . . 1841 to '47 

Pincliney, Peter, .... 1842 to '46 

Palmer, James R., .... 1843 

Pieiccy, Henry R., . . . 1843 
Petrie, James S., . . 1845 to '49, '51 

Piatt, Ebenezer, 1846 to '53 

Pinokiiev, William T., . . 1847 to '53 

Patterson, S. P., .... 1851 to '53 

Price,.l». W., 1851 to '53 

Perkins, R. G., 1852 

Pott(;r, Joseph, .... 1852, '53 

Paulding, Wm. Mayor, ex affi. 1826, '27 

Rutgers, Henry, . . . . 1810 to '30 
Kathbone, John, Jr., . . . 1823 

Raymond, Eliakim, . . . 1824 to '28 
Roosevelt, James L., . . . 1824 

Roosevelt, James I., Jr., . 1824 to '41 
Richards, Thomas, .... 1825 to '29 
Rogers, J. Smyth, . 1826, '27, '40 to '51 
Robbins, George S., . . . 1826 '27 

Richards, Nathaniel, . . . 1828 to '34 

Eanlviii, John 1829 '30 

Ring, Zebedee, 1832 

Rogers, Nathan 1832 to '39 

Roe, Stephen C, .... 1833 to '36 
Rockwell, William, 1834, '35, 1840 to '42 
RaDkin, Robert G., . . . 1836 to '37 
Russell, Israel, .... 1843 to '53 

Eosenmiller, Louis A., . 1845, '49,'61 to '53 
Reed, Richard, . . 1847, '49, '50 to '53 

Redtield, J. S., 1848 to '51 

Kichmoud, T. 0., .... 1852, '53 
Riker, R., Recorder, ix officio 1826 to '31 

Stevens, Ebenezer, . . . 1812 to '15 
Strong, Benjamin, .... 1812 to '17 
Spalding, Lyman, . . . 1818 to '21 
Suuklev, George, . . . . 1818 to '22 
Sloeuiii, W. T., . . . 1807, '19 to '23 

Slidell, John 1 822 to '23 

Seton, S.imuel W., . . . 1823 to '53 

Seaman, 'William 1824 

Sheldon, Frederick, . . 1825 to '32, '38 
Sedgwick, Robert, . . . 1826 to '37 
Swan, Benj.amin L., . . 1827 to '35 
Shipnian, George P., . . . 1830 to "32 
Spi-iK-.T, Reuben, .... 1831 to '45 

yuiitli, Thomas R., 1833 

Stewart, James, . . 1833 to '39, '41 
Suvdam, Lambert, . . 1834, '36, '42 
Stone, William L., .... 1836 to '38 
Servoss, Thomas L., . . . 1837 to '48 

Stryker, John, 1837, '38 

Stevens, Linus W., . . 1838, '40, to '53 

Smith, Charles J., 1838 

Schermerhorn, Peter A., . 1838 to '45 
Stokes, James, . . . 1838, '39, 41 to '63 



Sands, David 1888 

Seaman, Willet, .... 1838 to '53 

Smith, William, 1838 to '50 

Stuyvesant, Peter, 1838 

Stokes, Edward H., 1839 

Sherwood, Burritt, 1889 to '50, '52, '63 
Schieffelin, Honrv H., . 1840 to '51, '53 
Schieffehn, Henry M., . . . 1840 to '63 

Schuyler, Philip, 1840 

Smith, Washington, 1843 

Stillman, Thomas B., 1843 to '50, '62, '53 

Smith, Floyd, 1845, '46 

Stillman, J. D., 1846, '47 

Stillman, Alfred, . . . . 1 84 S to '50 

Seymour, Daniel, 1848, '50 

Swan, Caleb, 1850 to '53 

Stillman, J. D. B., . . 1848, '51 to '53 
Skidmore, J. R., . . . . 1851 to '53 

Ten Brook, Henry, . . . 1805 to '16 
Thompson, Jeremiah, . . . 1811 to '22 
Taylor, Najah, .... 1816 to '53 
Taylor, Thomas C, ... 1817 to '20 
Trimble, George T., . . . . 1818 to '53 
Torrey, William, .... 1818 to '29 
Taylor, Kiiowles, .... 1826, '27 
Taylor, Jeremiah H., . . . 182S to '34 
Tracy, Frederick A., . . . 1831, '32 
Thomas, George C, . . . 1883 to '35 
Tiemann, Daniel F., ... 1836 to "40 
Thorp, George B., . . . 1837 to '40 

Triglar, John, 1837 to '39 

Trench, Joseph 1888 to '40 

Talbot, Charles N., 1 840, '49 

Trimble, Isaac P., .... 1840, '41 
Townsend, J. H., . . . . 1848 to '53 
Thurston, W. R., Jr., . . . 1848 to '50 

Underhill, Joshua, . . . .1827 to '30 

Underbill, Ira B 1835 to '40 

Underhill, Joshua S., . . . 1815 to '63 

Underhill, Walter 1845 to '53 

Underhill, James W., . . 1848 to '53 

Van Wagenen, Gerritt H., . 1807 to '15 
Vanderbilt, John, Jr., . . 1810 to '16 
Vandenheuvel, John C, . . 1819, '20 
Van Rensselaer, J., . . . 1826 to '28 
Van Schaick, Myndert, . . 1829 to '31 
Van Rensselaer, Jer. H. . 1826 to '36 
Verplanck, Gulian C, . . 1834 to '41 
Vermilye, Washington R , . 1845 to '53 
Vermilye, Willi.am'M., . . . 1^46, '47 
Vanderpoel, Jacob, Jr., . . 1847 to '49 
Vamum, J. B., Jr., . . . 1850 to '53 
Varian, Isaac L., Mayor, ex offi. 1 83U to '4 1 

Willett, Marinus, 1817 

Wood, Samuel, .... 1817 to '38 
Withington, John, . . 1818, '20, '21, '22 
Weeks, Ezra, . 1818 to '20—1822 to '27 

Wheeler, Solomon, 1822 

Wheeler, Andrew C, . . . 1827 to '29 



OFBICEES AND TRUSTEES. 



Willett, Marinus, Jr., U21 
Wells, James N., . . 
Wilcox, Lewis, . . 
Wheeler, Samuel G. . 
Waters, Talman J., . 
Wetmorc, David W. 

Williams, Abraham V., 
Wells Ovid P., ... 
Willets, Edmund, . . 
WagstafF, William, . . 
Winthrop Benj. R., 
Washburn, Joseph W., . 
Willets, Samuel, . . 
Willis, WilUam, . . . 



to '34, '37, '38 

. . 1828 to '35 

1828, '29 

. .1828 to '32 

. 1829 10 '33 

. 1S29 to '32— 

1835 to '40 

. . 1880 to '63 

. 1831 to '37 
. . 1885 to '46 

. 1837 to '39 
. . 1838 to '53 

. 1838 to '41 
. .1840 to '42 

. 1841 to '48 



Wandell, Benj. C, . . . . 1849 to '53 

Ward, Isaac, 1845 to '53 

Ward, Lcbbeus B., . . . . 1846 to '53 
White, Norman P., . . . 1847 to '49 

Wyckoff, A. R 1847, '48 

Whillock, W. W., .... 1848, '49 

Waldo, Horace 1848 

Whittemore, W. T., . . . . 1848, '49 
Wilbur, Jeremiah, .... 1849 

Whitlock, AV. H , .... 1850, '51 

Warren, Richard, 1850 to '52 

Woodhull, C.S., M.iyor, cxoi^., 1849 to '51 
Westervelt, J. A., Mayor, ex offi., 1853 

Young, Waldron, .... 1852 



EECEIPTS, EXPENDITtJEES, ETC. 



TABLE showing the amount of moneys received and expended during each year 
of the existence of the Puhlic School Society, \eith the Average Attendance 
of Scholars, the Anmial Expen,»'.s. and the Cost per Scholar, exclusive of 
the Purchase of Real Estate, and Cost and Repairs of Buildings. 



VH.„. 


Ueceipts. 


Expenditures. 


Attcnd.mce. 


Expenses. 


Cost. 


1807 


$4,774.00 


$1,163.09 


70 


$913.09 


$13.04 


1808 


4,960.10 


1,866.53 


200 


1,429.84 


7.14 


1809. 


. 1,858.01 


2,516.52 


250 


1,637.11 


6.54 


1810 


4,173.47 


16,129.54 


400 


1,654.20 


3.89 


1811 


15,557.68 


8,082.45 


650 


2,639.91 


4.54 


1812 


7,331.45 


10,183.73 


712 


2,500.04 


3.39 


1813 


4,511.00 


2,788.13 


950 


2,788.13 


2.93 


1814 


3,139.00 


3,299.06 


968 


3,299.06 


2.80 


1815 


6,250.95 


4,193.61 


958 


4,193.61 


4.21 


1816 


5,369.44 


4,873.20 


974 


4,373.20 


3.80 


1817 


6,075.08 


4,347.36 


1,218 


4,347.36 


3.57 


1818 


9,174.50 


4,049.43 


1,218 


4,049.43 


3.25 


1819 


10,659.74 


19,344.26 


1,449 


7,376.02 


4.76 


1820 


7,487.70 


10,588.37 


2,145 


6,881.75 


2.79 


1821 


10,025.08 


16,128.07 


2,811 


6,769.55 


2.15 


1822 


10,066.83 


10,740.63 


3,412 


7,456.70 


1.37 


1823 


10,222.82 


17,341.46 


4,090 


7,364.45 


1.80 


1824 


12,973.59 


12,464.53 


4,384 


9,242.03 


2.10 


1825 


16,477.33 


14,266.07 


4,059 


10,266.07 


2.52 


1826 


50,359.36 


47,344.99 


3,739 


10,239.57 


2.74 


1827 


63,969.97 


64,724.79 


4,564 


18,645.68 


4.08 


1828 


36,651.28 


41,246.25 


6,331 


21,030.83 


3.94 


1829 


61,975.60 


61,611.18 


6,150 


22,004.80 


3.67 


1830 


58,625.25 


59,157.31 


6,178 


22,092.93 


3.67 


1831 


117,64,5.19 


117,232.88 


6,323 


21,938.39 


3.47 


1832 


71,765.38 


70,977.20 


6,109 


24,345.49 


3.98 


1833 


91,792.93 


89,650.84 


7,826 


■ 25,101.95 


3.34 


1834 


95,995.57 


91,656.10 


12,537 


49,823.07 


3.97 


1835 


108,354.83 


115,518.95 


17,318 


63,749.79 


3.68 


1836 


131,287.29 


130,587.18 


18,011 


69,229.28 


3.84 


1837 


127,224.74 


128,342.47 


17,932 


72,845.69 


4.06 


1838 


148,791.25 


129,240.81 


19,982 


78,484.33 


3.99 


1839 


112,713.25 


130,572.95 


21,206 


100,485.24 


4.73 


1840 


169,771.72 


170,792.92 


22,955 


101,960.21 


4.44 


1841 


155,815.20 


156,857.45 


23,654 


105,398.13 


4.46 


1842 


134,909.96 


134,853.16 


24,671 


99,572.31 


4.03 


1843 


123,352.98 


122,297.22 


20,136 


94,384.24 


4.68 


1844* 


277,313.12 


219,264.33 


• 20,236 


168,394.62 


8.32 


1845 


94,648.19 


144,690.90 


22,476 


119,038.62 


5.29 


1846 


158,558.12 


158,375.51 


23,392 


121,817.47 


5.20 


1847 


125,276.14 


135,023.15 


23,834 


120,530.37 


5.06 


1848 


137.963,46 


137,963.46 


24,226 


119,067.85 


4.91 


1849 


194,196.20 


192,306.32 


24,524 


136,164.81 


5.55 


1850 


153,054.17 


154,300.56 


24,290 


128,086.83 


5.26 


1851 


179,113.21 


179,756.70 


25,941 


130,216.36 


5,02 


1852 


177,543.02 


177,643.02 


24,320 


141,906.67 


5.83 




$3,509,755.15 


$3,525,754.63 


488,589 




4.29 



Note.— There is an excess of expenditure over receipts of $15,930.48. The Treasurer's ac- 
count for the first eight years could not be obtained complete, 

* The financial year of the Board of Education commenced on the let of January— that of 
the Society on the 1st of May. To prevent the confusion consequent upon this ditTerence the 
time was altered to correspond with that of the Board, and the etatcment for the year 1S44 in- 
cludes a period of twenty mouths. This gives the cost per scholar for twelve mouths 14.98, and 
^8.32 for the whole period. 



THE 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTEE I. 

ORIGIN OF THE SOCIETY, AND PROGRESS TO THE YeIr 1817. 

Large Cities — Public Instruction of the Poor — City of New York in 1800 — ^Parocluni 
Charity Schools — An Unoccupied Field — Proposition to Establish a New School — 
The First Meeting — A Committee Appointed — Memorial to the Legislature — An 
Act of Incorporation Parsed — The Society Organized — The First Board of Trus- 
tees — Address to the Public — Subscriptions — The Lancasterian System — The New 
School Opened — Lot of Ground Presented by Col. Rutgers — Clothing for Poor 
Children — Memorial to the Legislature — Application to the Common Council — 
The School Fund — " The Free School Society " — New Apartments for the School 
— Grant of Lots for a Building— New School House No. 1 — Donations — Opening 
of the School — De Witf Clinton's Address — The Law Amended — School No. 2 — 
Death of Benjamm D. Perkins — A School Library — Grant of Money by the Legis- 
lature — Land Presented by Trinity Church — Opening of No. 2 — Additional Trus- 
tees — Moral and Religious lustruction. 

The population of the city of New York, at tbe commence- 
ment of the present centmy, was G0,4S9. The limits of the citj 
were marked on the north by the vicinity of Chambers street, 
the population being located at the southern extremity of the 
island. By that social gravitation which seems to have always 
been inseparable from compacted communities, the metropolis 
was not exempt from the characteristic feature of a substratum 
of wretched, ignorant, and friendless children, who, even though 
they had parents, grew up in a condition of moral and religious 
orphanage, alike fatal to their temporal and spiritual advance- 
ment and elevation. 

The influence of that spirit which is the outgrowth and the 
evidence of true religious convictions, and a high sense of re- 
sponsibility to the present as well as to the future, was not un- 
felt in reference to this class of the population. Public econ- 
omy, not less than religious duty — the merely commercial con- 
1 



iJ THE PUBLIC SCUOOL SOCIETY. 

siderations, not less tlian those that spring from tlie earnest be- 
lief of revelation — the social law of self-preservation, not less 
than the higher law of duty — taught some of the best and most 
honored men and women of that day the trnth which half a cen- 
tury has elaborated into a mighty demonstration, that the liter- 
ary' and moral instruction of every child in the State is a prime 
necessity. If the parent fails in this work, then the State must 
assume the task, and provide for its performance. The answer 
given to the question as then discussed, originated the institu- 
tion, a record of whose labors, for nearly fifty years, is deemed 
worthy of preservation. 

T here ♦ere several schools known as " Charity Schools " in 
cxiatgiu:e--aL_the_tjme;_ _^|juF they wer e under denominational or 
other control; while a large class of children were practically 
unsupplied" with the means of instrnction. An Association of 
Ladies, members of the Society of Friends, organized for benev- 
olent purposes, had established a Fi-ee School for girls, in 1802, 
which was in snccessful operation in its jjeculiar sphere. This 
school suggested the establishment of other schools on the same 
plan and for tlie sam0 class of children ; and the names of the 
founders and friends of both institutions show the connection 
and origin of the Society wliich afterward became so efficient in 
the instruction of the yonth of New Yoi-k. To extend the ' 
benefits of education to all who were excluded from the vario\is 
schools already established, became an object of earnest desire 
with several philanthropic men who had observed the condition 
of these children. At the request of Thomas Eddy and John 
Murray, whose attention had been particularly dii-ected to the 
subject, a meeting was called of such ])ersons as were lik«Iy to 
unite in the effort. Oji the 19tli of February, 1805, this meet- 
ing was held at the house of John Murray, in Pearl street. 
Twelve persons were present, whose names are the fullowing : 
Samuel Osgood, Brockholst Livingston, John Murray, Jr., Sam- 
uel Miller, Joseph Constant, Thomas Eddy, Thomns Pearsnll, 
Thomas Franklin, Matthew Clarkson, Leonard Bleecker, Samuel 
Russell, and William Edgar. After a full discussion of the 
object for which they had been called together, they were unani- 
mous in the' opinion tiiat the establishment of schools, for the 
■ education of children not provided for by the parochial schools, 
was a measure of high importance, not onlj' to them, but to tlie 



MEMOEIAL TO THE LEGISLATURE. 3 

whole community, of which they formed so considerable a por- 
tion. At this meeting a committee was appointed to devise 
such plans as they might deem expedient, and report thereon at 
a subsequent meeting. . ■ 

Witli a zeal and promptitude which were in harmony with 
the noble objects proposed, the Committee gave their immediate 
attention to the duty assigned them, and in a few days called a 
second meeting, at which they submitted their report. 

Among the recommendations of that report was one to the 
effect that application be made to the Legislature of the State, 
then in session, for an act of incorporation. A memorial was 
accordingly prepared, which was signed by about one hundred 
of tiie most respectable men in the city, and was forwarded to 
the Legislature. It was as follows : 



To the Representatues of the People of the State of New Torlc^ in Senate ami 

Assembly convened : 
The Memorial of the Subscribers, Citizens of New Yorl; 

ReSPECTFITLLY SffEWETH, 

That,iirapressecl with a solicitude for the general welfare of the com- 
munity, they feel it their duty to address your Body on a subject which 
they regard as of deep concern. 

Your memorialists have viewed with painful anxiety the multiplied evils 
which have accnied, and are daily accruing, to this city, from the neglected 
education of the children of the poor. They allude more particularly to 
that description of children who do not belong to, or are not provided for, 
by any religious society ; and who, therefore, do not partake of the advan- 
tages arising from the different Charity Schools established by the various 
religious societies in this city. The condition of this class is deplorable 
indeed ; reared up by parents who, from a variety of concurring circum- 
stances, are become either indifferent to the best interests of their offspring, 
or, through intemperate lives, are rendered unable to defray the expense of 
their instruction, these miserable and almost friendless objects are ushered 
upon tlie stage of life, inheriting those vices which idleness and the bad 
example of their jiarents naturally produce. The consequences of this neg- 
lect of education are ignorance and vice, and all those manifold evils result- 
ing from every species of immorality, by which public hospitals and alms- 
houses are tilled with objects of disease and poverty, and society burthened 
with taxes for their support. In addition to these melancholy facts, it is to 
be feared th it the laboring class in the community is becoming less indus- 
trious, less moral, and less careful to lay up the fruit of their earnings. 
What can this alarming declension have arisen from, but the existence of an 
error which has ever been found to produce a similar effect — a want of a 
virtuous education, especially at that early period of life when the impres- 
sions that are made generally stamp the future character ? 






4 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The rich having ample means of educating their offspring, it must be 
apparent that the laboring j)oor — a class of citizens so evidently useful — 
have a superior claim to public support. 

The enlightened and excellent Government under which wo live is favor- 
able to the general diffusion of knowledge ;_ but the blessings of such a 
Government can be expected to be enjoyed no longer than while its citizens 
continue virtuous, and while the majority of the people, through the advan- 
tage of a proper early education, possess sufficient knowledge to enable 
them to understand and pursue their best interests. This sentiment, which 
must meet with universal assent, was emphatically urged to his countrymen 
by WASHrNGTON, and has been recently enforced by our present Chief Ma- 
gistrate in his addi'ess on the necessity of supporting schools, and promot- 
ing useful knowledge through the State. 

Trusting that the necessity of providing suitable means for the preven- 
tion of the evils tliey have enumerated will be apparent to your honorable 
Body, your memorialists respectfuly request the patronage and assistance of 
the Legislature in establishing a free school, or schools, in this city, for the 
benevolent pm-pose of affording education to those unfortunate children who 
have no other mode of obtaining it. 

The personal attention to be bestowed oa these children for the improve- 
ment of their morals, and to assist their parents in procuring situations for 
them, where industry will be inculcated and good habits formed, as well as 
to give them the learning requisite for the proper discharge of the duties of 
life, it is confidently hoped will produce the most beneficial and lasting 
effects. 

The more effectually to accomplish so desirable an object, your memorial- 
ists have agreed to form an association imder the name of " The Society for 
Establishing a Free School in the City of New York." . They therefore re- . 
spcctfuUy solicit the Legislature to sanction their undertaking by an Act of 
Incorporation, and to grant them such pecuniary aid or endowment as, in 
your wisdom, may be deemed proper for the promotion of the benevolent 
object of your memorialists. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

New York, 2blh February, 1805. . 

The nature and importance of the enterprise proposed by the 
petitioners were fully comprehended by fbe members of the 
Legislature, who sympathized with its objects, and promptly re- 
sponded to the appeal thus made to their wisdom and patriotism. 
On the 9th of April following, an Act was passed, entitled, " An 
Act to incorporate the Society instituted in the City of New 
York, for the Establishment of a Free School for the Edacation 
of Poor Children who do not belong to, or are not provided for 
by, any religious society." The Act constituted De "Witt Clin- 
ton, Samuel Osgood, Brockholst Livingston, John Murray, <Tj-., 



ACT OF INCOKPOKATION. 5 

Jacob Morton, Samuel Miller, Joseph Constant, Thomas Eddy, 
Thomas Pearsall, Eobert Bownc, Matthew Clarkson, Archibald 
Gracie, John M'Vichai', Charles "Wilkes, Henry Ten Brook, Gil- 
bert Aspinwall, Valentine Seaman, William Johnson, "William 
Coit, Matthew Franklin, Adrian Hegeman, Benjamin G. Min- 
turn, Leonard Blcecker, Thomas Franklin, Samuel Enssell, Sam- 
uel Doughty, Alexander -Kobertson, Samuel Forbes, John Witli- 
ington, "William Edgar, George Trumbull, Daniel D. Tompkins, 
"William Boyd, Jacob Mott, Benjamin Egbert, Thomas Farmar, 
and Dr. Samuel L'. Mitchill, a body corporate under the style of 
" The Socidy for establishing a Free School in the City of Nevj 
Yoi'lc, for the education of such pom' children as do not helong 
to, or arc not provided for, l)y any religious society.'''' 

The provisions of this Act were, that the yearly income of 
the Society should not exceed ten tliousand dollars, and that on 
the firsts Monday in May in each year there should be elected 
thu-teen Trustees to manage the affairs of the Society, who 
should be members of the said corporation, and actually residing 
in the city of New York ; that the Trustees should meet veg\\\ 
larly on the second Monday in every month, and that seven or 
more of them so convened should be a legal meeting of the 
Board : That any person who should contribute to the Society 
the sum of eight dollars, should be a member thereof ; and that 
any person who should contribute the sum of twenty-five dollars, 
should be a member, and be further entitled, during the life of 
such contributor, to send one child to be educated at any school 
imder the care of the Society ; and Avhoever should contribute 
the sum of forty dollars, should be a member, and be entitled to 
send two children to be educated at any school under the direc- 
tion of the said Society. The second section of the Act consti- 
"tuted the twelve gentlemen present at the original meeting, to- 
gether with Do "Witt Clinton, the first Board of Trustees, who 
should hold ofiice until the time fixed by the Act for the first 
election of offieers. 

The limitation of the income of the Society to the sum of ten 
thousand dollars is an indication of the rigid views of responsi- 
bility, as well as of economy, which controlled the founders and 
early patrons of the Society. Experience and philanthropy soon 
taught a more enlarged view of the necessities of the enterprise. 

In conformity -with the provisions of this Act, thirteen Trus- 



b THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tees were elected at a meeting held on the 6th of May, 1805, and 
the Board thus elected was organized as follows : 

De Witt Clinton, President. 

John Murray, Jr , Vice-President. 

Leonard Bleecker, Treasurer. 

Benjamin D. Perkins, Secretary. 
Gilbert Aspinwall, Adrian liegeman, 

Thomas Eddy, William Johnson, 

Thomas Franklin, Samuel Miller, 

Matthew Franklin, Benjamin G. Mintum, 

Henry Ten Brook. 

The Society had now assumed a responsible form, and the 
Trustees soon began to i-ealize the magnitude of the enterprise 
which they had undertaken. Witli a labor of the utmost im- 
portance before tliem, a wide iield and an organization perfect- 
ed, they were now to provide means for carrying on their work. 
A building was required for the school, and funds were needed 
to pay the salary of the teachers and the other expenses incident 
to such an institution. Sensible of the necessity of the under- 
taking, and anxious that the friendless children whose welfare 
they had in view should begin to participate in the benetits de- 
signed to be bestowed upon them, the Trustees determinyd to 
make an immediate application to their fellow-citizens for pe- 
cuniary assistance. The following address was therefore .pub- 
lished in the journals of the city: — 

TO THE PUBLIC. 

Address of tlie Trusters of the " Society for EstaUislting a Free School in the 
City of New Yorlc,for tlie Educrition of such Poor Children as do not 
« Belong to, or are not Provided for ly, any Peliyiuvs Society.''' 

"■While the various religions ami benevolent societies in lliis city, with a 
spirit of charity and zed which the preciepts and example of the Divine 
Author of our religion coiilil alone insfiire, amply pn^vi !e for the edn a'ion 
of such poor children as belong to their re-peelive a-sx-i itions, there still re- i 
mains a large number living in total neglect of religions and moral instrnc- I 
tion, and unacquainted with the common rndiments of Lnrning, ess.'niiiilly 
requisite tor the due management of the ordinary business of life. This 
neglect may be impntud either to the ex:reme indig.nce of the parents of 
such children, their intemperance and vice; or to a blind inditFurenc.- to the 
best interests of their offspring. The consequences must be obvious to the 



ADDRESS TO THE PtTBLIC. 7 

most careless observer. Children thus brought up in ignorance snd amidst 
the contagion of bad example, are in imminent danger of ruin ; and too 
many of them, it is to be feared, instead of being useful members of the 
community, will become the burden and pests of society. Early instruction 
and tixcd habits of industry, decency, and order, are the surest safeguards 
of virtuous conduct ; and wlien parents are either unable or unwilling to 
bestow the necessary attention on the education of their children, it be- 
comes the duty of the public, and of individuals, who have the power, to 
assist them in the discharge of this important obligation. It is in vain that 
laws are made for the punishment of crimes, or that good men attempt to 
stem the torrent of irreligion and vice, if the evil is not checked at its 
source ; and the means of prevention, by the salutary discipline of early 
education, seasonably applied. It is certainly in the power of the opulent 
and charitable, by a timely and judicious interposition of their influence and 
aid, if not wholly to prevent, at least to diminish, the pernicious effects re- 
sulting from the neglected education of the children of the poor. 

Influenced by these considerations, and from a sense of the necessity of 
providing some remedy for an increasing and alarming evil, several individ- 
uals, actuated by similar motives, agree to form an association for the pur- 
pose of extending the means of education to such poor children as do not 
belong to, or are not provided for, by any religious society. After difierent 
meetings, numerously attended, a plan of association was framed, and a 
Memorial prepared and addressed to the Legislature, soliciting an Act of 
Incorporation, the better to enable them to carry into effect their benevolent 
design. Such a law the Legislature, at tlieir last session, was pleased to 
pass ; aud at a meeting of the Society, under the Act of Incorporation, on 
the sixth instant, thirteen Trustees were elected for the ensuing year. 

The particular plan of the school, and the rules for its discijjline and 
management, will be made known previous to its commencement. Care 
will be exercised in the selection of teachers, and, besides the elements of 
learning usually taught in schools, strict attention will be bestowed on the 
morals of the children, and all suitable means be used to counteract the dis- 
advantages resulting from the situation of their parents. It is proposed, 
also, to establish, on the first day of the week, a school, called a Sunday 
School, more particularly for such children as, from peculiar circumstances, 
are unable to attend on the other days of the week. In this, as in the Com-) 
mon School, it will be a primary object, without observing the peculiar j 
forms of any religious Society, to inculcate the sublime truths of religionl 
and morality contained in the Holy Scriptures. 

Tiiio Society, as will appear from its name, interferes with no existing 
institution, since children already provided with the means of education, or 
attached to any other Society, will not coma under its care. Humble glean- 
ers in the wide field ofbenevolence, the members of this Association seek 
such objects only as are left BytSOse who have gone before, or are fellow- 
laborers with them in the great work of charity. They, therefore, look 
with onfidence for the eneouragement and support of the aSlucnt and 
charitable of every d'.'uomination of Christians; and when they consider 



O THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

that in no community is to be found a greater sjiirit of liberal and active 
benevolence tban among tbe citizens of Ncvr York, tbey feel assured that 
adequate means for the prosecution of their plan M'ill be easily obtained. 
In addition to the respectable list of original subscriptions, considerable 
funds will be requisite for the purchase or hire of a jiiece of ground, and 
the erection of a suitable building for the school, to pay the teachers, and 
to defray other charges incident to the establishment. To accomplish Ihirf 
design, and to place the Institution on a solid and respectable foundation, 
the Society depend on the voluntary bounty of those who may be charita- 
bly disposed to contribute their aid in the promotion of an object of great 
and universal concern. 

De Witt Clinton, President. 
JOECN MuBRAT, Jr., Vice-Preside>U. 
Leonaed Bleecker, Treasurer. 
B. D. Perkins, Secretary. 
Gilbert Aspinwall, Adrian Hegeman, 

Thomas Eddy, • William Johnson, 

Thomas Franklin, Samuel Miller, D. D., 

Matthew Franklin, Benjamin G. Minturn, 

Henry Ten Brook. 

New Yokk, Man (filh Month) 18, 1S05. 

After the appearance of this address, the hibor of soliciting 
subscriptions was commenced, but, in consequence of adverse 
circumstances, among which was the occurrence of the yellow 
fever during the summer and autumn months, the progress made 
was slow ; and it was not until after numerous meetings, and 
great efforts on the part of the Trustees, during the ensuing 
twelve months, that the subscriptions amounted to a sum suffi- 
cient to warrant them in hiring a teacher and opening the school. 

The subscription list, still preserved among the papers of the 
Society, bears at its head the honored name of De "Witt Clin- 
ton, opposite to which is a donation of $200, followed by that 
of W. Edgae, for $50, and Matthew Claekson, for $25, to- 
gether with many of the most prominent and influential men of 
the time. 

The enterprise, thus originated and endowed, had reached, 
at the end of the year 1805, a position which led the Trustees to 
mature their plans for the opening of the school at as early a 
day as practicable. They had entered upon a work in which the 
adaptation of small means to produce the greatest result was a 
question of much importance. Diligent inquiry was accordingly 
made as to the best methods of instruction, and the systems 



A SCHOOL ESTABLISHED. d 

adopted in other cities aud countries in educating the same class- 
es of children. Efficiency in operation, facility and simplicity, 
attractiveness and thoroughness, combined with economy, were 
eminently desirable, and care was taken to examine the merits 
of the various known systems of instruction. Among those ' 
which presented themselves prominently to the attention of the 
trustees, was that which had been for a few years successful!}' 
established in London by Joseph Lancastee, and known as the 
Laxcasteeian System. This gentleman was then conducting liis 
school in the British metropolis, with an average attendance of 
about one thousand pupils, and his extraordinary success and 
reputation as an instructor, together with the noticeable reform 
which had been eifected in the moral and social condition of that 
class in the vicinity of his school, were such that the attention 
of the British public had not only been drawn toward the estab- 
lishment, but it had received the notice of members on the floor 
of Parliament. The fame of the indefatigable founder had, 
moreover, become known in all parts of the world. 

A system of instruction wliich had been so honorably en- 
dorsed and supported, could not foil to command the considera- 
tion of the trustees. Economy in expense, and facility in com- 
municating iustruetion, were the characteristic features of this 
system. It comprehended reading, writing, and arithmetic. 
The pupils themselves were made the instruments of their own 
instruction. A school was divided into classes of ten or fifteen 
scholars, who were placed imder the care of a monitor, while he 
was himself a scholar in a class of a superior grade. 

The managers of the Society, after a carefjil consideration of 
the system devised by Lancastee, with its apparatus and illus- 
trations, did not long hesitate in regard to the propriety of an 
experimental test in their new school. Li its introduction they 
derived essential aid from one of their own number, Benjamin 
D. Perkins, who had seen it in full oxjeration in England, and 
who was acquainted with its regulations from a personal com- 
munication with its author. A teacher who appeared to be well 
qualified for the undertaking, William Smith, and who was em- 
ployed by the Society for several years, was selected ; and under 
his superintendence a school was opened, on the 19th of May, 
1806, in a small apartment in Banckcr (now Madison) street. 
In a few days the attendance rose to forty-two, and the whole, \^^ 



10 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

together with those who were afterward adtled to tlie scliool, 
were under the direction of one teacher, the " monitors" render- 
ing all the assistance in their power. 

Tlie Lancasterian system of instruction was, by the organiza- 
tion of this scliool, transplanted to the Western world, and for 
many years was almost nniversally adopted in large schools of 
even the higher classes of pay schools. The New York High 
School, which for a number of years held the first rank, under 
Daniel II. Barnes, Shepiierd Johnson, John Griscom, and others, 
was conducted on the Lancasterian, or monitoi'ial, sjstem. 

One clause in the act of incorporation, which regulated the 
meetings of the trustees, being productive of inconvenience, an 
act was passed by the Legislature on the 2d of Apiil, 1806, pro- 
viding that the trustees might hold their monthly meetings on 
any day of the week they might deem convenient. It was there- 
fore immediately resolved, that their regular meetings should in 
future be held on the first Friday in every month. 

In the same montli. Col. Henry Rutgers, with charactei-istic 
liberality, presented to the Society a lot of ground in Henry 
street, for the purpose of erecting thereon a school-house, to 
meet the wants of the indigent in that jiopnlous part of the city. 
He afterward added an adjoining lot to this generous donation ; 
the estimated value of the whole being $2,500. 

The laboi's of the instructor are either very much embar- 
rassed or aided by the social condition of the pupils. The 
struggle for bread, and the physical necessities of children who 
suffer from cold, hunger, and wretchedness, are not oidy, fi-om 
the very nature of the case, impediments to progress in educa- 
tion, but they serve to blunt the sensibilities, and make intellec- 
tual effort a toilsome and unwelcome task. Hunger and cold 
make their appeals very bitterly oftentimes, and efforts for self- 
lireservation, or struggles against suffering, absorb the thoughts 
and energies, and becofiie the chief care of beings thus situated. 
The moral, the intellectual, and the spiritual wants are far less 
keenly felt, or even perceived ; and the condition of dependence 
thus imposed upon thousands becomes a bequest in ])erpetuity, 
from which few rise to a higher level ex( ept by a(tcideiit, or a 
native fonte of character which overcomes all obstacles by a 
resolute purpose to triumph. It was among this class that the 
Society laid its foundation ; and the trustees found, at the; ap- 



ADDITIONAL EESOUECES. 11 

prbacli of tlie winter of 180G-7, that tlieir labor of benevolence 
would fail very materialh' were they to neglect some of those 
huniatie offices which poverty demands at the hand of the jihilan- 
thropist and the Christian. They therefoi'e determined to ex- 
amine into the pei'sonal wants of their beneficiaries, and they 
were not long in becoming convinced that clothing of every de- 
scription would be required for tlieir use. Efibrts were accord- 
ingly made to supply these wants, and the trustees were gratitied 
by the receipt of liberal donations of chithing, shoes, and hats, 
which, being distributed among the children, were sufficient to 
make them all comfortable for the winter. This continued to be 
the case for some years, but was finally abandoned when the 
schools increased in number and were more numerously attended. 
In January, 1807, the trustees, not only encoui'uged with 
their success, but anxious to extend their labors, ]iresented a 
memorial to the Legislature, containing a statement of what 
they had done, and soliciting pecuniary assistance to enable them 
to extend the operati(ms of the association. The memorial met 
with a very favorable reception, and soon afterward the trus- 
tees were able to congratulate the friends of the institution on 
the passage of an act appropriating four thousand dollars 
toward building a house, and one thousand to be jiaid amuially 
toward defi'aying the expenses of the school. These moneys 
were paid out of the moneys appropriated by the net entitled 
"An Act to lay a duty on strong liquors, and for regulating inns 
and taverns," to the payment of the contingent charges of the 
city of New York, the annuity to continue during the pleasure 
of the Legislature. The act was passed on the 27th of Febru- 
ary, 1807, and was deemed of higher interest from the fact that 
this liberal appropriation received the unanimous consent of both 
branches of the Legislature. 

. While these proceedings were transpiring at the Ca)iitol, the 
trustees made an application to the Corporation of the city for 
their assiot;ince in promoting an enterprise which promised to be 
of incalculable benefit to the public. A committee from that 
body was accordingly appointed, who visited the institution, and 
soon ixfterward a building adjacent to the Almshouse was appi'o- 
piiated for the temporary accommodation of the school, with an 
adtlitioiial apiiropriation of five hundred dollars to assist in put- 
ting it info a suitable condition for school purposes. As a con- 



a^^o 



12 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

sideration for these advantages, the Society agreed, on their part, 
to receive and educate fifty children belonging to the Almshouse. 
To this building the school was removed on the 2Sth of April, 
1807, and before the close of the year it numbered one hundred 
and fifty pupils. 

In the year 1808, the trustees had the pleasure of witnessing 
the gi'owing utility of the institution, and the union of public 
and private exertions in their favor. The charter of the Socict}- 
was deemed not to be sufficiently comprehensive, as it did not 
embrace all classes of poor childi'en ; and, desirous that the 
benefits of the establishment should not be restricted, they so- 
licited and obtained from the Legislature an act, which was 
passed on the 1st of April, 1808, ordaining that the corpora- 
tion should in future be denominated " The Free School So- 
ciety of New York," and that its powers should extend to all 
children who should be the proper objects of a gratuitous educa- 
tion. 

In order to provide efiectually, for the future wants of the 
school, on an enlarged plan, the trustees petitioned the Legisla- 
ture, at the same session, for a liberal portion of the school fund 
of the State, whenever it should be deemed advisable to make a 
distribution. The preauible to the bill, by which the name of 
tlie Society was changed, recites, that, " Whereas, the trustees 
of the Society for establishing a free school in the city of New 
York, for the education of such poor children as do not belong- 
to, or are not provided for by, any religious society, have, by 
their petition, represented to the Legislature, that the act incor- 
porating that Society restrains them unnecessarily in the com- 
munication of the advantages of their establishment, by confin- 
ing them to a certain description of poor children ; and have also 
""petitioned for a competent portion of the school fund applicable 
to the city of New York, in order to be the better enabled to 
proceed in the execution of their important duties ; and, where- 
as, the said lund docs not as yet amount to a sum sufBciently 
large to render an immediate distribution advisable, but as the 
Legislature are desirous of encouraging an institution so laud- 
able and useful, by granting the petition of the said trustees in 
other respects," it was enacted that the name of the Society be 
changed to that of the " Feee-Scuool SociExr." This measure, 
although unaccompanied with any provision of moneys, was * 



A SCnOOL-BUILDING. 13 

valuable in extending the sphere of the institution and increas- 
ing its claims iigonthe liberality of the public. 

The tenement adjacent to the Almshouse in which the school 
was kept, could not accommodate more than two hundred and 
fifty children. This number M'as soon reached, and numerous 
demands for admission continued to be made far beyond the 
capacity of the Louse. The Almshouse was a long building 
of two stories in height, with a basement, and occupied the 
north end of the Park, parallel with Chambers street, extending 
from Broadway nearly to the line of what is now Centre street. 

The demand for more ample accommodation pressed urgently 
upon the trustees, and as the most direct and certain source of 
aid, a further application for assistance was made to the Corj)o- 
ration in the autumn of 1808, and that body presented to the 
Society an extensive lot of ground iij^CIu Ltham stree t, on which 
stood the State arsenal. This donation was made on condition 
that the Society should receive *and educate gratuitously the chil- 
dren of the Almshouse, in the performance of which task it was 
eminently fulfilling both the letter and spirit of the design of 
its founders and friends. The value of the ground and the build- 
ing upon it was estimated at ten thousand dollars. To this im- 
])ortant donation the Corporation afterward added the sum of 
fifteen hundred dollars, to aid in preparing a new building for 
the reception of the school. 

These handsome appropriations enabled the trustees to prose- 
cute their work with a more hopeful confidence than they had 
yet entertained, and during the year 1809 they were principally 
occiTpied in the completion of the new building. A brick edifice 
was erected, one hundred and twenty feet in length and fifty feet 
in width, capable of accommodating in one room five hundred 
children. In the lower story there were apartments for the fam- 
ily of the teacher, for the meeting of the trustees, and for an- 
other school, which would accommodate one hundred and fifty 
pupils. In the adoption of their plan, the trustees had economy 
constantly in view ; but, at the same time, they were desirous 
that the style of architecture, and the external appearance of the 
building, should comport with the liberal patronage which the 
institution had received, and with the resources of a great and 
flourishing metropolis. Among the means of lessening the ex- 
penses of the establishment, they solicited ■ and obtained, from 



li TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

several benevolent individuals, contributions of timber and other 
materials to the amount of one thousand dollars. They also ne- 
gotiated with a master-iuason and two master-carpenters, who 
generously superintended the work, and paid the laborers, ■with- 
out any j)ecnniary advantage to themselves. In tiie erection 
and completion of this extensive building, the Society expended 
more tlian thirteen thousand dollars. 

The gentlemen to whose benevolence the Society was indebt- 
ed for their contributions of building materials, and the superin- 
tendence of the construction of the edifice, are worthy of an 
honorable place among the early friends of the enterprise, and 
ai-e as follows : 

Abraham Enssell, Isaac Sharpies, 

William Tilton, Jones & Clinch, 

J. G. Pieison & Brothers, George Youle, 

Wiiitehead Hicks, • John Youle, 

M. M. Titus, Forman Clieesman, 

Hi chard Titus, John Kooke, 

Joseph Watkins, George Lindsay, 

B. W. Rogers & Co., Jonathan Dixon, 

Richard Speaight, J. Sherred, 

Abraham Bussing, Alexander Campbell, 

Daniel Beach, Wm. & G. Post, 

P. Schermerhorn, Jr., Joel Davis, 

Thomas Stevenson, Henry Hillman, 

Thomas Smyth, Ebenezer Basset, 

John McKie, Peter Fenton, 

Wm. Wickham, Wm. McKenny. 

Liberal donations were also received from the public, amounting 
to about ten thousand dollars. 

The building being completed, it was opened for school ^mr- 
poses, and dedicated by public exercises of an interesting charac- 
ter, on the Uth of December, 1809. Tiie president, De Witt 
Clinton, delivered the following address : 

DE WITT CLINTON'S ADDRESS. 

On an occasion so interesting to this institution, when it is about to 
assume a more reputable shape, and to acquire a sjjacious and ijermancnt 
habitation, it is no more' than a becoming mark of attention to its patrons'^ 



ADDKESS BY DE WITT CLINTON. 



13 



beuefaotors, and friends, asscmHed for the first time in this place, to deline- 
ate its origin, its progress, and its present situation. The station which I 
occupy in this association, and the request of my much-respected colleagues, 
have devolved this task upon me — a task which I should perform with un- 
mingled pleasure, if my avocations had aflbrded me time to execute it with 
fidelity ; aud I trust that the humble objects of your bounty, presented this 
day to your view, will not detract from the solemnity of the occasion — 
"that ambition will not mock our useful toil, nor grandeur hear with a dis- 
dainful smile the simple annals of the poor." 

In casting a view over the civilized world, we find an universal accord- 
ance in opinion on the benefits of education, but the practical exposition of 
this opinion exhibits a deplorable contrast. While magnificent colleges and 
universities are erected and endowed and dedicated to literature, we be- 
hold few liberal apjiropriations for diS'using the blessings of knowledge 
among all descriptions of people. The fundamental error of Europe has 
been, to confine the light of knowledge to the wealthy and the great, while 
the humble and the depressed have been as sedulously excluded from its 
participation, as the wretcheil criminal, immured in a dungeon, is from the 
light of heaven. This cardinal mistake is not only to be found in the insti- 
tutions of the Old World, and in the condition of its inhabitants, but it is 
to be seen in most of the books which have been written on the subject of 
education. The celebrated Locke, whose treatises on government and the 
human understanding have crowned him with immortal glory, devoted the 
powers of his mighty intellect to the elucidation of education ; but in the 
very threshold of his book we discover this radical error : his treatise is 
profe.'sedly intended for the children of gentlemen. " If those of that rank 
(says he) are, by their education, once set right, they will quickly bring all 
the rest in order; " and he appears to consi<ler the education of other chil- 
dren as of little importance. The consequence of this monstrous heresy has 
been, that ignorance, the* prolific parent of every crime and vice, has pre- 
dominatecT over the great body of the people, and a correspondent moral 
debasement has prevailed. " Man difl'ers more from man than man from 
beast," says a writer,* once celebrated. This remark, however generally 
false, will certainly apply with great force to a man in a state of high men- 
tal cultivation, and man in a state of extreme ignorance. 

This view of human nature is indeed calculated to excite the most pain- 
ful feelings, and it entirely originates from a consideration of the predomi- 
nating error which I have expressed. To this source must the crimes and 
the calamities of the Old World be principally imputed. Ignorance is the 
cause as well as the efiect of bad governments, and without the cultivation 
of our rational powers, atc can entertain no just ideas of the obligations of 
morality or the excellences of religion. Although England is justly re- 
nowned for its cultivation of the arts and sciences, and although the poor- 
rates of that country exceed five millions steiiing per annum, yet (I adopt 
the words of an eminent British writer) " there is no Protestant country 



Montaigne's Essays. 



16 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

where the education of the poor has been so grossly and infamously neglect- 
ed as in England." * If one tenth part of that sum had been applied to the 
education of the poor, the blessings of order, knowledge, and innocence 
would have been diifused among them, the evil would have been attacked 
at the fountain-head, and a total revolution would have taken place in the 
habits and lives of the people, favorable to the cause of industry, good 
morals, good order, and rational religion. 

More just and rational views have been entertained on this subject in the 
United States. Here, no privileged orders, no factitious distinctions in 
society, no hereditary nobility, no established religion, no royal preroga- 
tives, exist to interpose barriers between the people, and to create distinct 
classifications in society. All men being considered as enjoying an equality 
of rights, the propriety and necessity of dispensing, without distinction, the 
blessings of education, followed of course. In New England, the greatest 
attention has been invariably given to this important object. In Connecti- 
cut, particularly, the schools are supported, at least three fourths of the 
year, by the interest of a very large fund created for that purpose, and a 
small tax on the people ; the whole amounting to seventy-eight thousand 
dollars per annum. The result of this beneficial arrangement is obvious and 
striking. Our Eastern brethi'en are a well-in/ormed and moral people. In 
those States it is as uncommon to find a poor man who cannot read and 
write, as it is rare to see one in Europe who can. 

Pennsylvania has followed the noble example of New England. On the 
4th of April last, a law was passed in that State, entitled " An Act to provide 
for the education of the poor, gratis." The expense .of educating them is 
made a county charge, and the county commissioners are directed to carry 
the law into execution. 

New York has proceeded in the same course, but on a diiferent, and, per- 
haps, more eligible jilau. For a few years back a fnnd has been accumulat- 
ing with great celerity, solemnly appropriated to* the support of Common 
Schools. This fund consists, at present, of nearly four hundred thou- 
sand dollars in bank-stock, mortgages, and bonds, and produces an annual 
interest of U])wards of twenty-four thousand dollars. Tlie capital will be 
augmented by the accumulating interest, and the sale of three hundred and 
thirty-six thousand acres of land. When the interest on the whole amounts 
to fifty thousand dollars, it will be in a state of distribution. It is highly 
probable that the whole fund will, in a few years, amount to twelve hun- 
dred and -fifty thousand dollars, yielding a yearly income of seventy-five 
■ thousand dollars. If population is taken as the ratio of distribution, the 
quota of this city will amount to seven thousand five hundred dollars — a 
simi amply sufficient on the plan of om- establishment, if judiciously applied, 
to accommodate all our poor with a gratuitous education. 

On a comparison of the plan of this State with that of Pennsylvania, it 
will probably be found that we are entitled to the palm of superior excel- 
lence. Our capital is already created, and nothing more is requisite than a 

* Eilinbur''h Review. * 



ADDRESS BY in: WITT CI.IXTO.V. ll 

judicious distribution ; -wliereas the expense of school establishments in 
that State is to be satisfied by annual burdens. The people of Pennsylvania 
are therefore interested agaiost a faithful execution of the plan, because the 
less that is applied to education, the less they 'will have to pay in taxation. 
Abuses and perversions will of course arise and multiply in the administra- 
tion of the public bounty. And the laws of that State being liable to alter- 
ation or repeal, her system has not that permanency and stability to -which 
ours can lay claim. It is true that our Legislature may divert this fund ; 
but it would justly be considered a violation of public faith, and a measure 
of a very violent character. As long as the public sentiment is correct in 
this respect, we have no reason to apprehend that any Legislature will be 
hardy enough to encounter the odium of their constituents and the indig- 
nation of posterity. And we have every reason to believe that this great 
fund, established for sinking vic^ jnd ignorance, will never be diverted or 
destroyed, but that it will remain unimpaired and in full force and vigor to 
the latest posterity, as an illustrious establishment, erected by the benevo- 
lence of the State, for the propagation of knowledge and the diffusion of 
virtue among the people. 

A number of benevolent persons had seen, with concern, the increasing 
vices of the city, arising, in a great degree, from the neglected education of 
the poor. Great cities arc, at all times, the nurseries and hot-beds of crimes. 
Bad men from all quarters repair to them, in order to obtain the benefit of 
concealment, and to enjoy in a superior degree the advantages of rapine and 
fraud. And the dreadful examples of vice which are presented to youth, 
and the alluring forms in which it ia arrayed, connected with a siiirit of ex- 
travagance and luxury, the never-failing attendant of great wealth and ex- 
tensive business, cannot fail of augmenting the mass of moral dciiravity. 
" In London," says a distinguished writer on its police, " above twenty thou- 
sand individuals rise every morning without knowing how, or by what 
means, they are to be supported through the passing day, and, in many 
instances, even where they are to lodge on the ensuing night." * There can 
be no doubt that hundreds are in the same situation in this city, prowling 
about our streets for prey, the victims of intemperance, .the slaves of idle- 
ness, and ready to fall into any vice, rather than to cultivate industry and 
good order. How can it be expected that persons so careless of themselves, V|) '^ 
will pay any attention to tlieir children ? The mendicant parent bequeaths | i ~ 

his squalid poverty to his offspring, and the hardened thief transmits a lega- ( i,<o ^ 
cy of infamy to his unfortunate and depraved descendants. Instances have 
occurred of little children, anaigned at the bar of our criminal courts, who 
have been derelict and abandoned, without a hand to protect, or a voice to 
guide them, through life. 'When interrogated as to their connections, they 
have replied that they were without home and without fMends. In this 
state of turpitude and idleness, leading lives of roving mendicancy and 
petty depredation, they existed, a burden and a disgrace to the c ommu nity. 

True it is that charity schools, entitled to eminent praise, wereesSB- 

* Colqulioun on Police of London. 



18 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

lished in this city; but tliey were attacbed to particular sects, and did not 
embrace children of different persuasions. Add to this tliat some denomi- 
nations were not provided with these establishments, and that children the 
most in want of instruction were necessarily excluded, by the irreligiou of 
their parents, from the benefit of education. 

After a full iriew of the case, those persons of whom I have spoken 
agreed that the evil must be corrected at its source, and that education was 
the sovereign prescription. Under this impression they petitioned the Legis- 
lature, who, agreeably to their application, passed a law, on the 9th of April, 
1805, entitled " An Act to incorporate the Society instituted in the city of 
New York, for the establishment of a free school for the education of poor 
children who do not belong to, or are not provided for by, any religious 
society." Thirteen trustees were elected under this act, on the fii'st Mon- 
day of the ensuing May, with power to manage the affairs of the corpora- 
tion. On convening together, tliey found that they had undertaken a great 
task and encountered an important responsibility ; without funds, without 
teachers, without a house in which to instruct, and without a system of 
insti'uction ; and that their only reliance must be on their own industry, on 
the liberality of the public, on the bounty of the constituted authorities, 
and the smiles of the Almighty Dispenser of all good. 

In the year 1798, an obscure man of the name of Joseph Lancaster, pos- 
sessed of an original genius and a most sagacious mind, and animated by a 
sublime benevolence, devoted himself to the education of the poor of Great 
Britain. Wherever he turned his eyes he saw the deplorable state to which 
they were reduced by the jirevaleuce of ignorance and vice. He first plant- 
ed his standard of charity in the city of London, where it was calculated 
that forty thousand children were left as destitute of instruction as the sav- 
ages of the desert. And he proceeded, by degrees, to form and perfect a 
system -which is, in education, what the neat finished machines for abridg- 
ing labor and expense are in the mechanic arts. 

It comprehends reading, writing, arithmetic, and the knowledge of the 
\ Holy Scriptures. It arrives at its object with the least possible trouble and 
at the least possible exijense. Its distinguishing characters are economy, 
facility, and expedition, and its peculiar improvements are cheapness, activ- 
ity, order, and emulation. It is impossible on this occasion to give a de- 
tailed view of the system. For this I refer you to a publication entitled 
" Improvements in Education, &c., by Joseph Lancaster ; " and for its prac- 
tical exposition I beg you to look at the operations of this seminary. Read- 
ing, in all its processes, from the alphabet upwards, is taught at the same 
time with writing, commencing with sand, proceeding to the slate, and from 
thence to the copy-book. And, to borrow a most just and striking remark, 
" the beauty of the system is, that nothing is trusted to the boy himself; he 
does not only repeat the lesson before a superior, but he learns before a supe- 
rior." * SoHtary study does not exist in the establishment. The children 
, we taught in companies. Constant habits of attention and vigilance are 

* Edinburgh Review. 



ADDRESS BY DE WITT CLINTON. 19 

formed, and an ardent spirit of emulation kept continually alive. Instruc- 
tion is performed through the instrumentality of the scholars. The school 
is divided into classes of ten, and a chief, denominated a monitor, is ap- 
pointed over each class, who exercises a didactic and supervisional author- 
ity. The discipline of the school is enforced by shame, rather than by the 
infliction of pain. The punishments are varied with circumstances ; and a 
judicious distribution of rewards, calculated to engage the infant mind in 
the discharge of its duty, forms the key-stone which binds together the 
whole edifice." 

, Upon this system Lancaster superintended in person a school of one 
thousand scholars, at an annual expense of three hundred pounds sterling. 
In 1806, he proposed, by establishing twenty or thirty schools in different 
parts of the kingdom, to educate ten thousand poor chikben, at four shil- 
lings per annum each. This proposition has been carried into effect, and he 
has succeeded in establishing twenty schools in different parts of the king- 
dom, all of which are under the care of teachers educated by Mm, few of 
whom are more than eighteen years old. Several of the schools have each 
about 300 scholars ; that at Manchester has 400. His great school in 
Borough Road, London, flourishes Very much ; it has sometimes 1,100 chil- 
dren — seldom less than 1,000. 

When I perceive that many boys in our school have been taught to read 
and write in two months, who did not before know the alphabet, and that 
even one has accomplished it in three weeks — when I view all the bearings 
and tendencies of this system — when I contemplate the habits of order 
which it forms, the spirit of emulation which it excites, the rapid improve- 
ment which it produces, the purity of morals which it inculcates — when I ' 
behold the extraordinary union of celerity in instruction and economy of j 
expense — and when I perceive one great assembly of a thousand children, ; 
under the eye of a single teacher, marching, with unexampled rapidity and i 
vdth perfect discipline, to the goal of knowledge, I confess that I recognize i 
in Lancaster the benefactor of the human race. I consider his system as I 
creating a new era in education, as a blessing sent down from heaven to re- \ 
deem the poor and distressed of this world from the power and dominion J 
of ignorance. 

Although the merits of this apostle of benevolence have been generally 
acknowledged in his own country, and he has received the countenance and 
protection of the first men of Great Britain, yet calumny has lifted up her 
voice against him, and attempts have been made to rob him of his laurels. 
Danger to the Established Church and to Government has been apprehended 
from his endeavors to pour light upon mankind. This insinuation has been 
abundantly repelled by the tenor of his life — his carefully steering clear, in 
his instructions, of any pppnlij ^r rrp pd^ aud his confining himself to the gen- 
eral truths of Christianity. " I have," says Lancaster, " been eight years ^ 
engaged in the benevolent work of superintending the education of the ^ 
poor. I have had three thousand children, who owe their education to me, 
some of whom have left school, are apprenticed or in place, and are going 
on well. I have had groat influence with both parents and children, among 



20 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

whom there is, neTertlieless, no one instance of a convert to my religious "t 
profession." That knowledge is the parent of sedition and insurrection, 
/ and that, in proportion as the public mind is illuminated, the principles of 
anarchy are disseminated, is a proposition that can never admit of debate, 
at least in this country. 

But Lancaster has also been accused of arrogating to himself surrep- 
titious honors, and attempts have been made to transfer the entire merit of 
his great discovery to Dr. Bell. Wliatever he borrowed from that gentle- 
man he has candidly acknowledged. The use of sand, in teaching, un- 
doubtedly came to him through that channel ; but it has been practised ipr 
ages by the Brahmins. He may also be indebted to Bell for some other 
improvements, but the vital leading principles of his system are emphatically 
an original discovery. 

The trustees of this institution, after due deliberation, did not hesitate 
to adopt the system of Lancaster ; and, in carrying it into effect, they do- 
rived essential aid from one of their body who had seen it practised in Eng- 
land, and who had had personal communication with its author. A teacher 
was also selected who has fully answered every reasonable expectation. He 
has generally followed the prescribed plan. Wherever he has deviated, he 
has improved. A more numerous, a better governed school, affording equal 
facilities to improvement, is not to be found in the United States. 

Provided thus with an excellent system and an able teacher, the school 
was opened on the 6th of May, 1806, in a small apartment in Bancker street. 
This was the first scion of the Lancaster stock in the United States ; and 
from this humble beginning, in the course of little more than three years, 
you all observe the rapidity with which we have ascended. 
^ One great desideratum still remained to be supplied. Without sufficient 
funds, nothing could be eflicicntly done. Animated ajspeals were made to 
the bounty of our citizens, and five thousand six hundred and forty-eight 
dollars were collected by subscription. Application was also made to the 
Legislature of this State for assistance, and on the 27th of February, 1807, 
a law was passed appropriating four thousand dollars, " for the purpose of 
erecting a suitable building, or buildings, for the instruction of poor chil- 
dren ; and every year thereafter, the sum of one thousand dollars, for the 
purpose of promoting the benevolent objects of the Society." The pream- 
•V. ble of this liberal act contains a legislative declaration of the e.xcellence of 

V the Lancaster system, in the following words : " W/iejras, the Trustees of 

^ja* r* the Society for establishing a Free School in the City of New York for the 
V^ education of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not provided 

^' for by, any religious society, have, by their memorial, solicited the aid of 

the Legislature ; and whereas their plan of extending the benefits of educa- 
tion to . poor childr en, and the excellent mode of instruction adopted by 
them, are higMycleserving of the encouragement of Government." 

Application was also made to the Corporation of the city for assistance ; 
and the tenement in Bancker street being in all respects inadequate to the 
accommodation of the increasing establishment, that body appropriated a 
building adjacent to the xMrnshousc, for the temporary accommodation of 



f" 



ADDEESS BY DE WITT CLINTON. 21 

the school, and the sum of five hundred dollars towards putting it in repair ; 
the Society agreeing to receive and educate fifty children from the Alms- 
house. To this place the school was removed on the 1st of May, 1807, 
where it has continued until to-day. 

The Corporation also presented the ground of this edifice, on which was 
an arsenal, to the Society, on condition of their cducatirg the children of 
the Almshouse gratuitously ; and also the sum of fifteen hundred dollars to 
aid in the completion of this building. The value of this lot and the old 
building, may be fairly estimated at ten thousand dollars ; and the Society 
have expended above thirteen thousand dollars in the erection and comple- 
tion of this edifice and the adjacent buildings. The income of the school 
during the last year has been about sixteen hundred dollars, and its expense 
did not differ much from that sum. This room will contain nearly six hun- 
dred scholars, and below there are apartments for the femily of the teacher, 
for the meeting of the trustees, and for a female school, which may contain 
one hundred scholars, and may be considered as an useful adjunct to this 
institution. This seminary was established about twelve years ago by a 
number of young women belonging to, or professing with, the Society of 
Friends, who have, with meritorious zeal and exemplary industry, devoted 
much of their personal attention, and all their influence, to the education of • 

poor girls in the elementary parts of education and needle-work. The sig- 
nal success which attended this Free School animated the trustees with a 
desire to extend its usefulness, and to render it coC-xtensive with the wants 
of the community and commensurate with the objects of public bounty. 
A statute was accordingly passed, on their apj)lication, on the 1st of April, 
1808, altering the style of this corporation, denominating it " The Free- \y 

School Society of New York," and extending its powers to all children who 
are the objects of a gratuitous education. -~~^,^_- - 

From thTi elevation of prosperity "and this position of philanthropy, the 
Society had the satisfaction of seeing that the wise and the good of this and 
the neighboring States had turned their attention to this establishment. A 
number of ladies of this city, distinguished for their consideration in soci- 
ety, and honored and respected for their undeviating cultivation of the 
charities of life, established a society for the very humane, charitable, and 
laudable purposes of protecting, relieving, and instructing orphan children. 
This institution was incoiiDorated on the 7th of April, 1807, under the style 
of " The Orphan Asylum Society in the City of New York ; " and at a sub- 
sequent period the Legislature, under a full conviction of its great merits 
and claims to public patronage, made a disposition in its favor, which will, 
in jirocess of time, produce five thousand dollars. 

A large building, fifty feet scxuare and three stories high, has been erect- 
ed for its accommodation, in the suburbs of the city, and it now contains 
seventy children, who are supported by the zeal and benevolence of its wor- 
thy members, and educated on the plan of this institution, at an annual ex- 
pense of two thousand dollars. 

An economical school, whose principal object is the instruction of the 
children of the refugees from the West Indies, was opened some time since 



22 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

in this city, where, in addition to tho elementary parts of education, gram- 
mar, history, geography, and the French language are taught. It is con- 
ducted on the plan of Lancaster, with modifications and extensions, and is 
patronized and cherished by French and American gentlemen of great worth 
and respectability, who are entitled to every praise for their benevolence. 
Children of either sex are admitted, without distinction of nation, religion, 
or fortune. This seminary is in a flourishing condition, and contains two 
liundred scholars. There are two masters in this seminary, and two women 
who teach needle-work ; and there is a printing-press, where such as have 
tiny talents in that way are taught that important art. 

We have also the satisfaction of seeing the benefits of this system ex- 
tended, either iu whole or in part, to the charity schools of the Dutch, 
Episcopal, and Methodist Churches, and of the Presbyterian Church in Rut- 
gers street ; and also to the school founded by the 3Iauumissiou Society, for 
the education of the people of color, which has, in consequence of this 
amelioration, been augmented from seventy to one hundred and thirty chil- 
dren. 

In Philadelphia the same laudable sjiirit has been manifested. Two 
deputations from that city have visited us for the express purpose of exam- 
ining our scliool. One of these made so favorable a report on their return, 
that a number of the more enterprising and beuevolent citizens, composed 
of members belonging to the Society of Friends, immediately associated 
under the name of the " Adelphi Society," and raised, by private subscrip- 
tion, a sum sufiicient to purchase a suitable lot of ground, to erect a hand- 
some two-story brick building seventy-five feet in length and thirty-five in 
breadth, in which they formed two spacious rooms. Tlie Adeljjhi school 
now contains two hundred children, under the care of one teacher, and is 
eminently prosperous. The other deputation made also a favorable report, 
and "The Philadelphia Free-School Society," an old aud respectable institu- 
tion, adopted, in consequence, our system, where it flourishes beyond expec- 
tation. 

Two female schools, one called the " Aimwell School," in Philadelphia, 
and another in Biuliugton, N. .J., have also embraced our plan with equal 
success. 

I trust that I shall be pardoned for this detail. The origin and progress 
of beneficial discoveries cannot be too minutely sjoecified ; and when their 
diffusion can only be exceeded by their excellence, we have peculiar reason 
to congratulate the friends of humanity. This prompt and general encour- 
agement is honorable to our national character, and shows conclusively that 
the habits, mauners, and opinions of the American people are faVorable to 
the reception of trutli and the propagation of knowledge. And no earthly 
consideration could induce the benevolent man to whom we are indebted for 
what we see this day, to exchange his feelings, if from the obscure mansions 
of indigence, in which, iu all human probability, he now is instilling com- 
fort into the hearts and infusing knowledge into the minds of the poor, he 
could hear the voice of a great and enlightened people pronouncing his 
eulogium, and see this parent seminary, and the establishments which have 



ADDRESS BY DE MITT CLINTON'. 23 

sprung from its bosom, diffusing light, imparting joy, and dispensing virtue. 
His tree of knowledge is indeed transplanted to a more fertile soil and a 
more congenial clime. It has flourished with uncommon vigor and beauty ; 
its luxuriant and wide-spreading branches afford shelter to all who require 
it ; its ambrosial fragrance fills the land, and its head reaches the heavens ! 

Far be it from my intention to prevent future exertion. For, although 
much has been done, yet much remains to do, to carry into full effect the 
system. It would be improper to conceal from you, that, in order to finish 
this edifice, vre have incurred a considerable debt, which our ordinary in- 
come cannot extinguish ; and that, therefore, we must repose ourselves on 
the public beneficence. It has been usual to supply the more indigent chil- 
dren with necessaries, to protect them against the inclemencies of winter ; 
for without this provision their attendance would be utterly impracticable. 
This has hitherto been accomjjlished by the bounty of individuals, and to 
no other source can we at present appeal with success. 

TLe law from which we derive our corporate existence does not confine 
us to one semmary, but contemplates the establishment of schools. A re- 
striction to a single institution would greatly impair our usefulness, and 
would effectually discourage those exertions which are necessary in order to 
spread knowledge among all the indigent. 

Col. Henry Rutgers, with his characteristic benevolence, has made a do- 
nation of two lots in Henry street, worth at least twenty-five hundred dol- 
lars, to this corporation. By a condition contained in one of the deeds, it is 
necessary that we should erect a school-house by June, 1811 ; and it is high- 
ly proper, without any reference to the condition, that this should be accom- 
plished as soon as jjossible, in order to meet the wants of the indigent in 
that populous part of the city. If some charitable and public-spirited citi- / 
zen would follow up this beneficence, and make a similar conveyance on the ' 
opposite side of the city, and if the liberality of the jjublic shall dispense 
the means of erecting the necessary buildings, then the exigencies of all our 
poor, with respect to education, would be amply "supplied for a number of : 
years. . ' 

After our youth are instructed in the elements of useful knowledge, it is 
indispensable to their future usefulness that some calling should be marked 
out for them. As most of them will undoubtedly be brought up in useful 
trades, pecuniary means to facilitate their progress to this object would, if 
properly applied, greatly redound to the benefit of the individual, as well as 
to the poor of the community. 

In such an extensive and comprehensive establishment we are to exrpect, 
according to the course of human events, that children of extraordinary 
genius and merit will rise up, entitled to extraordinary patronage. To select 
such from the common mass— to watch over their future destiny — to advance 
them through all the stages of education and through all the gi-ades of 
knowledge, and to settle them in useful and honorable professions, are duties 
of primary importance, and indispensable obligations. This, however, will 
require considerable funds ; but of what estimation are pecuniary sacrifices, 
when put in the scale against the important benefits that may result ? And 



2A THE POBIJC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

if we could draw aside the veil of futurity, perliaps we miglit see in tlie off- 
spring of tbis cstablisliment, so patronized and so encouraged, characters 
that will do honor to human nature — that will have it in their power 

The applause of listening senates to command, 

The threats of pain and ruin to despise ; 
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 

And read tlicir history in a nation's eyes. 

The experience of the Society having made the expediency 
of an amendment of the Law apparent, the trustees memorial- 
ized the Legislature accordingly, and on the 24th of March, 
1810, an act was passed, directing that no person should be 
thei'eafter entitled to become a member of the Society unless he 
should contribute the sum of fifty dollars ; and that every mem- 
ber hereafter adtnitted should have the right to send one child 
to one of the schools of the Society ; but that nothing in the 
act should be deemed to affect the rights of those who were 
members at the time of the passage of the act. 

It was also enacted, that at each first meeting of the trus- 
tees, after every annual election, it should be in their discretion 
to appoint, out of the membei's of the Society, an additional 
number of trustees, not exceeding five. In the same act the 
Legislature made a further appropriation of the sum of four 
thousand dollars for the Societj-. 

The trustees deeming it advisable to establish, without loss 
of time, another school on the ground presented by Col. Henry 
Rutgers, subscriptions were opened early in the year 1810, for 
the purpose of enabling them to erect the contemplated build- 
ing. The benevolence of the citizens of New York, great on all 
occasions, promptly responded to this effort ; and although the 
trustees had so recently collected the sum of ten thousand dol- 
lars, they obtained, on this occasion, an additional subscription 
of over thirteen thousand dollars. 

In the autumn of the same year, the trustees were deprived 
of the services of one of their ablest coadjutors, by the deatli of 
their Secretary, Beisjamin D. Peekixs. Ilis labors in behalf of 
the Society had been of marked value, and a record was entered 
on the minutes expressive of their sense of the loss which had 
been sustained, and of their respect and esteem for the memory 
of their fellow-laborer. 

A. committee having been appointed to proceed with and 



SCHOOL NO. 2. 25 

superintend the erection of tlie school-liouse in Henry street, and 
the necessary contracts having been completed, the corner-stone 
of the new building was laid ou the 11th of November, ISIO, by 
the benevolent donor of the site. The ceremony was witnessed by 
several members of the Corporation of the city, and other citizens. 

In December of the same year, one hundred dollars were 
appropriated to the purchase of suitable books, to commence a 
circulating library for the school, additions to which M-ere solicit- 
ed from tlie members of the Society. During the same month a ^LfSy 
legacy of two lumdred and fifty dollars was bequeathed to the 
Society by Chaeles Le Koux, Esq. / _-,, 

The year 1811 was marked by the further extension of public H ^ 
patronage and assistance. The Legislature again testified their 
approbation of the institution, by the passage of an act, on the 
30th of March, in which a grant of four thoiisand dollars was 
made to the Society for building purposes, and an additional 
annual sum of five hundred dollars, until the pleasure of the 
Legislature should otherwise determine. 

Two eligible positions for schools liaving now been obtained, 
it appeared to the trustees that an additional school in the north- 
western part of the city would enable them to extend the sphere 
of their usefulness with great benefit to that vicinity. The vil- 
lage of Greenwich at tliat time comprised a suburban poj)ulation — 
of considerable magnitude, presenting, in the character of a large 
class of its population, a ripe field for the labors of the Society. 
A large portion of the landed property belonged to the corpora- 
tion of Trinity Clrarch ; aud, inspired with some hope that the 
petition would be responded to, the trustees appealed to the 
vestry, in the spring of 1811, for a site for a new free school. 
The vestry promptly and generously granted to the Society two 
large lots of ground at the corner of Hudson and Grove streets, 
near the village of Greenwich. The estimated value of the lots 
was one thousand dollars. 

The building in Henry street being completed, it was opened 
on the 13th of November, 1811, and known as School No. 2. 
The edifice was eighty feet in length and forty in width, and 
accommodated three hundi-ed children ; while in the lower story 
was an apartment suitable for the use of one hundred and fifty 
others. The building resembled that erected for No. 1, in Chat- 
ham street, although much smaller in size, and, like it, had ac- 



26 THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

commodations for the fiimily of the teacher. It was completed 
at an expense of about $11,000. 

Tlie increasing labor and responsibility devolving npon the 
trustees led them to desire a further addition to their working 
force by an increase of their number, and they applied to the 
Legislature for authority to make this election. In compliance 
with the request, that body passed an act, on the 28th of Febru- 
ary, 1812, directing that the Society sho\;ld thereafter elect six 
trustees in addition to those primarily authorized by law. 

The system M'hicli had been commenced with so much solici- 
tude and care had now reached a point in its history when it was 
regarded as being not only a permanent, but an expansive, institu- 
tion. The responsibility of so organizing and matuiiug the sys- 
tem of instruction as to make it at once thorough in its operations 
and as faultless as possible in its details, in order that it should 
commend itself to the piiblic favor and confidence, was deeply felt. 

The original object of the Society having been to provide for 
the education of those children " who did not belong to, or were 
not provided for, by any religious society," the question would 
naturally present itself to the minds of all who were impressed 
■with the importance of inculcating moral and religious truth, 
whether such a class of children, and so numerous as they ap- 
peared to be, should be left without such instruction. Pleasure 
and satisfaction were expressed by all acquainted with the schools 
at the results which had been reached in the literary training of 
the pupils, and the improvement in their conduct and inter- 
course, to which special attention was given. Tet there were 
some who thought that sufficient care had not been bestowed in 
the communication of specific religious instruction. A concern 
of such high importance had not, however, been overlooked by 
the trustees ; and they had pursued such measures in regard to 
it as they considered to be most expedient. The board was 
composed of persons of almost every religious denomination — 
men who were attached to their respective creeds, and who 
would not faii, on suitable occasions, to recommend them to the 
attention of others. But, in the schools under their care, they 
had studiously avoided the inculcation of the peculiar tenets of 
any one religious society or denomination. From the commence- 
ment of their eifort, thoy had directed that the Holy Scriptures 
should be read daily iii tiie schools ; and it was thought that the 



THE FEMALE ASSOCIATION. 27 

minds of the cliiklren could not fail to be impressed witli tlie 
sublime precepts and the inspired teachings of the Sacred Vol- 
ume. In order, however, to meet the wishes of all, it was 
deemed e xpedien t to suspend the exercises of the school on Tues- 
day afternoon of each week, and devote the time of the session 
exclusively to the religious instruction of the children. An asso- 
ciation of more than fifty ladies of the first position and charac- 
ter, and belonging to the different religious denominations in the 
city, volunteered their services ; and they accordingly met at the 
schools to examine the children in their respective catechisms on 
the day appointed for that purpose. 

In addition to these labors, it was also determined that the 
children should assemble at their respective schools on the morning 
of every Sunday, and proceed, under the care of a monitor, to the 
places of public worship to which they respectively belonged. 

Thus far the schools had been organized for males only ; but 
apartments were reserved in both the buildings for the use of 
female schools, and in these rooms the Female Association, 
composed of ladies, members of the Society of Friends, conduct- , 
ed schools for girls. They adopted the Lancasterian plan cf - 
instruction, similar to that of the male schools, and besides the 
elementary parts of education, they taught needle-work and 
other useful employments. The two schools were attended by 
about three hundred girls, while the boys' schools numbered 
about eight hundred pupils as the average attendance. 

Kme years had now elapsed since the foundation of the Soci- 
ety, and the trustees had the satisfaction of seeing their efforts 
not only crowned with success, but their enterprise placed on a 
liberal and permanent basis, which exceeded all the anticipations 
they had dared to entertain. They had introduced to this coun- 
try a method of instruction well adapted to effect its objects, 
comprehensive and economical. It had demonstrated its utility, 
its simplicity, and its value, and had so stimulated the labors of 
philanthropists in other cities and towns, that many similar insti- 
tutions had sprung into existence, modelled after the parent so- 
ciety in New York. The benefits thus positively reaped were 
multiplied, and an Impetus was given to the work of popular 
education, which could scarcely have been gained by any other ) 
method, however good, which did not possess its novelty and its / 
characteristics. 



28 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER II. 

HISTORY FROM 1S17-1S22. 

New Schools Proposed — Lancasterian Teacher fioni England — A Legacy — Instruction 
of Monitors — Economy — Discipline — School No. S — School No. 4 — School Libra- 
ries — Teachers Trained — Charles Picton — The Freemasons — ^Monitors and Ap- 
prentices — " Morning Schools " — New Regulations — Manual — Shepherd Johnson 
— Joseph Lancaster — Visit to New York — Finances — Memorial to the Legislature 
— Grant of $5,000 — Address to the Parents and Guardians of Children — Sunday, 
and Sunday Schools — The Female Association — Scliool No. 4 Opened — Death of 
John Murray — New Building for No. 3 — Manual of Instruction — State of the 
Schools — Rev. J. N. Maflit's Address to the Schools — School No. 2 — Catechism 
Adopted— Visit of a Committee of the Legislature — The Bethel Baptist Church — 
Special Privileges — School No. 6 — Plans and Estimates for Extension of the Sys- 
tem — A Man of Fortune, and a Man in Independent Circumstances — Lots for 
School No. 5 Purchased— The Bctliel Baptist Church. 

The population in the eastern part of the city increased, and 
offered a growing field for the operations of the Society. In the 
early part of the year 1817, the propriety of erecting a school- 
house in a central location, between the Eowery and the East 
River, was discussed ; and Thomas Eddy, Jaraes Palmer, Henry 
Eckford, Noah Erown, and Whitehead Hiclcs were appointed a 
committee to ascertain wliat amount of subscriptions could be 
obtained toward the purchase of lots and the erection of a 
building, and also to obtain plans and estimates. In consequence 
of the difficulty of procuring a proper site, the purchase was not 
made until 1818, when three lots were obtained in Eivington 
street, upon which the school hnown as 'No. 4 was afterward 
erected. 

The employment of competent teachers for the schools sug- 
gested to the board the propriety of securing the services of an 
experienced teacher, well qualified to conduct a school on the 
Lancasterian system as taught in England. A committee of 
three was appointed to correspond with gentlemen in that coun- 
try, who should select a teacher thus qualified. 



NEW SCHOOLS. 29 

During the year, a legacy of two hiiudrcd and fifty dollars 
was received from the estate of Mary McCrea, and another of 
live hundred dollars, beqiieatlied by John Van Blareom, which 
were valuable contributions to the means of the Society. 

The organization of a class of monitors, who shoiild enjoy 
the benefits of a systematic training in advanced studies, formed 
an important measure in the work of the year. 

The necessity of an economical administration of the affairs 
of the Society, which had always been of primary consideration 
with the trustees, was urged upon the attention of the board, 
and referred to a committee. The report embraced the follow- 
ing recommendations : 

1st. That the office of assistants be abolished.'^ 

2d. That no rewards be given to the monitors in money, nor 
in any thing else, except on extraordinary occasions, and those 
of but small value. 

3d. That one or two persons be appointed whose business it 
should be to purchase all supplies for the institution, on the low- 
est possible terms. 

The first recommendation was promptly adopted, and a reso- 
lution was passed terminating the engagements of the assistant 
teachers at the expiration of the several terms for which they 
were employed. Jacob Lorillard and Lindley Murray were ap- 
pointed supply committee ; and the question in reference to 
monitors entered into the general plan of rewards and punish- 
ments, and the organization of the monitorial class. 

The system of rewards and discipline occupied the special 
attention of the board during a part of the year, and the report 
of the committee to whom that subject had been assigned was 
submitted at the first meeting held in 181S. 

During the latter part of the year, the residents in that sec- 
tion of the city known as Corlear's Hook presented a petition for 
the establishment of a free school in their vicinity ; but the 
trustees were unable to comply with the application. 

In the early part of 1818, information was communicated to 
the board that a room in the building on the corner of Iludson 
and Christopher streets could be procured from the Corporation 
of the city for school purposes ; and Thomas C. Taj-lor, Xajah 
Taylor, and John R. Murray were named as a committee to 
make application for the premises, if found suitable, and super- 



30 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

intend their preparation for the reception of pupils. The com- 
mittee reported, on tlie 1st of May, that tlie arrangements had 
been made ; and Shepherd Johnson, who had been trained in 
Free School No. 1, was appointed teacher, at a salary of five 
hundred dollars per annum. The school was opened on the 25th 
of the same month, with 51 pupils, the number of which was 
increased to 196 before the 5th of June. 

The school increased in numbers with snch rapidity, that, at 
the meeting of the board held on the 23d of the same month, 
the committee reported that 216 scholars had been admitted, 
with a regular attendance of over 200. The room, however, not 
being large enough to accommodate moi'e than 164 scholars, a 
recommendation was submitted that application be made to the 
Corporation for the use of another apartment in the same build- 
ing. This application was made and promptly granted. 

At the meeting held on the 1st of May, the committee for 
the. purchase of lots in the eastern part of the city reported that 
they had contracted with John E. Livingston for the purchase 
(if three lots of ground in Eivington street, between Ridge and 
Pitt streets, for seven hundred dollars each. The action of the 
committee was approved by the board, and they were author- 
ized to make the purchase. The treasurer was directed to sell 
sufficient stock held by the Society to meet the warrant of the 
committee of purchase. The report of plans and estimates for 
the building was submitted in September, and the sum of 
$10,724-.36 was named as the cost of the erection of the new 
house, which became known as No. 4. The contract, however, 
was made for $9,000. 

At the close of the year, a committee on the " state of the 
New York Free School " reported several measures of improve- 
ment, among which was the establishment of school libraries. 
The resolution of the committee called for the expenditure of 
fifty dollars for books for a library for each school, the us'e to be 
limited to the best scholars, who should form a " class of 
merit." 

Tlie same committee recommended that young men wishing 
to qualify themselves for the profession of teaching on the sys- 
tem of Joseph Lancaster, should be allowed to visit the schools 
and assist the teacher in the discharge of his duties, and, after a 
period of six weeks spent in acquiring a knowledge of the sys- 



THE FREEMASONS. 31 

tem, they sliould be furuished with a certificate to tliat effect, 
signed by the president and secretary. 

Tlie committee appointed to correspond with the secretary 
of the British and Foreign School Society, with reference to tlie 
selection of an experienced Lancasterian teacher, reported, early 
in June, that they had received a letter from that gentleman, 
communicating the fact that they had made choice of Mr. 
Charles Picton, who was approved by the Society, and had 
been engaged on the terms offered by the committee, and that 
he would sail for New York in June. A resolution of thanks to 
the secretary was adopted, and the committee directed to re- 
ceive Mr. Picton on his arrival. 

At the meeting held on September 4, the chairman laid be- 
fore the board a letter from the British and Foreign School 
Society, introducing Mr. Picton, the teacher, who had arrived, 
and awaited the action of the board. Mr. Picton was present 
and introduced to the trustees, and cordially welcomed to his 
new field of labor. 

During the year 1810, an arrangement had been made be- 
tween a committee of the Free-School Society and a committee 
acting on behalf of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons, for the 
education of fifty ch^dren of members of that Society, on the 
annual- payment of three hundred dollars. The arrangement 
was approved by the board on the 4tli of Jime, 1810, and was 
continued until tlie close of 1817, when the treasurer was noti- ^ d ti^ 
fied that the Grand Lodge desired to terminate the agreement. 

In January, 1818, a committee was appointed by the board 
to report upon the communication from the Grand Lodge ; and 
in June the committee reported in favor of terminating the 
arrangement, and at the same time recommended that the chil- 
dren presented for admission by the Masons should enjoy all the 
advantages of the Free-School Society, without any discrimina- 
tion. The report was unanimously adopted. 

The committee on the classification and education of moni- 
tors, besides other recommendations, in October submitted a re- 
port, in which it was advised that monitors should be indentured 
as apprentices to the Society, to learn the art of teaclung by a 
regular form, as in other pursuits. Tlie matter was discussed at 
several meetings, and finally recommitted, as the power. of the 
board to hold apprentices was doubtful. The committee was 



32 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

enlarged, and authorized to prepare a memorial to tlie Legisla- 
ture, aslving for the proper legal assistance in perfecting the 
measure, if deemed advisable. 

Tlie report on the general interests of the institution, which 
was presented by the committee in November, contained several 
propositions, which were adopted by the board. Among these 
were the following : Morning schools to be held fi'om 6 to 8 
o'clock, for the "apprentices," or monitors, and the more merito- 
rious of the pupils in the higher classes ; the ordering of an 
annual invoice of the quantity of supplies required in each of 
the schools for the year ; a provision of $50 for a library for the 
several schools ; and the permission to young men to practice 
teaching in the schools, and receive credentials accordingly. 

A petition for the establishment of a school in the northeast- 
ern section of the city was received, and referred to a commit- 
tee, consisting of James Palmer, Henry Eckford, Whitehead 
Hicks, John Withiugton, and Benjamin Marshall, who were 
directed to report on all questions relative to the entei-prise. 

A manual of the system of instruction adopted in the schools 
being deemed desirable, the preparation of the work was en- 
trusted to Jeremiah Thompson, Rensselaer Havens, and Samuel 
Wood. 

A resolution was adopted, on tlie 4th of December, in rela- 
tion to the teacher of No. 3, as follows : 

Hesolved, That, on account of the increased size of Shephekd Johnson's 
school, and the satisfactory discharge of duty on his part, his salary be in- 
creased to eight hundred dollars, to date from the 1st of November last. 

Joseph Lancaster, the founder of the system of instruction 
l^nown by his name, was at this time in the city of New York, 
on a visit in behalf of popular education. To afford him the 
opportunity of making his system known, as well as to receive 
the benefits of his suggestions and long experience, the board 
adopted a resolution, offered by the president, De Witt Clin- 
TON, permitting him to use the school-rooms of the Society at 
such hours as wore not devoted to instruction, for the purpose of 
delivering lectures on the monitorial system. 

The commencement of the year 1819 fomid the Society in a 
condition of active usefulness, but with insufficient means. The 
demands made upon its resources in order to keep the schools in 



MEMOKIAi TO THE LEGISLATURE. 66 

operation, and to supply the books and other apparatus of in- 
struction, were so considerable as to make an effort at retrencli- 
ment necessary, and almost imperative. The committee to 
whom the question of the financial condition of the Society had 
been referred, reported in January, and submitted the following 
facts : 

Tlie payments of the last quarter, exclusive of those on ac- 
count of fitting up premises for No. 3, and building No. 4, 
amounted to 12,035.78, or $680 per month. 

The expenses of the year, as estimated by the committee, 
amounted to $14,300 ; to provide for which there was a balance 
in the treasury of $2,285 ; probable collections in the Seventh 
Ward, $500 ; rents, &c., $100 ; total, $2,235 ; leaving a deficien- 
cy of $11,465. 

The committee recommended that an application be made to 
the Legislature for pecuniary aid, and that temporary loans be 
secured until permanent relief should be afforded from other 
sources. Tlie salaries of the teachers of Nos. 1 and 2 were also 
reduced to $800 per annum ; and it was also recommended that 
the regulations allo^^'ing board and clothing to the monitors gen- 
eral sliould be abolished, and an annual salary of $100 be 
allowed them. It was estimated that these retrencliments would 
save the Society about $1,000 yearly. 

The committee also suggested that a statement of the finan- 
cial condition of the Society should be made to the Female As- 
sociation which had the charge of the schools for girls, and that 
they be informed that a payment of $500 a year as rental would 
be received in aid of the Society, but that the said communica- 
tion should not be construed as a dejnand. 

The report of the committee was adopted, and the several 
measures recommended were referred to appropriate special com- 
mittees for their action. 

On the 19th of January, the board held a meeting to con- 
sider the report of the committee to prepare a memorial to the 
Legislature, which was adopted, as follows : 

To the Representatives of the People of the State of Hew York in Senate and 

Assertibly convened : 
The Memorial of the Free-School Society of New Yorlc, 

RESPECTPtTLLT SHEWETH, 

That, in the year 1805, your memorialists, under a deep conviction 
3 



34 • THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

* that early and wholesome principles of education were of the first impor- 
tance to the security, prosperity, and happiness of every community, united 

• their exertions to establish the Free-School Society of New York. 

Feeling the insufficiency of their efforts, unless sustained by public mu- 
nificeuce, they have applied to the Legislature of the State at various times 
for aid and assistance, and met with an encouragement characteristic of the 
Representatives of an enlightened people. 

Fostered by legislative bounty and private liberality, they have been 
enabled to persevere in the prosecution of their object, and to crown their 
original design with great success. 

From the establishment of the Free-School Society to the present time, 
7,541 children have been taught in the schools under its superintendence ; 
and there are now in the schools 1,1G9 children who are daily instructed in 
the various branches of elementary education, so far as is requisite for the 
transaction of business in the ordinary concerns of life. 

In extending these blessings, your memorialists have adopted the Lan- 
casterian plan of instruction, which was introduced into the United States 
by them, and has been found preferable to all others. The experience of 
Europe, wherein its principles have been extensively adopted, sanctions its 
superior excellence ; and in our own country, so far as it has been practised, 
it has received the most unqualified approbation. Its preference has been 
found in the saving of expense, when compared with the ordinary methods 
) of school instruction, and in the ease and expedition with which children 
can be taught the requisite lessons. Tlie expense of each pupil has been 
• found to be less than four dollars annually, including teachers' salaries, sta- 
tionery, and all other incidental charges; whereas, according to the former 
, method, the annual expense was not less than sixteen dollars, in this city, 
for each scholar — a test that palpably evinces the superiority of the present 
I mode of instruction. 

I The general influence of our schools has not been confined to the city of 
New York. In order to promote a more extended knowledge of the system, 
and the establishment of similar schools, they have been and are open, free 
of expense, to the inspection and attendance of persons from different parts 
of this and other States, a sufficient time to enable them to acquire the 
means and capacity of imparting instruction to others, on the Laucasterian 
plan, with ease and dispatch. 

By direction of the trustees, Lancasterian lessons have been printed for 
the use of the Junior classes in country schools ; and tliey are now engaged 
in prejiaring a manual of the system for the assistance of teachers in organ- 
izing and conducting their schools on the plan pursued in this city. 

Public conviction bears a testimony that, your memorialists believe, has 
no exception to the happy results which have already been realized from 
these schools. Their salutary influence is everywhere acknowledged, and 
the condition of the poor finds a melioration that not only imparts present 
comfort and relief, but which will be felt by future generations. 

N(jtwithstandiug the liberality of former Legislatures, and the fruitful 
source of support which your memorialists have found in the contributions 



MEMORIAL TO THE LEGISLATURE. 35 

of individual charity, such has beea the^rcatincrease of populatinn,^!- 
ticularly by the influx of foreigners in the city^oFNew^Torir, and of the 
number of poor children whom the trustees of the Free-School Society 
have been impelled to provide for by the strongest dictates of duty and 
benevolence, that they have incurred recent expenses which their present 
resources are incompetent to discharge. During the past year they have 
established a third school at Greenwich, at an expense of about $1,200. 
They have also purchased lots, and are erecting a building to contain nearly 
600 children, in the northeastern part of the city, the expense of which 
establishment will be about $13,000. This building is constructing in a 
quarter of our metropolis where the want of schools is extremely great, and 
where the blessings of elementary instruction among the lower orders were 
not enjoyed. Your memorialists could not, consistently with the noble plan 
of charity committed to their charge, hear the daily calls of this large por- 
tion of the community in vain, or behold the baneful triumph of increasing 
ignoi'ance and vice, without an efibrt to remove the evil. 

Trusting with confidence to the uniform liberality of an enlightened 
Legislature in diifusing the manifold blessings of education, and considering 
the State Government as the protecting parent, who has long nursed with 
parental regard this adopted child of her bounty, the New York Free-School 
Society, your memorialists, respectfully petition for a grant of ten thousand 
four hundred and sixty-five dollars, out of such funds as the wisdom of the 
Legislature shall designate, to enable them to comiilcte their new improve- 
ments. 

In respectfully soliciting this grant, and in congratulating the Legislature 
on the salutary effects of their former encouragement, youi- memorialists 
remark, that, as the city of New York rapidly increases in population, the 
number is muUijolied of poor and suffering children, who must progress 
from the cradle to maturity, with no schools but those of profligacy and 
guilt, unless the hand of charity be extended to reclaim their steps. If we 
would prevent the vices and crimes of European cities from visiting our 
own ; if we would prohibit the sanguinary penal codes of Europe from 
reaching our shores, we must look to early education and early habits, the 
fundamental springs of action and character in all communities, as the pro- 
tecting resort ; if we would perpetuate our civil institutions and our religious 
privileges, we must look to early education to guard and strengthen their 
foundation. 

Believing these observations will be reciprocated by the public body to 
whom they address their memorial, they make their appeal with confidence, 
remembering it is to a body to whom your memorialists have never appealed 
in vain, when their object has been to extend the cheering light of edu- 
cation. 

Let it be remembered, when the petition of your memorialists is consid- 
ered, that nearly two thousand children will, the ensuing season, be under 
their care, and that it is on behalf of these, and many thousands more who 
will hereafter claim their charge, that your memorialists appeal to the Hon- 
orable Legislature. • 



3G THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The answer to this aj^plieatiou was the passage of an act, ou 
the 2Cth of March, making an appropriation of $5,000 for the 
use of the Society. 

A committee liaving been appointed to prepare an address 
to the public ou behalf of tlieSociety, a draft thereof was ofi'ered 
for acceptance, recommitted, and at the meeting held on the 9th 
of April, it was adopted. This address contains a very clear ex- 
pression of the views and motives which governed the Society 
and its friends, and is interesting not only as an embodiment of 
those views, but as an authentic avowal of the nature of the re- 
ligious iufluences which at the time prevailed in the Society. 
Whatever diflereuces of opinion may exist as to the theological 
character of the address, it may be safely assumed that men 
acting under such high convictions could not be unworthy of 
confidence in the delicate and responsible work of training the 
young and neglected members of society. The address is as 
follows : 

AK ADDRESS 

To the Parents and Guardians of the Children iehnginy/ to the Scliooh wider 

■ the care of the New Torh Free-School Society. 

Sec. 1. The New York Free Sclioolg, for the iustruction of such chil- 
dren as are the objects of a gratuitous education, have been established 
many years ; and the trustees have endeavored to render them useful and 
promotive of the moral and literary improvement of the scholars, and they 
still wish to do all intheir power to advance the welfare of both children 
and parent. 

Sec. 2. They wish to impress on your minds the importance of this 
establishment, that you may manifest an increasing concern for its prosper- 
ity, seeing that much depends ou your cooperation in the support of an 
institution which is intended to promote not only the good of your childreu, 
but their happiness and yours, both here and hereafter. 

Sec. 3. It is of great importance that the minds of your children should 
be early cultivated and moral instruction inculcated, and that, by example 
as well as precept, you shoiHd use all endeavors to preserve them in inno- 
cency. 

Sec. 4. As a good education is calculated to lay the foundation of use- 
fulness and respectability, both in civil and re ligiou s society, it is your duty 
to improve every opportunity to promote it. 

Sec. 5. This institution holds out much encouragement, and you are 
liound by every moral obligation to avail yourselves of the advantages which 
your children may derive from a steady attendance at school, where they 
may acquire not only school learning to qualify them for business, but be 
improved in their morals and manners. 



ADDteESS TO PAEENTS. 37 

Sec. 6. Many of you have not been favored with the privileges your 
children now enjoy — that of a gratuitous education. Every parent who is 
solicitous for the welfare of his offspring, but whose circumstances may be 
such as not to be able to pay the Expense, is invited to come forward and 
place them where they may be instructed in literature, in the paths of vir- 
tue, and iu the road to happiness. 

Sec. 7. The trustees may venture to say, that this institution may be 
productive of gTeat good to you, and to your children especially, if, on your 
part, there is a disposition to promote it. We wish your children may be 
furnished with a good education, and early acquire good habits. As they 
grow in years, they should be impressed with the importance of industry and 
frugality. These are virtues necessary to form useful characters. 
^"^ECTB. You know that many evils grow out of idleness, and many more 
out of the improper use of spirituous liquors ; that they are ruinous and 
destructive to morals, and debase the hum.an character below the lowest of 
all created beings ; we therefore earnestly desire you may be watchful and 
careful in this resjDect, otherwise in vain may we labor to promote the wel- 
fare of your children. 

Sec. 9. In domestic life there are many virtues which arc requisite in i 
order to promote the comfort and welfare of families. Temperance and I 
economy are indispensable, but without cleanliness, your enjoyments as well , 
as your reputation will be impaired. It is promotive of health, and ought 
not to be neglected. Parents can, perhaps, scarcely give a greater proof of 
their care for their children, than l;iy keeping them clean and decent, espe- 
cially when they are sent to school, where it is expected they will appear 
with their hands, faces, and heads perfectly clean, and their clothing clean 
and in good order. The appearance of children exhibits to every observing 
mind the character of the mother. 

Sec. 10. Among other moral and religious duties, that of a due observ- 
ance of the fh-st day of the week, commonly called Sunday, we consider of 
importance to yourselves and to your children. Public worship is a duty we 
owe to our Creator ; it is of universal obligation, and you ought to be good 
examples therein, encouraging your families to the due observance thereof ; 
and believing, as we do, that the establishment of what is called Sunday 
schools has been a blessing to many, and may prove so to many more, wo 
are desirous you may nnite in the support of a plan so well calculated to 
promote the religious duties of that day, which ought to be appropriated to 
public worship, retirement, and other duties connected with the improve- 
ment of the mind. 

Sec. 11. Seemg, next to your own souls, your children and those placed 
under your care are, or ought to be, the immediate objects of your constant 
attention and diligent concern, you ought to omit no opportunity to instruct 
them early in the principles of the Christian religion, in order to bring them, 
in their youth, to a sense of the unspeakable love and infinite wisdom and 
power of their Almighty Creator ; for good and early impressions on tender 
minds often prove a lasting means of preserving them in a religious life 
even to old age. May you, therefore, watch over them for good, and rule 



38 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

over them in the fear of God, maintaining your autliority in love ; and as 
very much depends on the care and exemplary conduct of parents, and the 
judicious management of children by tutors, we cannot too strongly recom- 
mend to their serious consideration the importance of the subject, as one 
deeply interesting to the welfare of the rising generation, and no less con- 
nected with the best interests of civil and religious society. 

Sec. 13. As the Holy Scriptures, or Bible, with which you ought all to 
be I'urnisheJ, contain a full account of things most surely to be believed and 
Diviixe commands most faithfully to be obeyed, and are said to make wise 
unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ (2 Tim. iii. 15), it is 
the duty of every Christian to be frequent and dUigent in the reading of 
them in their families, and in privately meditating on those sacred records. 

Sec. 13. The trustees of the New York Free School, however desirous 
they may be to promote the improvement of the scholars in school learning, 
to qualify and fit them for the common duties of life, cannot view with an 
eye of indifference the more primary object of an education calculated to 
form habits of virtue and industry, and to inculcate the general jirinciples 
of Christianity ; for in proportion as you are established in a life of piety 
and virtue, you will be enabled to bring up your children in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord, ever bearing in remembrance that example sjjeaks 
a louder language than preoei)t. 

Sec. 14. It may not be improper to state to you, that the establishment 
of the New York Free School has been attended with much labor and per- 
sonal exertions on the part of its friends and patrons ; great expense has 
also accrued, and continues to be the case, where so many buildings are 
erected and so many teachers employed ; and as all this is done in order to 
promote the good of your children, and to improve their condition, you can- 
not but feel a weight of obligation to the friends and patroms of so valu- 
able an institution. In speaking of the teachers, it is due to them and their 
meritorious conduct to say, that they have manifested a zeal and concern for 
the welfare and impovement of the children placed under their care, and we 
wish they may be encouraged to pereevere in the arduous service assigned 
them. 

ScB. 15. There are divers other things which we could enumerate as con- 
nected with the subject of this address ; but it cannot be expected, in a 
communication of this nature, we should embrace every duty or point out 
minutely every thing which might have a bearing on your religious and 
moral character ; but, before we close, we think it necessary to subjoin the 
substance of such of the rules of the schools as may in part lay with the 
parents and guardians to notice and enforce. The trustees therefore call on 
you to see that these rules are strictly observed by your children : 

1. Your children must be in school precisely at 9 o'clock in the morning 
and 2 o'clock in the afternoon. 

2. They ought to be sent to school every day, both morning and after- 
noon ; otherwise they may forget in one day what they learned the day 
before. Nothing but sickness, or some unavoidable circumstance, should 
induce you to keep your children at home one day. If they do not attend 



ADDRESS TO PARENTS. 39 

school regularly, the teacher is to send to you to know the reason ; and if 
they are absent from school six days in a month -n ithout sufficient reason, or 
if they frequently play truant, they are liable to ■ be expelled, and you may 
tind it very difficult to get them into school again. The trustees therefore 
earnestly hope that you will not, by keeping your children at home without 
cause, or by suffering them to be absent, counteract their endeavors to pro- 
cure for them a good education. 

3. It is necessary that you should see that your children go to school 
with clean faces and hands, their hair combed and in good order, and their 
clothes as clean and whole as possible ; otherwise they are liable to be pun- 
ished for your neglect. 

4. A morning school is intended to be kept in the summer, to begin at 6 
o'clock, and close at 8 o'clock. 

5. A library of interesting and useful books has been provided for the 
use of those children who are forward in their learning ; and as they may 
be indulged at times to take them home for awhile, they may prove a source 
of pleasure and improvement to both children and parents. 

C. If your children behave well, and study their lessons at home, they 
will be rewarded with tickets ; but if they behave badly, and wUl not study, 
they must be punished. 

7. In order to get a child into the Free School, it is required that appli- 
cation be made at the school on the second day of the week, commonly 
called Monday, from the hours of 4 to 5 o'clock in the afternoon. 

8. No child can be admitted under six years of age. 

9. The children of parents who are able to pay for schooling cannot ba 
admitted. 

10. It is expected that parents see that their children regularly attend 
some place of worship. 

De Witt Clinton, President. 

John Murray, Jr., Vice-President. 

Leon.vrd Bleecker, Treasurer. 

LnsTDLET Murray, Secretary. 
John Adams, John Withington, 

Samuel Boyd, Rensselaer Havens, 

Benjamin Clark, Ezra Weeks, 

Nathan Comstock, Benjamin Marshall, 

Thomas Eddy, Francis Cooper, 

Whitehead Hicks, Lyman Spalding, 

Jacob Lorillard, Henry Eckford, 

Samuel Wood, Charles MOler, 

John R. Murray, John Pintard, 

Thomas L. Ogden, Samuel James, 

James Palmer, Isaac Collins, 

Henry Rutgers, William Cairns, 

Jeremiah Thompson, George T. Trimble, 

Najah Taylor, WUliam Perry, 

Thomas C. Taylor, George Suckley. 



40 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The committee to prepare a manual for the schools report- 
ed, during the month of April, adversely to the measure as being 
unnecessary. -Tlieir recommendation was laid upon the table, 
and, at the meeting in IVIay, was taken xip for consideration, and 
the committee was discharged. The original resolution was, 
however, referred to a new committee, consisting of George T. 
Trimble, Samuel Wood, and Lindley Murray, who were direct- 
ed to prepare and submit a Lancasterian manual for the schools. 

The great influence of a proper regard for the first day of the 
week on the moral habits and character of the young, has already 
been alluded to, and the estimate in which this influence was 
held has been fully shown in the address to parents and guar- 
dians. A committee on the general state of the institution made 
a special communication of the following facts : In School No. 
1, out of 480 scholars on register, 397 attended church regular- 
ly ; in No. 2, of 437 on the register, 335 attended ; and in No. 
3, of 333 on register, 312 were regular attendants at some place 
of worship. The trustees regarded this as an extraordinary and 
very gratifying circumstance. 

At the annual election in May, in consequence of the desire 
of Leonard Bleecker to resign the oflfice of treasurer of the So- 
ciety, the duties of which he had discharged from the date of its 
organization, Kensselaee Havens was elected in his place. This 
gentleman, however, declined to serve, and Mr. Bleecker was re- 
quested to discharge the duties until a new appointment could be 
made. At the meeting held on the 4th of June, Geoege T. 
Trimble was elected to fill the vacancy. 

The committee to confer with the Female Association re- 
ported that the association, under a conviction that its funds 
vvould be reduced, and that their labors were only a de^jartment 
01 the Free-School system, replied that it woiild be inexpedient 
for them to pay the sum designated as rental ; but, on a recon- 
sideration of the matter, it was resolved to allow $400 per an- 
num to the Society, which was accepted. 

School No. 4, in Rivington street, was opened on the 1st of 
May, with 133 pupils on register, to which 223 others were add- 
ed before the 2ith of the same month, making, on that day, 
356 ; of which 200 were boys and 156 were girls. 

Charles Picton, the teacher sent out from England for the 
purpose, was appointed teacher of the new school ; and, to ena- 



• SCHOOL MANITAL. 41 

ble liim to cany out the system on liis own plan, lie was autliorized 
to conduct the school under such plans and regulations as seemed 
to him best calculated to perfect the objects of the institution. 
By a subsequent resolution, adopted in September, Mrs. Picton 
was appointed to the girls' school, which had been already opened 
on the 30th of August, with 182 girls. 

During the month of August, the Society was bereaved of its 
vice-president, John Mtterat, Jr., who died on the 4th of that 
month. He was chosen vice-president at the organization of 
the Society, and had held the office imtil his decease. With an 
enlightened mind, a devoted spirit of philanthropy, an eai-nest 
zeal, a spotless Christian character, and independent means, he 
had devoted the latter thirty years of his life to labors of public 
benevolence and reform. Thomas Eddy was elected as his suc- 
cessor in office, on the 1st of October. 

The great increase in the number of pupils at School No. 3 
rendered additional apartments necessary. A committee was 
appointed, and, in December, a report was submitted, recom- 
mending that a new building be erected on the lots granted by 
Trinity Church, at the corner of Hudson and Grove streets. At 
the same time, plans and estimates for the building were submit- 
ted, the cost of which was named at $8,500. The recommenda- 
tions of the committee ^vere adopted. 

The tenure of the ground, as granted by the corporation of 
Trinity Church, did not secure it absolutely to the Society, and 
at the following meeting the matter was reconsidered, and a com- 
mittee, consisting of John R. Murray, William Torrey, and Ben- 
jamin Clark, was appointed to consult with the vestry of Trinity 
Church, to obtain the privileges desired. The conference result- 
ed in a proposition that, if the Society would i-elease a certain 
portion of the property on Hudson street, the vestry would con- 
vey the title of the remainder in fee-simple to the Society. 
These terms were deemed favorable, and the committee were 
directed to complete the arrangement. The negotiation was ter- 
minated, however, by the payment of $1,250 on the part of the 
Society, as the purchase-money for the whole of the lots. 

x\t the first meeting in 1820, the committee to prepai'e the 
manual reported that the British Lancasterian manual had been 
adopted as the basis of their own, and that such corrections and 
changes had been made as would adapt it to the use of tlie 



42 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. * 

schools of tlie Society. The report of the committee was ac- 
cepted, and the manual adopted and ordered to he printed. The 
work was accordingly done, and the first edition was published 
the same year. A part of the edition M'as furnished with sam- 
ples of sewing by the girls, Avhich were attached to pages of the 
book referred to in the text. The illustrated manuals bearing 
these samples were sold for $1.50 each, while those from which 
they were omitted were sold for 75 cents each. Charles C. An- 
drews, the teacher of the Colored School, having contemplated 
the publication of a manual, but having abandoned it in order 
to aid the committee, was awarded 75 copies as a compliment- 
ary consideration. 

A committee was appointed early in the year to procure plans 
and estimates for a building in Hudson street ; and after the 
subject bad been fully considered, it was decided to erect a two- 
story building, 45 by 80 feet, with a cellar 7 feet in height, the 
expense not to exceed $6,500. "William Torrey, Najah Taylor, 
and Samuel Boyd were appointed as the building committee. 

Tlie finance committee were authorized to borrow seven 
thousand dollars, secured by bond and mortgage on the property 
in Hudson street — an arrangement which was effected with the 
Mutual Insurance Company, at 7 per cent. At the close of the 
year, the building committee were able to report their task com- 
pleted, with a charge for extra work of $217.50, which caused 
the total cost to exceed the estimates and appropriation only 
$109.94. The house was opened for the boys on the 15th of 
October, and for girls on the 23d of the same month. On the 
2d of November, 279 girls had been entered on the register, im- 
der the care of Sarah F. Field, who had been appointed teacher. 

At the close of 1820, a period of fifteen years from the foun- 
dation of the Society, the trustees were enabled to view their 
enterprise with high gratification ; and at the date of the Six- 
teenth Annual Report, in May, 1821, the following statement of 
the schools in operation was published : 

No. 1. Lloyd D. Windsor, teacher, 480 boys. 

2. John Missing, " 353 boys and girls. 

3. Shepherd Johnson, " 540 boys. 
Sarah F. Field, " 289 girls. 

4. Charles Picton, " 527 boys. 
Eunice Dean, " 400 girls. 



EEV. J NEWLAND MAFFIT. 43 



'' ru 



The Society owned four commoclious buildings, in wliicli six 
schodls were held, attended by 2,58!) pupils. The treasury was 
in debt about $8,000. 

At that time, Rev. John JSTewland Maffit, a young and very 
2:>opular preacher of the Methodist Church, was attracting much 
attention by his remarkable oratory and powerful discourses. 
He expressed a deske to visit and address the children of the 
free schools ; and information having been communicated to 
the board, an affirmative resolution was adopted, and Leonard 
Bleecker and Thomas Eddy were appointed to make the neces- 
sary arrangements. A young and talented preacher from Eng- 
land, Rev. George Summekfield, was also in the city, and the 
committee were authorized to make such appointments as they 
deemed proper. The 17th day of May was chosen for the occa- 
sion, and, to render a separate visit and address to each school 
unnecessary, they were collected in the Baptist Church in Mul- 
berry street, near Chatham, known as the " Tabernacle," then 
under the care of Rev. Aechibald Maclat. Mr. Maffit was re- 
ceived by sixteen of the trustees at No. 1, and, accompanied by 
them, repaired to the place of assembly, where over 2,300 chil- 
dren were in readiness to join in the exercises of the day. The 
committee, in their report, remark as follows : 

The minister commenced by reading the lOtli chapter of Luke. He 
then engaged in prayer for the blessing of God upon the exercises of tlie 
day. After which he preached from Luke x. 43, " One thing is needful ; " 
and the committee mention with much gratification that botli the matter 
and manner of his address were peculiarly adapted to engage the attention 
and inform the minds of the children. 

A similar privilege was soon after sought by Rev. Thaddeus 
Osgood, a travelling English missionary ; but, in consequence of 
the very brief time w'hich had passed subsequent to Mr. Maffit's 
address, the suggestion was not adopted by the board. Several 
of the trustees, however, attended Mr. Osgood in his visits to 
Nos. 3 and 4, where he addressed the children in an appropriate 
manner. 

The trustees, being desirous of reducing the expenses as 
much as possible, directed the treasurer to procure a loan at six 
per cent, on the property of No. 3, and pay off the mortgage to 
the Mutual Insurance Company, which was at 7 per cent. This 
was accomplished, and the first mortgage was cancelled. 



44 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The principal measure wliich occupied the attention of the 
board during the year 1821, was the division of No. 2, in Henry- 
street, into two separate schools, male and female, the two sexes 
liaving been until that time admitted to the same school. This 
was effected during the year, extensive repairs and alterations 
being made, and on the 1st of November the girls' school was 
opened with 90 scholars, under the care of Eebecca Leggett. 

Two thousand copies of the " Universal Catechism " were pur- 
chased for gratuitous distribution to the pupils belonging to the 
schools ; a stereotype edition of the " Scripture Lessons " was 
ordered to be prepared, and one thousand copies printed, for the 
use of the several schools. 

At the close of November, a delegation of members of the 
Legislature visited several of the schools for the purpose of be- 
coming more fully acquainted with the system of instruction 
adopted by the Society. These visits were very satisfactory to 
the delegates, wlio were cordial in their approbation of the 
method of instruction, the buildings, and the various arrange- 
ments of the institution. A committee, consisting of Benjamin 
Clark, John E. Hard, and William T. Slocum, was subsequently 
appointed to draft a memorial to the Legislature, asking farther 
aicl in the erection of additional buildings. The paper was pre- 
pared and promptly submitted to the board, and Mr. Slocum 
was appointed delegate to visit Albany and lay it before the 
Legislature. The service was performed, but, in consequence of 
a great variety of other measures being pressed upon the atten- 
tion of the Legislature, an adjournment took place before the 
object of the memorial was attained. It was deemed proper to 
enlarge the delegation, and James Palmer and Najah Taylor 
were selected for the pm-pose. 

The trustees and agents of the Bethel Baptist Church were, 
at this period (1821-1822), making diligent eflbrts to extend their 
schools. As the bill which had been passed by the Legislature, 
upon the appeal of the trustees and friends of the Bethel Church, 
gave them special privileges not enjoyed by other religious de- 
nominations, of which they were evidently disposed to avail 
themselves to the fullest extent, by increasing the number of 
their schools, and their pro rata of the school moneys, the Free- 
School Society regarded the movement with much concern. The 
measures contemplated by the Bethel Society led the board to 



ADDITIONAL SCHOOL- TAX. 45 

apprehend a collision upon ground which they had for some time 
regai'ded wjth interest as a good location for a school — that part 
of the city north of Walker street and between Broadway and 
the Boweiy. A committee was accordingly appointed, in March, 
1822, to select and negotiate for a site for a school building in j 
the vicinity of the cathedral in Mott street. I 

The estimates, obtained by careful inquiries tlu'onghout the 
city, showed the unwelcome fact that many thousands of chil- 
dren were still vagrants, and unprovided with the means of in- 
stniction. This condition of things arose partly from the dis- 
abilities of the industrial classes in large cities, partially from 
the fact that the number of schools was small, and insufficient to 
accommodate the pupils ; while the great distances which many 
of the children were obliged to walk in order to reach them, 
offered a serious impediment to the attendance of the majority 
of younger pupils. A considerable addition to the number of 
schools was deemed, therefore, to be a prime necessity, and the 
board took into consideration the means by which this could be 
accomplished. At the meeting held on the 13th of March, 
propositions were submitted and discussed, which were substan- 
tially as follows : 

To erect five new school-houses, at a cost of $10,000 each, 
would require an annual sum of $5,000 for ten years, and would 
provide for a new building every second year. 

The population of the city at the time was 130,000, which, at 
four cents per capita, would yield a tax of $5,200. 

The real estate at the assessed valuation of the year amount- 
ed to $50,619,720, the personal estate being assessed at 
$17,666,350, making a total of $68,285,070. The sum derived 
— $5,000 — would be only -^-^ of one per cent., or one cent on 
$136 of the taxable property of the city. 

Tlie amount of taxes for 1821 was $299,225, which would be 
increased only one sixtieth by the imposition of the proposed tax. 
In the words of the proposition : 

A person that now jxiys $1 tax would pay in addition IS cents. 

" « " 5 " " " 8 " 

M II II 10 " " " 16 " 

" II u 20 " " " 33 « 

Or, assessed upon real and personal estate, as follows : 



46 TDE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

A person assessed as worth $100, in addition to his tax 

would pay only | cents. 
•' " 1,000, " , " " ■ 7i " 

In independent cii'cumstances, 10,000, " " " 75 " 

A man of fortune, . . . 20,000, " " $1.50 

The above estimates are interesting as historical facts in 
reference to the city and its wealth, while the modest estimate of 
$10,000 as making a man " independent," or ranking the owner 
of $20,000 as a " man of fortune," is a genuine expression of the 
social characteristics of that period. 

To secure these additional resources, the following plans were 
recommended : 1. To circulate petitions among the people, until 
several tliousand names should be obtained ; 2. "When the peti- 
tions were signed, to apply to the Corporation for its influence 
and aid before the Legislature ; 3. To vest the title of all pur- 
chases of property and school buildings erected by the Society in 
the city, and to take a perpetual lease for the same ; i. When 
the mortgage upon the projierty of No. 3 should be paid by the 
/, ^ i)rocecds of the tax, to convey the title of the land to the city ; 
"*'"' 5. That the Mayor, Kecorder, and First Judge of the city and 
connty should be ex-officio members of the Society ; 6. That in- 
corporated religious societies should not draw school moneys for 
/ any other schools except those immediately connected with their 
respective churches; 7. That no religious society should estab- 
lish a free school, except for the children of their respective 
churches who were unable to pay for education. 

Without adopting definitely the measures proposed, the 

board appointed a committee to take the whole subject in 

charge, and for that purpose selected Eol:)ert C. Cornell, John E. 

Hyde, Rensselaer Havens, Benjamin Clark, John Adams, Najah 

/ Taylor, and Lindley Murray. 

The committee gave promjit attention to the measures re- 
ferred to them, and had interviews with the Mayor and several 
/ members of the Corporation. It was decided to postpone the 
} movement until a later period in the year, and the committee, 
at their own request, were discharged, the secretary being direct- 
ed, however, to lay the matter before the board two months pre- 
vious to the next session of the Legislature. 

The committee appointed to purcliase lots for a new school 
near the cathedral, reported that they had selected three lots in 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH. 4:7 

Mott street, near Prince, 25 by 94 feet each, the price of which 
was $2,250, and interest from the 1st of January preceding. 
The lots were approved, and the necessai-y steps to have the 
deeds executed were ordered to be taken, and the treasiirer 
directed to borrow the money for the payment. 

At tlie meeting of the board Iield on the 5tli of April, a let- 
ter was received fron; the trustees of the Bethel Baptist Church, 
complaining of the conduct of the Society in piux'hasing the 
property for the erection of a scliool-honse in Mott street, and 
charging the board with an improper interference with their 
plans. The secretary was directed to reply to this communica- 
tion, and furnish the complainants with a copy of the original 
resolution passed in 1821, appointing a committee to procure 
suitable lots for a school site, and also to inform them of the 
proceedings already taken by the board. 

It was further resolved that a committee, consisting of John 
E. Hyde, James Collins^ and Lindley Murray, be appointed to 
prepare a remonstrance to the Legislature on the subject of the 
law giving exclusive privileges to the Bethel Church in the dis- 
tribution of the school fund. 

The collision of interests which had been antici23ated between 
these two boards had now assumed a positive form. The dis- 
cussion gave rise to important subsequent legislation, and is 
made the subject of review in the following chapter. 



48 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTEE III. 

THE BETHEL BAPTIST CHUKCH CONTROVERSY. 

Sectarian Influence — Church Schools — The School Fund — The Bethel Baptist Church 
— Privileges Granted — School No. 5 — Memorial to the Legislature — Memorial to 
the Corporation — Proceedings in the Legislature — Hiram Ketchum Elected a Trus- 
tee, and requested to proceed to Albany- — Negotiations Between the Two Boards 
of Trustees— The Bill Laid Over bj tlie Legislature— The Bethel Schools— The 
" Trustees of the Fire-Department Fund " — Certificate of Mr. Andrews — Certifi- 
cate of Mr. Buyce — Certificate of Mr. Farden — New Church Schools — Proceed- 
ings in the Common Council — Memorial Adopted — New Memorials to the Legisla- 
ture — Proceedings of the Legislature — Report of the Committee on Colleges, &e. 
— Adjournment of the Legislature — The Extra Session — The Bill Amended — The 
Common Council to Apportion tlie School Fund — The Bill Becomes a Law — The 
Controversy Closed. 

The Free-School Society had been in successful operation for 
fifteen years, and had enconntered no other obstacles than those 
incident to the progress and development of a system of far- 
reaching benevolence and philanthropy. A movement of a dis- 
turbing character, however, arose from the rivalry and jealousy 
of other institutions, but particulai'ly in the efforts made to ob- 
tain peculiar jjrivileges for the benefit of the schools connected 
with the Bethel Baptist Church. The controversy and the legis- 
lation growing out of these attempts form an interesting feature 
in the records of the Society. 

By the law of March 12, 1813, it was directed that the por- 
tion of the school fund received by the city and county of New 
York should be apportioned and paid to the trustees of the Free- 
School Society of New York, the trustees or treasurers of the 
Orphan Asylum Society, the Society of the Economical School, 
the African Free School, and of stick incorp&rcfcd religious 
societies in the city as supported, or should establish, chanty 
schools, who might apply for the same. In 1822, the institutions 
wliich drew from tlic school fund in addition to the Free-School 



BETHEL DAPTIST CIIUKCH. 49 

Societ}-, aud those already named, were the Female Association, 
the Hamilton Free School, the Mechanics' Society, and the Ro- 
man Catholic Benevolent Society. By the sixth section of the 
law, the several societies therein named were prohibited from 
using the school fund for any other purpose than the payment 
of teachers. 

The privilege of participating in the fund granted by the 
law to religious societies was peculiar to the city of New York, 
no religious society in any other part of the State being allowed 
such participation. This privilege was probably granted them 
at the time, because the number of schools under the charge of 
these societies was small, and, with a single exception, confined 
to the education of the poor of the respective churches to whicl 
they were attached. 

The Lancasterian system of education having been success- 
fully practised for a number of years in the schools of the Soci- 
ety, .the number of pupils increased to such an extent, that the 
amount drawn from the common school fund was more than 
sufficient for the payment of teachers employed. Application 
was therefore made to the Legislature, which, in 1817, passed an 
act containing, among other things, a iirovision allowing the 
Free-School Society to appropriate the surplus of the school 
fund, after the payment of teachers, to the erection of buildings 
for schools, the education of schoolmasters upon the Lancasterian 
])]an, and to all the needful purposes of a common school edu- 
cation. This pcciiliar privilege was granted the Society because 
it was organized for the sole and exclusive pm'pose of educating 
the poor ; and, consequently, all the buildings which it should 
erect would foi-ever be devoted to this object. 

In 1820, the trustees of the Bethel Baptist Church in the 
city of New York opened a school in the basement of their 
church, in Delancey street, for the reception of jjoor children of 
every denomination ; and, the next year, received an apportion- 
ment from the common school fund, under the provisioa of the 
law of 1813, granting that privilege to religious societies. In 
1822, the trustees of the Bethel Church obtained the passage of 
a law * granting them permission to appropriate the surplus 

* An Act for the Relief of the Trustees of the Bethel Baptist Church, in the 
city of New York. 

I. Be it eimctctl bv the People of the State of New York, i-epresented in Senate 
4 




50 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

money received from the school fund, after the payment of 
teachers, to tlie erection of buildings for schools, the education 
of schoolmasters, and all the other needful purposes of a com- 
mon school education — a privilege nearly similar to that before 
granted to the Free-School Society. The passage of this law 
immediately excited the alarm of the board, and several re- 
ligious societies in the city. It was perceived that it opened a 
wide door for the perversion of the fund, and that there would 
be a strong inducement offered to the church for the employ- 
ment of teachers who would work cheap, that 'thus there might 
be a surplus to be used in the erection of biiildings, which would 
not belong to the public, but to the church, and would probably 
come to be used ibr other purposes than the education of poor 
children. 

It has already been stated, that the trustees of the Public- 
School Society, as early as 1821, had observed the want of a 
school in that part of the city bounded by Broadway and the 
Bowery, and Bleecker and Grand streets, and had made some 
inquiries for the purchase of lots for a school site, which had 
been unsuccessful, and the effort was abandoned for the time. 
The passage of the law above named revived their interest in 
this locality, which was stimulated by the efforts making on tlie 
part of Mr. Cliase, the pastor of the church, to find a held for a 

and Assembly, That it shall and may be lawful for tlie trustees of the Bethel Baptist 
Cliurdi, in the city of New York, or their successors in office, at any time hereafter to 
5ell and dispose of two lots of ground, with the meeting-house thereon, now belonging 
to the said church, situate on the south side of Broome street, in the Eiglith Ward of 
the said city, and to execute conveyances therefor in fee-simple to the purchaser or 
purchasers thereof. 

II. And be it further enacted. That it shall and may be lawful for the said trustees, 
or their successors in office, to mortgage, in fee or otherwise, all those certain lots of 
ground, and the meeting-house thereon erected, belonging to the said churdi, situate 
at the corner of Delancey and Chrystie streets, in the said city, or any part or parcel 
thereof, for such sum or sums as the said trustees, or their successors in office, shall 
think i)ro])er ; which mortgage or mortgages so made and executed shall be valid 
and effectual in the law. 

III. And be it further enacted, That if any moneys be now remaining, or shall 
hereafter remain, in the hands of th'e said trustees, from the school moneys received 
by them for the support of the Bethel Free Pcliool, after a sufficient compensation to 
the teachers employed by them, it shall and may be lawful for them to ajiply such 
moneys to the instruction of schoolmasters, to the erection of buildings for schools, 
and to all other needful purposes of a common school education, but to no other pur- 
,pose whatever. 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHCKCH. .51 

new school under his supervision. A consideration of tlie mat- 
ter was therefore had at a meeting on the 16th of March, 1822, 
when a resohition was adopted directing the purchase of lots in 
the vicinity of St. Patrick's cathedral, and appointing Isaac 
Collins, Rensselaer Havens, William T. Sloeum, John L. Bowne, 
and James Palmer a committee to superintend tlie undertaking, 
and to procure estimates for the erection of a huilding. 

At a meeting held on the 5th of April, a letter was received 
from the trustees of the Bethel Baptist Free School, stating tliat 
they had purchased lots in the vicinity of the Eoman Catholic 
cathedral, and making a complaint that the purchase of lots in 
Mott street by the Free-School Society was "an improper interfer- 
ence with their plans. A reply was directed to be sent to the 
complainants, and a committee of tlu-ee, consisting of John E. 
Hyde, Isaac Collins, and Lindley Murray, was appointed to pre- 
pare a memorial and remonstrance to the Legislature on the sub- 
ject of the late law. 

On the 2d of August, the trustees adopted the following 
resolutions : 

Hesolved, That, in the opinion of this board, the last section of the act 
of the Legislature of this State, entitled "An Act for the Relief of the 
trustees of the Bethel Baptist Church in the city of New York," passed on 
the 8th day of February last past, is calculated to divert a large portion of 
the common school fund from the great and beneficial object for which it • 
is established, and to apply the same for the promotion of private and sec- \ 
tarian interests ; and, believing that the passing of said section was pro- 
cured either from the want of information, or from some other cause not 
known to this board, they will use all the means in their power to procure 
a repeal of the last clause of said law. 

Eesohed, That the secretary send a copy of the preceding resolution to 
the trustees of the Bethel Free School. 

At the following meeting of the board, a committee was ap- 
pointed to confer with the Corporation, the commissioners of 
the school fund, and the directors of the various institutions 
entitled to participate in the school moneys, to seciu-e their co- 
operation in procuring the rejieal of the law, and to prej>are a 
memorial to be presented to the Legislature. The committee 
consisted of Charles G. Haines, John E. Hyde, Isaac Collins, 
Gideon Lee, and Rensselaer Havens. 

At the meeting held on the 6th of December, the committee 



52 THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

reported the following memorial, which was adopted, and ordered 
to be printed under the direction of the committee : 

To the Ilonorahlc the Senate and Assembly of the State of New Yorlc : 

The trustees of the Free-School Society of New York respectfully rep- 
resent, that they consider tlie prosperity of the institution whose manage- 
ment is entrusted to their charge, as intimately connected with the moral 
condition of this metropolis. In all populous cities, there must be a great 
disparity in the pecuniary circumstances of the different classes of the com- 
munity. A large portion of the people must be indigent and needy. Thou- 
sands of the rising generation must be emerging into active life, whose 
parents are unable to give them the rudiments of literary education, and 
whose minds have never been enlightened or restrained by the early incul- 
cation of moral lessons and virtuous maxims. Unless some public establish- 
ment, or some voluntary association, embrace and relieve their condition, it 
must be evident that they will be exposed to temptations of the most per- 
nicious kind, and contract habits of the most dangerous tendency. They 
will swell the list of crimes on the records of criminal courts, fill the peni- 
tentiaries with convicts, and subsist by committing depredations on the 
property of their fellow-citizens, and disturb the peace and safety of the 
whole community. They diminish the security of civil government, in- 
crease poverty and taxation, and promote the passage of severe and sangui- 
nary laws. 

To rescue such children from the dangers which naturally surround them, 
to shield them from temptation and early depravity, to direct their paths to 
future usefulness and respectability, is the grand oliject of the Free-School 
Society of New York. 

When these free schools were established in 1806, there was a large 
number of poor children in the city of New York exposed to the most dan- 
gerous temptations, and whose minds were destitute of mental and moral 
cultivation. They were wandering in the streets in idleness, and daily fell- 
ing into new and pernicious associations. They were growing up in a man- 
ner that prepared them for the almshouse, the hospital, the Bridewell, the 
penitentiary, and State prison. Since their commencement, more than four- 
teen thousand children have been admitted and entered on their registers, 
and but. one solitary individual of this large number has been pointed out 
who has been arraigned in a criminal court. 

The number daily instructed is now more than three thousand. It is 
almost unnecessary to dwell on the salutary effects of these schools. When 
we reflect that all free governments must rest on public opinion, and that, in 
propoitiou as public opinion is enlightened and the people rendered virtu- 
ous, popular institutions will be rendered more permanent and secure, the 
diffusion of elementary instruction, and the timely inculcation of correct 
principles of moral conduct, assume a consideration that must appeal to the 
feelings of every member of this community who regards his own happi- 
ness, the happiness of society generally, and the well-being of posterity. 

No system of education has ever yet been devised that affords so many 



MEMOEIAL TO 'the LEGISLATURE. 53 

advantages as the tancasteriau plan. This was adopted by the Free-School 
Society of New York before it was embraced by any other State in the 
Union ; and, whether we consider the economy of instruction, the facility 
with which children acquire the rudiments of education, or the excellency 
of the disciijline which prevails, it stands without competition. 

The free schools under our care are open to all religious denominations. 
No distinction of sect or name is known in admitting scholars. The gov- 
ernment of the State, in a spirit of wisdom and munificence, has made a 
liberal annual allowance toward sustaining the expenses of their educa- 
tion ; and if our income exceeds the expenditures, the surplus is appropri- 
ated toward erecting buildings for schools, which are the property of the 
public, for the perpetual reception of indigent children. Five houses have 
already been constructed, principally by the aid of private donations, in the 
different parts of the city of New York. They constitute a real estate 
which will be held in perpetuity for the benefit of the lower classes of the 
community, and which may be estimated at the value of sixty thousand 
dollars. 

Your memorialists would further represent, that, with one exception, the 
different religious denominations of the city of New York who receive a 
portion of the common school fund, expend it in the education of poor 
children of their respective societies only. 

Your memorialists are fully convinced of the wisdom of that provision 
of the general law regulating the exijenditures of the common school fund, 
which limits the appropriation of said fund to the payment of teachers 
only; and they believe it inexpedient, and contrary to the original intention 
of the Legislature, that any part thereof should be apjjlied to the erection 
of buildings, except in case of an institution expressly incorporated for ptir- 
poses of educating poor children, and where real estate virtually becomes 
the property of the public. 

But your memorialists regret to say, that a law was jiassed during the 
last session of the Legislature, which, they apprehend, may lead to incalcu- 
lable evils, and produce consequences never contemplated at the period of 
its adoption. This statute is entitled, " An Act to relieve the Baptist 
Bethel Church in the city of New York," and it contains the following sec- 
tion : " And ie it further enacted, That, if any moneys be now remaining, or 
shall hereafter remain, in the hands of the said trustees (naming the trus- 
tees of the said church) from the school moneys received by them for the 
support of the Bethel Free School, after a sufiicient compensation to the 
teachers employed by them, it shall and may be lawful for them to apply 
such moneys to the instruction of schoolmasters, to the erection of build- 
ings for schools, and to all other needful purposes of a common school edu- 
cation, but to no other purposes whatever." {Vide " Laws of New York," 
1833, p. 23.) 

As the sum drawn from the common school fund for each scholar is 
more than is requisite to pay the salaries of teachers on the Lancasterian 
plan of education, where the number of scholars is large, a very consider- 
able surplus may remain. This surplus may, by said law, be devoted, in 



54 THK rOBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the oi)inion of your memorialists, to the purchase of real estate, or to the 
erection of buikliugs, which belong not to the public— not, in fact, to the 
poor of the city of New York, l)ut to the Baptist Bethel Church. In this 
religious society the fee will permanently vest, and the estate and property 
thus created may be sold, and the fee conveyed to others. There is no limit 
to the number of scholars which may be instructed under the direction of 
this church, and the sum drawn from the commissioners of the school fnnd 
must conform to the returns made to them by this religious denomination. 
Teaclicrs may be employed at low salaries, to increase this surplus, who are 
incompetent to the finthful discharge of their duty ; and there is nothing to 
prevent the conversion of the moneys drawn by the trustees of this church 
to the education of children who do not belong to that needy class of schol- 
ars who should be jjeculiar objects of instruction in the expenditure of the 
school fund in this city. 

Your memorialists would respectfully ask, if this ever could have been 
' the intention of the Legislature ? Why lias a right been given to one re- 
ligious society which is not imparted' to another ? And why has a privilege 
been granted that not only vitiates the principles of equality, but perverts a 
part of the school fund intended — and wisely and humanely intended— to 
bo expended to the last cent in the wholesome education of poor children ? 
When other religious denominations are compelled by law to exhaust all the 
funds which come into their hands for the purposes of instruction, is it i)oli- 
tic, is it just, to select out one religious society, and give it an opjjortunity 
to dispose of the funds here spoken of, for other purposes than those con- 
nected with the early education of the poor ? 

Your memorialists have but one object in view — the adoption of the 
most prudent and cflectual means of educating tlie poor children of the city 
of New York. Whether this is done by this Free-School Society, or by 
other means, is not a matter of concern to them ; but when they see the ex- 
istence of a law which, in their view, appears calculated to retard the gi'eat 
work of elementary instruction — which has a tendency to pervert a portion 
of the school fund from its proper object — which may diminish the num- 
ber of poor children annually educated, and which may create a spirit of 
hostility heretofore unknown among the different religious denominations, 
and is unequal as well as pernicious, they conceive that a regard to their 
duty, and a sincere desire to increase the blessings of elementary instruction, 
dictates an appeal to tlie Legislature. Suppose that every Christian society 
in the city of New York was empowered to expend a jjortion of its divi- 
dend, drawn from the commissionerrs of the school fund, in olijects differ- 
ent from that of educating poor children, would not the Legislature con- 
sider such an evil called for jjrompt and comiilete correction ? Why, then, 
shall the guardians of our public jsrosperity permit a law to exist which 
sets an example that may lead to such'a grievance ? Have not the difierent 
religious denominations of this metrojjolis a perfect right to call on the 
Legislature for a law giving them authority to expend their surplus funds 
as they may think proper, or to erect buildings which may in time be con- 
verted into houses for sectarian uses, instead of being maintained as school 
edifices ? 



MEMORIAL TO ■ THE COEPOUATTON. 55 

Under these considerations, your memorialists respectfully request tbe 
Lco-islature to repeal the third section of the law which has been here re- 
ferred to. They conceive that its being expunged from the Statute Book 
■will seriously benefit the great interests of early education in the city of 
New York, and place the different religious societies on the broad basis of 
equality. 

About three years ago, the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism in 
the City of New York made an annual report, in which it was stated, among 
other things, that there were about eight thousand poor children in this 
metropolis who were growing up destitute of instruction. This fact, and • 
others of a similar nature, induced this Free-School Society to make bolder 
efforts to spread the lights of early knowledge. They have very recently 
erected two school-houses, in different sections of the city, in the midst of 
the most indigent portions of our population, capable of receiving one 
thousand scholars each, and by this means incurred a debt of sixteen thou- 
sand dollars. 

Your memorialists deem it proper to state, that the Free-School Society 
of New York is composed of more than six hundred of the most respects 
able citizens, and that religious distinctions are unknown to their constitu- 
tion. For fourteen years they have prosecuted the grand design of their 
institution with ardor and success. They have contracted debts and in- 
curred heavy responsibilities on many occasions. 

The Free-School Society of New York was created by the Legislature to 
exercise a wholesome supervision over the education of children who could 
look to no other certaiii source. This institution was the offspring of your I 
honorable body, and to you it has to look for continuance and support. In ' 
seeking the repeal of a law which must have been passed without a compre- 
hensive view of its effects and bearings, they trust that they shall not be 
accused of departing from that uniform desire to increase the blessings of a 
free and enlightened government which has ever. controlled their action and 
guided their efforts. 

Signed by order and ou behalf of the Board of Trustees. 

Leonaed Bleeckee, Vice-President. 
LiNDLET MuEEAT, Secretary. 

New Tone, January, 1823, 

The committee also reported the following memorial to the 
Corporation, which was adopted, and referred to the same com- 
mittee to present to that body : 

To his Honor the Mayor, Recorder, and Commonalty of the City of Nero Yorlc: ■ 

The trustees of the New York Free-School Society would respectfully 
represent, that they consider the diffusion of early education in the city of 
New York as intimately connected with the moral condition and future 
prosperity of this metropolis. If we would lessen taxes, by preventing pau- 
perism — if we would lessen public burdens, by diminishing crimes and 
offences — if we would render the city more wealthy, by increasing individ- 



56 THK PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ual exertion and enterprise — if we would give greater peace and security to 
our citizens, and render property more sacred — if we would give a broader 
basis and render firmer the foundation of our political and civil institutions, 
we sball encourage early education among the poor, inculcate virtuous max- 
ims in the young mind as its powers are unfolded, and teacli fhe principles 
of self-respect. Industry, sobriety, enterprise, and usefulness vs-ill follow. 

History is the censor of ages. It teaches us that, in proportion as man- 
kind assemble and reside in large bodies, that the distinctions of rich and 
poor are made more obvious — that they reciprocate baneful as well as virtu- 
ous sympathies. The poor, the depraved, and tlie desperate mingle togeth- 
er, and a standing corps of the base and the profligate will appear. 

Idleness and want will stimulate the base propensities of our nature, and 
crimes and outrages will follow. Hence, whatever counteracts those evils 
which naturally arise in populous cities, should be embraced with ardor and 
cultivated with perseverance. And hence the necessity of a greater atten- 
tion to the sources and causes of criminality and guUt. 

Your memorialists would call the attention of your honorable body to 
what has already been effected by the Free-School Society of New York. 
They lay before you a memorial which has been jirepared for the Legislature 
of this State, and also their last annual report. And, in doing this, they 
respectfully solicit your aid in obtaining the repeal of a law which they can- 
aot but think is directly calculated to injure the interests of early education 
in this metropolis. In their view, the third section of tlie law to which they 
allude, and a copy of which is laid before your honorable board, tends to 
create irregularity among different religious denominations, to pervert a por- 
tion of the school fund to objects that may be foreign to the purposes of 
early education, and diminish the number of children which might be daily 
instructed. 

Should these views be deemed correct by your -honorable body, it is 
lioped that you will present such a memorial to the Legislature as will tend 
to produce a repeal of that portion of the statute to which reference has 
been made. 

New Yokk, December^ 1822. 

The memorials were adopted, and Charles G-. Haines, Samuel 
Boyd, John E. Hyde, and Isaac Collins were appointed a com- 
mittee to correspond with the Secretary of State as Commission- 
er of the school fund, and to confer with the New York city 
delegation to the Legislature, relative to the object contemplated 
in the memorial. It being deemed of importance that the mem- 
bers of the public bodies whose action was to decide the ques- 
tion should have the opportunity of inspecting the schools, the 
Committee were directed to invite the members of the Coq^ora- 
tion and of the Legislature to visit the schools under the care of 
the Society. 



HIKAM EETCnUM. 57 

On the 24th of January, 1823, a special meeting of the trus- 
tees was held, on the call of the Vice-President, to take into 
consideration a letter which had been received from Hon. J. B. 
Yates, relative to the memorial, in which he submitted his rea- 
sons for a stay of proceedings in the Legislature on the part of 
the Free-School Society. After soine discussion on the commu- 
nication, it was determined to press the matter upon the Legisla- 
ture, and Isaac Collins and Israel Dean were appointed as a 
committee to proceed to Albany, to represent the interests of the 
Society before that body. 

On the 18th of February folloM'ing, another sj^ecial meeting 
was called for the purpose of promoting the objects so earnestly 
desired, and to appoint another delegate from the board, who 
should proceed to Albany to advocate the repeal of the " third 
section." The committee on tlie memorial reported that the 
Corporation had, at their meeting on the evening previous, 
directed a memorial to be prepared and forwarded, praying for 
the same object. 

The resignation of Thomas Gibbons as a member of the 
board was presented and accepted, and Hieam Ketchuj;, Esq., 
was unanimously elected as trustee to fill the vacancy. It was 
then resolved, tliat Hiram Ketchum be authorized and requested 
to proceed to Albany, to represent the interests of the institution 
before the Legislature. 

At tlie meeting of the board on the 1st of March, a propo- 
sition to purchase the Baptist school-house was discussed and 
finally negatived, and the committee were directed to press the 
application at Albany, without reference to the contingencies 
which might arise in reference to the property held by the Bethel 
Baptist Church for school purposes. 

Mr. Ketchum was, during this time, zealously engaged in 
Albany in the discharge of liis duties ; and on the 7th of March, 
a letter was received from him and laid before the board, com- 
municating the fact that the committee to whom the question of 
the school law had been referred, had decided that, whereas a 
resolution had passed the House calling for information at the 
next session of the Legislature, relative to all the free schools 
in the city of New York, it was inexpedient to legislate further 
at that session on the subject of tlie Bethel Baptist schools. In 
consequence of this decision, the several committees on memo- 



58 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

rials and the delegates to Albany Avere discharged by a vote ou 
the 4t!i of April. 

In anticipation of the necessary action at the ensuing session 
of the Legislature, the Board of Trnstees, at a meeting held on 
the J:th^of July, appointed a new committee, consisting of Isaac 
Collins, Hiram Ketchum, Robert C. Cornell, and Lindley Mur- 
ray, to prepare an address to the public, explaining the position 
assumed by the Free-School Society, which was subsequently 
submitted, approved, and ordered to be printed. At the meet- 
ing of the board on the 2d of January, 1824, a committee was 
appointed to draft a BillTtotrer'subnutted to the Legislature, 
which should operate as a general law relative to the distribution 
of the school fund in the city of New York. The committee 
consisted of Benjamin Clark, Ilirani Ketchum, Samuel Boyd, 
and Lindley Murray. 

Tlie pamphlet containing the address of the trustees to the 
public, with other matters, excited the attention of the trustees 
of the Bethel School, who solicited a conference between com- 
mittees of the two boards. A committee was accordingly 
named, and, on the 6th_of February, they reported the 2:)erform- 
ance of the service assigned to them, and that several propo- 
sitions had been suggested as the basis of an adjustment. The 
result of the interview with Mr. Cliase, the pastor, was submit- 
ted, as follows : The trustees of the Bethel School were to close 
their No. 3, and transfer the children to Free School No. 3, the 
Society to take the new building from the Bethel Churcrh on a 
long lease, they to continue their No. 1 only ; the whole condi- 
tioned on the passage of the law repealing the " third section." 
B. Clark, E. C. Cornell, and Lindley Murray were empowered 
to make the proposed terms of adjustment as free from error as 
possible, and to complete the negotiation with the other institu- 
tion. This committee subsequently reported that they had been 
entirely unable to effect any arrangement whatever. 

Notwithstanding the unanimity of sentiment in favor of the 
repeal of the objectionable section of the law, and the numerous 
memorials which had been presented, the agents of the Bethel 
School had been able to exert a strong influence in the House, 
wliere, in consequence of the absence of facts and the lateness 
of the session, the subject, as already stated, was never reached. 
A resolution, however, had been adopted, calling for information 



BETHEL BAPTIST cnUECII. 59 

from tlie several societies and asylums to whicla the money waa 
distributed ; and tlie compilation of these facts occupied a por- 
tion of tlie recess between the sessions. 

The Bethel Baptist Church had, at tiie time, three schools in 
operation : one situated in" Delaucey street, in the basement of 
the church, one in Bleeclcer street, and one in Varidam street, in 
the basement of a Baptist chui-ch. The first of these schools, in 
Delancey street, was opened in 1820, and in the year 1821, the 
trustees of the church drew from the common school fund the 
sum of $1,545.39 for 686 scholars alleged to have been taught 
therein in tiie year preceding the 1st of May in the last-men- 
tioned year ; and on the 1st of May, 1822, the sum of $1,4T9.80 
for 755 scholars ; and in the year 1823, $1,986.04 for 1,211 
scholars. 

The nineteenth annual report of the Free-School Society 
presents an interesting review of the proceedings in the contro- 
versy up to the date of the repoi't, which is substantially em- 
bodied in the following extracts : 

After the passage of the law granting the peculiar privilege of applying 
the surplus to the erection of buildings, &c., the pastor of the Bethel Bap- 
tist Church, the Rev. Johnson Chase, applied to his trustees, requesting them 
to erect a building for a school in Elizabeth street. To this proposition the 
trustees were at tirst much opposed, it not comporting with their original 
design to have more than one school, ■which they thought they should be 
able to manage to advantage. Their pastor, however, was very earnest in 
his solicitations, and, to overcome all objections on account of the pecuniary 
embarrassments into which the erection of another building might involve 
the church, undertook to encounter all the expenses himself; accordingly, 
to gratify their pastor, and contrary to their own oijinions of the propriety 
of the measure, they yielded their assent to it, and lots were purchased and 
a building commenced in the summer of 1833. The site of this building 
was in the immediate vicinity of the place where the trustees of the Free- 
School Society had for some time previously contemplated the erection of 
another school-house, and where they have since erected Free School No. 5 
— a commodious building, and sufficiently ample to accommodate all the 
poor children in the part of the town where it is situated. Mr. Chase was 
advised of the intentions of the trustees of the Free-School Society as to 
the erection of this building, and the buikling itself was actually erected, 
though not finished, before he commenced his building in Elizabeth street ; 
and, after he had commenced It, an individual member of the board of 
trustees offered to purchase his lots of ground, and remunerate him for all 
the expenses to which he had been subjected. This proposition was made, 
as it was conceived there would be no necessity for two free schools in the 



bU THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

same neighborhood, and that the operations of the two, if established, must 
necessarily interfere with each other. The proposition was not, however, 
acceded to, and the building of the Bethel Baptist Church and Free-School 
No. 5 were prepared for the reception of scholars about the same time. One 
part of the building of the Bethel Baptist Cliurch in Elizabeth street is now 
appropriated to a school-house, and the other part is used by a religious 
society as a place of worship. In the autumn of 1833, the trustees of the 
Bethel Baptist Church opened their school No. 3, in Vandam street, in the 
vicinity of Free-School No. 3. The immediate effect of this new school was 
to draw from Free-School No. 3 three hundred children. Many of the chil- 
dren thus withdrawn returned soon afterward to the school under the care 
of the Society. 

The experience of the operations of the Bethel Baptist schools had 
fully justified the apprehensions formed of them by the board. From the 
document with which the trustees have been furnished, it aj^pears that the 
teachers in these schools have been employed at low salaries, have labored 
under great disadvantages, and that the order and improvement of the 
schools have been by no means commendable. 

On the 9th of March last, Jacob Drake, Esq., one of the commissioners 
of the school fund, and Jacob B. Taylor, Esq., one of the aldermen of the 
city, visited the schools of the Bethel Baptist Church, and a number of the 
free schools, with a view to ascertain their condition and comparative mer- 
its. The certificates of these gentlemen set forth that a want of cleanliness, 
order, and discipline in the Bethel schools was very manifest, together with 
the following extraordinary facts : There wore on the register of School No. 
3 of the Bethel Baptist Church, 450 scholars, when, in fact, 300 only could 
be seated in the school. It will be recollected that the trustees draw from 
the common school fund a certain amount per scholar, for the number of 
scholars on register. On the day when these gentlemen visited them, there 
were on register, in all the schools of the Bethel Baptist Church, 1,547 schol- 
ars, of whom were present only 886. Stephen Allen, Esq., and John Targ ee, 
Esq., consented to visit the schools on another day ; and they have been 
pleased to give their certificate. This certificate shows similar results as to 
the condition of the schools, the number of scholars on register and in at- 
tendance, as that of Mr. Drake and Alderman Taylor. The trustees also 
obtained a certificate from a committee of the Fire Department, as follows : 

To tlie Trustees of the New Tori; Free-School Society : 

The undersigned, a committee from the " Trustees of the Fire Depart- 
ment Fund," in answer to the queries of some of your body relative to the 
Bethel schools in this city, reply : That there are now under our care over 
three hundred children, most of which are in the schools under your charge 
— the residue at the Bethel schools. At the former, they improve rapidly in 
learning, and give the strongest evidence of the good management of the 
institution. At the latter, it is the reverse. We are not, of course, satisfied 
with having children there, and shall consider it our duty to remove them, 
or discontinue our patronage, when parents refuse to do so. We have, there- 
fore, no hesitation in expressing it as our opinion, that public good requires 
the discontinuance of the State grant to the Bethel schools, as the course 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHUKCH. 61 

piu'sued by their managers, in having teachers who are incompetent, and 
rendering their schools instruments for the furtlierance of the views of a 
particular religious society, are calculated to subvert the intention of the 
State in the endowment of common schools. 

Our 02Jinions are formed from personal visits to loth schools, and from 
the reports of our School Committee, who visit every three months and 
examine into the jsrogess of the children claiming protection from our insti- 
tution. 

P. W. Engs, 1 

Edward Arrowsmith, I 
James M. Tuthill, J- Committee. 

William Vonck, 
J. M. HOYT, 
Nkw YonE, 16(7i March, 1824. 

From the certiiicate of Mr. Andrews,* it appears that Mr. Chase has 

* Certificate of Charles C. Andrews. — I, Charles C. Andrews, of the city of 
New York, teacher, and late a trustee of the Bethel Free-School in said city, state as 
follows : That, when it was proposed by the Rev. Johnson Chase to establish a free 
school in the basement of the meeting-house of the Bethel Baptist Church in Delancey 
street, for the purpose of educating poor children connected with the congregation, 
and others in the neighborhood of the meeting-house, I readily assented to aid in so 
good a work, and offered my advice, as a teacher on the Laneasterian plan, in the pro- 
motion of a school to be conducted on that system. A board of trustees being 
appointed, and the rooms being fitted up, a school was opened accordingly, on the 
plan above named. Subsequently, Mr. Johnson Chase, having obtained a special act 
from the Legislature respecting the surplus funds of the said school, proposed to buy 
lots and erect a large school-house in Elizabeth street. This proposition was objected 
to by all the trustees as departing from the original plan, and as calculated to involve 
the church in difficulties which she was unable to sustain, and so greatly to increase 
the duties of the board, that a second school could not properly be attended to on 
their part. However, after several attempts to obtain the consent of the board, even 
with the offer of said Chase to build a school-house on his own account and credit, his 
proposals were accepted. A school-house was built and a school opened, contrary to 
my views and advice frequently expressed to Mr. Chase. My reasons were in accord- 
ance with those of each member of the board, which I had frequently an opportunity 
of hearing expressed by them individually ; and I am under the impression that it was 
principally owing to the influence possessed by Mr. Chase, as pastor of the church, 
that his object in this respect was obtained. 

The reasons for not agreeing to the establishing a second school on the part of the 
board have already been given ; in addition to which, my own reasons were, that there 
would be no necessity for such school, as the Trustees of the Free-School Society con- 
templated building in the vicinity of the intended Bethel School, and I concluded that 
it would create a strife, far from bejpg desirable or useful, between the two institu- 
tions ; nor did I consider that the Bethel Board, from its infant state, possessed suffi- 
cient experience on such subjects to undertake a task so new and so arduous as a 
second school must necessarily impose ; while, on the part of the New York Free. 
School Trustees, there existed all the requisite means and qualifications to carry into 
full effect the purposes designed by the establishment of such schools. 

Within a few months, Mr. Chase proposed to tlie Bethel Board to open another 



62 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

been the active manager in tlie Board of Trustees of the Bethel Baptist 
Church ; his conduct as a trustee of public funds will be shown by the fol- 
lowing facts : 

It appears that Mr. John Buyce was the first teacher employed in the 
Bethel Baptist Free-School in Delancey street ; he was employed in 1820, 
and continued till 1831. At this time the trustees of the church were not 

free school in Vandam street, in the neighborhood of a large school long established 
by the New York Free-School Society of this city. To this measure I also objected ; 
nor was there a member of the board, to my knowledge, friendly to the measure ; but 
the same partial feeling toward Mr. Chase, which, I conceive, brought the second 
school into existence, brought tlie third also, so far as it relates to tha consent of the 
board. When it was proposed to employ the person having charge of the last-men- 
tioned school as teacher, it never met my approbation, nor do I consider it a judicious 
.appointment. 

The Bethel Board, considering it necessary that much time should be spent in visits 
ing their scljools, and that their several occupations -would preclude them froifi per- 
forming that duty, engaged me to pay weekly visits to the schools, and to superintend 
the literary concerns of the same ; for which services the Board thought proper to 
compensate me ; but from the views I have already expressed, and which I have had 
ever since tlie second school was establislied, together with a persuasion tliat the m.alc 
teachers have never been so compensated as to induce them to maintain a reputation 
equal to other similar institutions, and knowing that men so situated merely remain in 
such employ to subsist while they are anxiously looking for more favorable opportuni- 
ties, never can feel that energy which is absolutely necessary in teachers of well-con- 
ducted Lancasterian schools ; finding, also, that this state of things was intended to 
continue notwithstanding the discouragement manifested by teachers, arising from 
their vain attempt to procure an increase of pay ; and considering, also, that I was 
employed by gentlemen who viewed the operations of the Bethel Board in an unfavor- 
able light, I considered it my duty to relinquish my membership with the said Bethel 
Board, and to resign the superintendentship of the schools under their care. 

In relation to tlie comparative state of the Bethel Free Schools, and tliose under 
the care of tlie Now York Free-School Society, it may be sufficient to remark, that the 
teachers of the Bethel Schools, Nos. 1 and 2, were both taught the Lanciisterian sys- 
tem in the school under ray care ; and considering the shortness of the time in which 
they have been engaged on the plan, they have shown themselves worthy of encour- 
agement ; and if they had advantages similar to the teachers of the schools belonging 
to the Free-School Society, more good than now does, in my opinion, would result 
from their labors ; but while the teacher of Bethel School No. 1 has to conduct a 
school on a system requiring uniformity in the various exercises, in a room in which it 
is not practicable to observe it, and the teacher of No. 2 has to contend with the pres- 
sure wliieli an insufficient income occasions, evident disadvantages appear in these two 
schools, when contrasted with those of the New York Free-School Society. 

The salaries of the Bethel School teachers .ifc as follows ; 

School No. 1, A. R. Martin, teacher, . . . §300 per annum. 
No. 2, Thos. Fardon, "... 400 " 

---. No. 3, John Missing, " ... 350 " 

The te.ichers of other Lancasterian Schools in New York receive from J'600 to $S00 
and J;l,000 per annum. Charles C. Andrews. 

Albany, March 11. 1824. 




BEXnEL BAPTIST CHnKCH. 63 

permitted to draw from the school fund more than sufficient to pay the sal- 
ary of their teacher ; the privilege not having been granted them of appro- 
priating the surplus. Mr. Chase asserts that Mr. Buyce was employed at a 
salary of $900 per annum ; Mr. BUyce alleges that he was employed at a sal- 
ary of $450 per annum ; * and that, by the request of Johnson Chase, he 
took a draft on the treasury of the church for $900, with a jsrivate under- 
standing with Mr. Chase that he was actually to receive only $430. It will 
be' perceived that, by the operation resorted to by Mr. Chase, the vouchers 
of the treasurer would show that $900 of the public funds went to the pay- 
ment of the teacher, when, in fact, one half of that sum remained in the 
treasury of the church. After the passage of the law allowing the church 
to use the school fund in the erection of buildings, Mr. Chase employed a 
teacher at $500 per annum. It also appears, by the certificate of Mr. Thomas 
Fardon,t a teacher of Bethel Free-School No. 2, that, previously to the de- 
parture of Mr. Chase for Albany, during the session of the Legislature of 
1823, this gentleman proj^osed to Mr. Fardon to present a proposition to the 
b oai-.d of trustees of the church to give him $000 salary, on condition that 
Jd return $200 as a donation. The object of this certifiate was, 
[•, to show that Mr. Chase did. not employ teachers at low salaries, 
Biiscquently, had no surplus for buildings. 

The operation of tlie Betliel schools upon those of the So- 
ciety were twofold. In the first place, they drew away pupils 
from the free schools, and diminished their revenue ; and, in the 
second place, by absorbing so large a share of the school money, 
the balance to bo distributed among the oilier institutions was 

* Ckrtificate of John BtjycE.- — I, John Buvce, of the city of New Yoi-t, do 
certify nnd declare, that I was employed by Johnson Chase as teacher of the Bethel- 
Free-School No. ], in the basement of the Baptist meeting-house at the corner of De- 
lancey street and Chrjstie street, for the years 1820 and 182], at a salary of about 
450 dollars per year. I further certify, that, at the request of the said Johnson Ch:isc, 
I took a draft on the treasurer of said school for 900 dollars, with the private under- 
standing between myself and said Johnson Chase that I was really to receive but about 
450 dollars, and I believe said Johnson Chase knew I was paid but about 450 dollars. 

John Buyce. 

New Yor.K, April Isl, 18:4. 

■f Certificate of Thomas Fardon. — I hereby certify, that, in consideration of fre- 
quent extra services rendered the Bethel Free-School establishment, Mr. Chase prom- 
ised to present me 50 dollars in addition to my salary of 350. Also, that, previous to 
liis dcpai-turo to Albany at the last session of the Legislature, he desired to present a 
proposition to the board to give me 600 dollars per annum, on condition tliat I should 
return 200 as a donation, considering such a contract injudicious and unnecessary. 
However, being frequently entreated, and hoping to secure the 50 dollars (wliich, I 
floated, I should not receive as a present), I acceded, and proposed eommltting it to 
willing ; tlius it remains a verbal contract between Mr. Chase and myself 

TnoHAS Fakdon, Teacher of Bethel Free School A'o. 2. 

New Tobk, Mfjrch 27;/l, 1824. 



I HUIBIIU- 



64 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

materially diminished. But other mischiefs were in the imme- 
diate future. Several religious denominations, observing the 
special privileges thus enjoyed by one of their number, mani- 
fested a disposition -to follow the example, by enlarging their 
schools, and adapting them to the wants of the public by receiv- 
ing children of all denominations. A school of this description 
was opened in Grace Church ; another, for female children, b}' 
the Congregational Church in Chambers street ; and a third, by 
the Dutch Eeformed Church, in large rooms in Harmony Hall, 
at the corner of William and Duane streets. 

The board of trustees of the Free-School Society, in view of 
these proceedings, deemed it their duty to apply to the Legisla- 
ture, not only to repeal the section of the law granting peculiar 
privileges to the Bethel Baptist Church, but for such an amend- 
ment as would restrict the action of religious societies 
true intent of the common school law. The board, i[\k 
adopted the draft of a bill to be submitted to the Legislate 

Previous to making the application to the Legislature, the 
board thought proper to obtain the sanction and aid of the Com- 
mon Council. They were induced to take this course not only 
because the petition of the constituted guardians of the city 
would have great influence with the Legislature, but because 
they were interested in the proper administration of the school 
interests of the city. The application of the trustees to the 
Common Council was referred to a very intelligent committee, 
who heard a full discussion of the question on the part of the 
Society, by several members of the board, and, on the oppo- 
sition, by Kev. Messrs. Mathews and Wainwright. The com- 
mittee reported fully and urgently in favor of the measures 
proposed by the Free-School Society, and recommended the 
adoption of a memorial to the Legislature. The memorial was 
r.nanimously adopted, as follows : 

To the Honorahle the Legislalure of the State of New Yorh, in Senate aiid As- 
aernbly convened : 

The memorial and petition of tlie Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty 
of the city of New York, respectfully represent, that, as the constituted 
guardians of the institutions and general welfare of the ci:y of New York, 
they think themselves called upon to apply to your honorable body for 
certain amendments in the laws relative to the distribution of the common 
school fund in said city. 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH. 65 

By the act of March 12th, 1813, the portion of this fund for the city of 
New York is directed to be distributed and paid to the trustees or treasurers 
of certain benevolent institutions in the act named, and such incorporated 
religious societies as then supported, or should thereafter support, charity 
schools within the said city, who might apply for the same ; and such dis- 
tribution is directed to be made to each school in proportion to the average 
number of children, between the ages of four and fifteen years, taught there- 
in, free of expense. 

By the fourth section, the religious societies in the city of Kew York are 
allowed to participate in the common school fund — a privilege peculiar to 
them, as it is not enjoyed by any religious society in the State out of said 
city. 

Your memorialists respectfully conceive that, at the passage of the sec- 
tion last referred to, it was not contemplated by the Legislature that the 
respective religious societies provided for in the section would engage in the 
business of educating the children of poor people generally, but that, if any 
availed themselves of the privilege granted them, they would do so in the 
establishment of schools for the education of the poor of their resijcctive 
congregationK* This, however, is not the practical construction of the law, 
as some of the religious societies in the city are in the habit not only of 
receiving them in their schools, but of soliciting the attendance of poor 
^children of every denomination and description, and drawing for them from 
the common school fund. It will readily be perceived that this course ia 
dictated by the interest of every religious society which has established a 
school; for the greater the number of scholars, the larger will be the amount 
drawn from the fund. One religious society has already established three 
large schools upon the Lancasterian plan ; and others, stimulated by this 
example, are exerting themselves to increase their schools already estab- 
lished, or have it in contemplation to establish new ones upon an extensive 
scale. 

Your memorialists have witnessed, certainly with great pleasure, the zeal 
of the different religious societies in the city in so important a branch of i 
Christian duty as the education of the jjoor; and if their exertions can be 
continued at the expense of private benevolence, they are worthy of all 
praise. But your memorialists think that large drafts from the common 
school fund, by the religious societies, would be attended with consequences 
much to be deprecated. 

It will be seen, by reference to the act of 1813 above referred to, that a 
number of institutions supporting charity schools in the city of New York, 
besides religious societies, are authorized to draw from the common school 
fund. The principal among these institutions is the Free-School Society. 

This Society has been in active operation for more than eighteen years, 
and your memorialists can bear testimony to the great extent of its utility. 
According to documents which have been made public, more than eighteen 
thousand jjoor and destitute children have been assisted in obtaining a com- 
mon school education. There are now daily taught in these schools about 
four thousand children ; and the good order and wise goTcmraent of these 



<jQ THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

establishments are matters of public notoriety. Such is the organization of 
this Society, that it cannot, in the opinion of your memorialists. Jail to be 
permanently useful. It enrolls among its members gentlemen of almost 
every religious sect known in this country ; it is founded upon principles 
purely catholic, and is allied to no sect or party. Among the trustees who 
now manage its concerns, as well as those who have heretofore had charge 
of them, are numbered some of our most active, munificent, and public- 
spirited citizens, who are and have been willing to devote a portion of their 
time and talents to the single object for which the Society was organized — 
the education of the poor. 

Such being the character of the Free-School Society, your memorialists 
think it permanently entitled to public patronage and support. The schools 
under the charge of the Society are, however, mainly dependent for the 
means necessary for their support upon the common school fund ; the con- 
tinuance and the future establishment of sectarian schools, for the purpose 
of general education, will have the effect to diminish the scholars in attend- 
ance upon the schools of the Society — many having already been induced to 
leave them — and thereby so diminish the amount drawn from the school 
fund as to render it insufficient for the support of the schools ; they will, 
therefore, gradually decrease as the sectarian schools arise, and will finally be 
discontinued. This result the best interests of the poor of this metropolis, 
not only for the present but future generations, are, in the opinion of your 
memorialists, deeply concerned in preventing. Your memorialists do not 
deem it necessary to give, in this place, all the reasons which determine their 
minds to this opinion, but there are a few which they beg leave briefly to 
suggest. 

The question for the determination of the Legislature at this time is pre- 
sumed to be, whether the Free-Schocl Society shall be suftered to continue 
its operations, and have the principal management of gratuitous education 
in the city of New York, or whether the religious societies shall take it out 
of their hands, and the poor be educated in sectarian schools ? 

The duties of religious societies are so numerous, that it is not believed 
that the business of educating the poor, if entrusted to them, would receive 
the attention it deserves, and might be expected, from a society organized 
for no other object. The success of large schools ujion the Lancasterian 
plan cannot be entirely eflV.cted by competent teachers, but depends very 
much upon their being subjected to frequent visitations and examinations 
by persons of intelligence and standing in society. The happy effects of 
such visitations and examinations have been fully exemplified in the schools 
of the Free-School Society. These schools are visited semi-weekly by com- 
mittees of the Board of Trustees, besides being occasionally visited by the 
whole board, consisting of thirty-six members. 

If religious societies are to be the only participators of the school fund 
, for the city of New York, a spirit of rivalry will, it is thought, be excited 
11 between different sects, which will go to disturb the harmony of society, 
|l and which will early infuse strong prejudices in the minds of children 
I taught in the different schools. Moreover, your memorialists would suggest 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHUECH. 67 

/to your honorable body, wliether the school fund of the State is not purely 1 
of a civil character, designed for a civil purpose ; and ■whether, therefore, the 
entnisting of it to religious or ecclesiastical bodies is not a violation of an 
elementary principle in the politics of the State and country. , 

Your memorialists therefore pray, that the law relative to the distribu-i 
tion of the school fund in the city of New York be so amended as to pre- 1 
vent any religious society, entitled to a participation in the fund, from draw- I 
ing for any other than the poor children of their respective congregations. \ 

Your memorialists have prepared the draft of a bill containing this, 
among other amendments, upon which they have not deemed it neccssary^o 
offer any remarks in this place. They have been induced to make this 
application to your honorable body, not only by the deep interest which 
they feel in the establishing a system of gratuitous education which may 
be of permanent utility to the poor of this city, over which they have been 
called to preside, but because it is made their duty to raise, by a tax on the 
citizens, an amount for the purposes of education equal to that received by 
the city from the funds of the State. 

And your memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
WrLLiAM Paulding, Jr., 

Mayor of the City of Neio York. 

[l. s.] By the Common Council, 

J. Morton, Clerh. 

The above memorial, and bill wbieb it recommendecl, were 
unanimonsly adopted by the Corporation of the city of New 
York ; bitt before the memorial was engrossed, a special meeting 
of the board was called, at the request of two highly respectable 
clergymen in the city of New York, to reconsider the subject. 
At this meeting the memorial and bill were again referred to a 
committee, consisting of Aldermen Burtsell, Mann, Taylor, Bol- 
ton, and Hone, who, after having fully investigated the subject, 
reported as follows. This report was adopted by the board with- 
out a dissenting voice : 

Is Common Cod.vcil, Ebruanj 167i, 1S24. 

The committee on applications to the Legislature, to whom was referred 
for reconsideration the law and memorial relating to the free schools in this 
city, beg leave respectfully to report : 

That they have taken into consideration the objections made to the said 
law, and have had the subject fully discussed before your committee by gen- 
tlemen of the highest standing as to character and intelligence, who were 
deeply interested therein ; but, upon mature consideration, your committee 
are of opinion that it would be inexpedient to alter any of the provisions 
of the said law. 

Your committee deem it inexpedient to repeat all the reasons which have 
induced them to recommend an application to the Legislature for the law in 



68 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

its present form, inasmuch as they presume it is a subject in a great degree 
familiar to the board, and as the memorial contaitis the principal reasons, to 
which they respectfully refer. 

Tour committee, however, consider it proper to state, that they believe 
this law to be of the utmost importance to the preservation of the New 
York Free-School Society, and, consequently, highly essential to the welfare 
of the commimity in general ; and that, as this board may be considered the 
constituted guardians of the institutions and general prosperity of this city, 
it does seem, in the opinion of your committee, correct for them to interfere, 
and aid in the preservation of so benevolent and praiseworthy an institu- 
tion. 

The committee, therefore, respectfully recommend the adoption of the 
following resolution : 

licsolved, That the draft of a law and memorial relating to common 
schools in the city of New York, as passed at a former meeting of this 
board, be approved of, and that his Honor the Mayor be requested to au- 
thenticate in the usual form, and forward the same to the Legislature. 

Adopted by the Common Council. 

J. Morton, Cki'h 

This emphatic approval of the course of the Society having 
been obtained, the committee continued its hibors, in the expec- 
tation of being able to secure the desired amendments to the law 
at an early day in tlie then ensuing session. The following is 
the memorial adopted by the Society and presented to the Legis- 
lature during the regular; session of 1S2'± : 

To tJie Honorable the Senate and Asiemhly of the State of New York : 
The Memorial of the Tmstees of the Free-School Society of New York, 

RESPECTrULLT SHEWETH, 

That, by the act of March 12th, 1813, the portion of the common school 
fund for the city of New York is directed to be distributed and paid to the 
trustees of the Free-School Society in the city of New York, and the trus- 
tees or treasurers of the Orphans' Asylum Society, the Society of the Eco- 
nomical School in the city of New York, the African Free-School, and of 
such incorporated religious societies in said city as now support, or hei'cafter 
shall establish, charity schools within the said city, who may apply for the 
same ; and such distribution shall be made to each school in proportion to 
the average number of children between the ages of four and sixteen years 
taught therein the year preceding such distribution, free of expense. 

Your memorialists respectfully conceive that, at the passage of the act 
last referred to, it was not contemplated by the Legislature that any re- 
ligious society would establish a charity school for the instruction of any 
other than the poor of their own congregation. But experience has proved 
that some religious societies in the city of New York do increase their char- 
ity schools, by receiving into them children who do not belong to their 



BETHEL BAPTIST CIIUECH. 69 

respective congregations, and thus draw from the common school fund a 
larger sum thau they -vrould otherwise be entitled to for the support of their 
schools. The operation of this proceeding is, to diminish the number of 
scholars in the schools under the charge of your memorialists, and, conse- 
quently, their proportion of the common school fund, upon which princi- 
pally they are dependent for the support of their establishments. 

Tour memorialists would state, that the Society from which they derive 
their apijointmcnt is perfectly catholic in its principles, pledged to no sect ''-"^v - f «4^ 
or party ; that it is composed of gentlemen of all religious denominations, 
and that there is nothing in the act incorjiorating it, or in the constitution ^ 1- ) 
by which it is governed, which prevents any respectable man from uniting 
himself with it, and having a choice in the selection of its officers and a 
voice in its proceedings ; that the schools are open to the children of every ^ 
denomination ; and that, while the leading priuci"^les of the Christian faith J 
are taught them, the points of collision between the different sects are care- 
fully avoided. 

Inasmuch as the law, in its present shape, has the effect to injure the *x 

establishments under the charge of your memoriaMsts, they I'espectfully 
request that it may be so amended as to prohibit the religious societies in 
the city from drawing from the common school fund for any other than the 1 
poor children of the members of their own societies, or of those who stated- \ 
ly worship with them. Tour memorialists believe that this amendment of 
the existing law is recommended by many considerations of sound policy ; 
and, among these, not the least is, that the interests of the whole Christian 
community will be best promoted by encouraging the principle that each 
religious society i^^ound to provide for the education of their own jjoor 
children, and that^if they attempt to do more, they ought to do it at their 
own expense, and not to look to the funds of the State for assistance. 

Leonakd Bleeckee, Vice-President, [l. s.] 

LrnDLEY MuHRAT, Secretary. 

January 2'ithy 192-4. 

We, the undersigned, unite with the trustees of the New Tork Free- 
School Society in their memorial to the Legislature, requesting that the 
respective religious societies in the city of New Tork be restricted, in draw- 
ing from the common school fund, to the poor children of their own congre- 
gation instructed by them. 

In behalf of the trustees of the Methodist Episcojial Church in the city 
of New Tork. 

Joseph Smith, President ^rro tern. [l. s.] 

George Sucklet, Secretary. 

January i\sl, 1824. 

Certificates similar to the above, signed by the following per- 
sons, were placed in the hands of the Committee of Colleges, 
Academies, and Common Schools : 

Archibald Maclay, pastor of the Baptist Church in MulbeiTy street. 

John "Williams, pastor of the Baptist Church in Oliver street. 



70 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

William McMorrat, president, and Peter Neepus, secretary, of the 
consistory of the Reformed Dutch Church in Market street. 

Thomas McAulby, pastor, S. Wheeler, President of the Board of Trus- 
tees of Rutgers street Church. 

Ward Stafford, pastor of the Bowery Presbyterian Church. In be- 
half of the trustees, Richard Cook. 

William Pattox, pastor, Reuben MnssoN, Chairman of the Board of 
Trustees of Central Presbyterian Church, Broome street. 

Peter Bomnet, president, Stephen Lockwood, clerlj, of the Board of 
Trustees of the Brick Presbyterian Church. 
Gardiner Spring, pastor of said church. 

We, the undersigned, unite with the trustees of the New York Free- 
School Society in their memorial to the Legislature, requesting that the 
respective religious societies in the city of New York be restricted, in draw- 
ing from the common school fund, to the poor children of their own congre- 
gations instructed by them. 

Petisr jVIcCartee, 
John Johnston, 
John McGregor, Jr., 
Thomas Supfekn, 
Samuel Thompson, 
Trustees of the Presbyterian Church in Murray street, under the charge of 
the Rev. W. D. Snodgrass. 

Januar}/. 

A number of respectable clergymen of the Metliodist Epis- 
copal Church, signed a certificate similar to the foregoing. 

The Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools, 
to which the several memorials were referred, submitted a report 
and bill, which embodied the provisions of the bill drafted by 
the Society, The report is as follows : 

REPORT OF TUE COMMITTEE OF THE ASSEMBLY. 

Mr. Gardiner, from the Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common 
Schools, to whom was referred the memorial of the Mayor, Aldermen, and 
Commonalty of the city of New York, praying for an alteration in the law 
relative to the distribution of the common school fund in said city, together 
with the draft of an act prepared by the Corporation — also the memorial of 
the Free-School Society of said city — reported, that the act proposed by the 
Corporation of said city contains a revision of all the laws at present in 
force relative to the distribution of the common school fund in said city ; 
that the only material alteration which it proposes in existing laws is, that 
each religious society in said city which now supports, or hereafter may 
establish, charity schools, may be restricted, in drawing fronj the common 
school fund, to the children of the parents or guardians who statedly wor- 
ship with such society. 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHUKCH. 71 

From the documents laid before your committee, it appears tliat the 
propriety of making the proposed alteration has been fully discussed by 
gentlemen of high standing in the city of New York, favorable to, and 
opposed to, the alteration, before an intelligent committee of the Corpora- 
tion, who reported in favor of it, which report was unanimously adopted by 
the board. 

It further appears, by the memorial of the Corporation, that the passage 
of the proposed act is considered by that body as necessary to the presei-va- 
tion of the Free-School Society of New York — an institution which, the 
memorialists represent, has been in operation more than eighteen years, and 
has assisted more than 18,000 poor and destitute children in obtaining a 
common school education ; that there are now daily taught, in the schools 
under the charge of the Society, more than 4,000 children, and that the 
good order and wise government of the establishments are matters of pub- 
lic notoriety. It is further stated in the memorial, that this institution is 
composed of gentlemen of all religious denominations ; that it is allied to 
no sect or party, but pursues its oijerations upon principles purely catholic. 
The Corporation further reiDresent that the consequence of destroying this 
Society will be, that the jjoor children of New York will be educated in 
sectarian schools. It appears, by the last annual report of the Secretary of 
State, the acting superintendent of common schools, " that he is persuaded 
that some legislative remedy is necessary, to continue in full and vigorous 
operation this institution, which is certainly one of the noblest and most 
useful in the State — an institution which has certainly contributed more to 
the education of poor children, and the extirpation of vice and immorality, 
than any other of the numerous valuable ones which it contains." 

The memorial of the trustees of the Free-School Society also prays, that 
the law be so amended as to limit the religious societies in said city, in 
drawing from the common school fund, to the poor children of the mem- 
bers of their own societies, or of those who statedly worship with tbem. 

Certificates of concurrence in the prayer of the last-mentioned memorial, 
signed by the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, tv,-o highly re- 
spectable pastors of Baptist Churches, the consistory of a Reformed Dutch 
Church, and the pastor and trustees of the Presbyterian Churches in said 
city, have also been laid before the committee. 

These memorials were presented to the honorable the Assembly on the4 
24th day of February ultimo, but no remonstrance has as yet appeared ; and 
your committee have not deemed themselves justified in waiting any longer 
in expectation of such remonstrance, especially as it has been represented to 
them that the passage of the act the jiresent session is a matter of great 
public importance. 

Your committee have examined the several acts relative to the Free- 
School Society of New York, and find it to be a corporation limited to 
$10.(100 income from its real and personal estate ; that the Mayor, Recorder, 
Aldermen, and Assistants of said city are ex-officio members of said corpora- 
tion, and that it is made the duty of the trustees of said corporation to 
report annually to the general meeting of the said corporation, in May in 



72 THE PUELIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

eact year, " a particular account of the state of the school, or schools, under 
their care, and of the moneys received and expended by them during the 
year, so as to exhibit a full and perfect statement of the properties, funds, 
and affaii's of said corporation." 
"^ The committee are satisfied that the trustees of the Society have faith- 

fully complied -n-ith this requisition of the act, and that the Society Tvere 
the first to introduce in this country the Lancasterian system of education, 
and that they have brought this system to a high degree of perfection in 
their schools. 

A number of reasons offered in favor of the passage of this act are, how- 
ever, founded upon local peculiarities, with which a majority of your com- 
mittee have not an intimate acquaintance ; but it appears that these have 
been fully considered by the Corporation of the city of New York, who, 
from their particular knowledge of the interests and feelings of the city, are 
enabled to give them due weight, and who were obviously much interested 
in the question, as they are compelled by law to raise, by a tax on the citi- 
zens, an amount for the support of common schools equal to that received 
from the school fund of the State. Tour committee, therefore, think that 
the decision of the Coi-poration on this subject is entitled to the respectful 
consideration of the Legislature. 

There is, however, one general principle connected with this subject, of 
no ordinary magnitude, to which the committee would beg leave to call the 
attention of the House. 
Au ^ It appears that the city of New York is the only part of the State where 

. )fo I ^ the school fund is at all subject to the control of religious societies. This 
fund is considered, by your committee, purely of a civil character, and there- 
fore it never ought, in their opinion, to pass into the hands of any coi-jjora- 
tion or set of men who are not diretly amenable to the constituted civil 
authorities of the Government, and bound to report their proceedings to the 
public. Your committee forbear, in this place, to enter fully into this 
branch of the subject ; but they respectfully submit, whether it is not a vio- 
lation of a fundamental principle of our legislation, to allow the funds of 
the State, raised by a tax on the citizens, designed for civil purposes, to be 
subject to the control of any religious corporation. It is not requested by 
the memorialists, however, that the religious corjiorations should be ex- 
cluded entirely from a participation in the school fund ; and perhaps it 
would not be expedient thus to exclude them at this time. 

Your committee, therefore, ask leave to introduce a bill accordingly. 

Tlie Legislature adjourned without enacting any law aifect- 
ing the interests of the Free-School Society. The questions in- 
volved, and the high respectability of the influence brought to 
bear in favor of a coutinuauce of tlie privilege granted to tlie 
Bethel schools, made an immediate revision of the statute im- 
practicable. Time was required for a full investigation of the 
whole matter, and the session closed without any other action 



f 



BETHEL BAPTIST CnUECH. 73 

than the reception of the memorials, the reports of committees, 
the discussions had in the Legislature, and the hearing of the 
opposing parties before the legislative committees. 

The committee of the Society having the care of this impor- 
tant interest was continued, and, at the meeting of the trustees 
held on the 6th of August following, they submitted a brief re- 
port of their progress, which exhibits the liberality and the dis- 
interested labors of the gentlemen named, in a manner worthy. 
of record : 

The Committee on the Scliool Fund Law, in addition to what they have 
heretofore reported, state, that they have received from "William Howard, 
as a donation toward defraying the expenses of our agents at Albany, one 
liundred dollars, which, at his request, has been paid to Lindley Murray and 
Joseph Griunell, in part of their expenses, who declined receiving any com- 
pensation out of the funds of the Society for their time, expenses, and labo- 
rious services during the last session of the Legislature. 

They likewise mention, that the institution owes much to Mr. John 
Targee, for his ready and active exertions on their behalf during the above 
period, which were gratuitously rendered, from a thorough conviction that 
our application was made from the purest motives, and with the sole view 
to benefit the children of the lowest class of the community. 

The committee recommend that John Targee be elected a member of 
this Society. 

They further state, that they have appointed Rensselaer Havens, Joseph 
Grinnell, Lindley Murray, and Alderman Cowdrey, agents to attend the 
Legislature at the approaching session, to effect (if possible) the passage of 
the law which, for want of time, was laid over in April last. 

On behalf of the committee, 

Leonard Bleecker, Chairman. 

New Yobk, July 23, 1824. 

During the interval between the sessions of the Legislature, 
overtures were made by the committee of the Society to secure 
an amicable adjustment with the Bethel Church, but without 
effeethig the object. The extra session, therefore, found the case 
still open for settlement by the Legislature iipon the merits of 
the question as it should come before that body. 

The third meeting (an extra session) of the forty-seventh ses- 
sion of the Legislature commenced on the 2d of November ; 
and, at an early day, the committee proceeded to Albany to pro- 
tect and advocate the interests and claims of the Society. A 
mtmber of gentlemen also appeared at the Capital in opposition 
to the bill, among whom were Kev. Drs. Milnor and Mathews, 



74 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Rev. Mr. Onderdonlc, Eev. M. Huttoi), who was connected with 
Dr. Mathews' congregation, Eev. Johnson Chase, and others. 

At the instigation, it was generally understood, of Eev. Mr. 
Onderdonk, a motion was made in the Senate by Senator Liv- 
ingston, that the Committee of the Whole be discharged from 
the further consideration of the bill, with a view to refer it 
again to a select committee. This motion prevailed, and the 
committee appointed consisted of Senators Livingston, Cramer, 
Ward, Burt, and Gardiner. This committee subsequently heard 
another full discussion of the subject by Iliram Ketchura, Esq., 
on the part of the Public School Society, and Messis. Onder- 
donk and Chase in opposition, who, while they disagreed with 
each other as to the grounds of disaffection, were equally op- 
posed to the bill. The committee were likewise divided in opin- 
ion upon the propriety of the passage of the bill as it (iarae from 
the Assembly, and it was therefore agreed by the committee of 
the Senate that the bill should be so amended as to vest in the Cor- 
poration of the city the power of distributing the school money 
in such manner as they in their wisdom should think proper. 

The committee of the Society, when consulted upon the 
amendment, replied, that they had no instructions from their 
constituents as to the acceptance of such a proposition ; but, 
upon consultation with the president of the Society (De Wirr 
Clinton), it was deemed that they would not be warranted in an 
opposition which would embarrass the passage of the bill, and 
they accordingly gave their assent to the proposed amendment. 
The opponents of the bill waived their objections, and accepted 
the proposition as submitted by the committee, which, being 
modified by Senator Jordan, who was the author of the section 
making remuneration to the Eethel Church, was adopted by the 
Senate. The Assembly, without any discussion, unanimously 
accepted the amendment, and the bill was passed by that body, 
November 19, and, having received the signature of the Gov- 
ernor, it became a law. 

The special provisions of the act which related to the ques- 
tions immediately at issue were the following : 

Ey section 3, the Corporation was directed to name the com- 
missioners (one for each of the ten wards into which the city was 
then divided) in January, 1825, and once in every three years 
thereafter. 



BETHEL BAPTIST CHUECH. 75 

Bj section 4, the Corporation, in common council convened, 
was directed to designate, at least once in tliree years, the schools 
which shonld receive school moneys. 

■ The act also recited a preamble, that, whereas " the trustees 
of the Bethel Baptist Clnii'ch, in the city of New York, had ex- 
pended moneys in erecting a commodious school-house in Eliza- 
beth street," and which property, under the provisions of the 
act, might become in part useless to them, the Superintendent 
of Common Schools was authorized to appoint appraisers, who 
should estimate the damage to the trustees, and which shonld be 
repaid out of the school moneys,- in four equal anniial pay- 
ments. 

The exciting controversy being thus terminated, the trustees 
of the Bethel schools maintained them until the inexpediency of 
their longer continuance became too evident to be disregarded, 
and they were suspended. 

The distribution of the school fund being thus committed by 
the new law to the hands of the Common Council, the trustees 
proceeded to mature a systematic j^lan for the enlargement and 
expansion of their scheme of instruction, and, at their meeting 
in December, 1824, entrusted the matter to a committee, con- 
sisting of Stephen Allen, Joseph Grinnell, Lindley Murray, 
Robert C. Cornell, Benjamin Clark, James Palmer, and Isaac 
Collins. The plans matured and submitted in this report of the 
committee comprehended an enlarged scheme for the reorganiza- 
tion of the system. 



76 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER IV. 

HISTORY FROM 1822 TO 1826. 

The Annual Meeting — School-IIouse No. 5 — Annual Exhibit and Expenses for 1822 — 
Systematic Visitation — " Sections " — No. 5 Opened — Real Estate — Building Fund 
— Corporal Punishment — Hiram Ketchum — New School Law — Application to the 
Legislature — Committee of Ladies for Visiting Girls' Schools — School Sections 
Appointed — School at Bellevue Hospital — No. 6 — Visit of the Common Council 
to the Schools — Resolutions — Pay System — The School Fund Controversy — The 
Museum — Mrs. Scudder — Charles Picton Resigns, and Returns to England — Gen- 
eral La Fayette — Visit to New York — Inspection of the Schools — The New 
School Law — New Plans — The Pay System — The Common Council — Plans Ap- 
proved — Proceedings in the Legislature — The New Law — Name of the Society 
Changed — " The Public School Society " — Reorganization and Measures. 

The contest whicli opened witli the year 1822 was the first 
of the encounters with religious denominations which subse- 
quently formed so prominent a feature in the proceedings of the 
Society^. The aim of the directors of the institution had always 
been to respect and preserve the rights of all religious denomi- 
nations, and to pay equal deference to the rights of conscience 
of all portions of the community, at the same time that they 
aimed to inculcate those fundamental ideas of religion and mor- 
als, without which civilized men present a condition which 
differs from that of the savage merely in its artificial surround- 
ings, and the tinsel and splendor of a more polished social life. 
The pressure of sectarian influence, and the selfishness of secta- 
rian acquisitiveness, led to the adoption of unworthy and repre- 
hensible means in order to secure the public support of church 
schools. The question, which had assumed a threatening appear- 
ance for some time, had finally taken, a definite form in the dis- 
cussion relative to the new school-site in Mott street, and the 
rivalry on the part of the trustees of the Bethel Church to 
secure all the advantages which had been granted them by the 
act of the Legislature in their favor. Tliis controversy has be^n 
fully reviewed in the preceding chapter. 



NEW SCHOOL IN MOTT STREET. 77 

The month of May, which closed the seventeenth year of the 
existence of the Society, was marked by the usual annual meet- 
ings of the board, and the election of additional trustees. The 
special business which received attention, in connection with the 
working of the system, was that of approving the plans and esti- 
mates for the new school-building in Mott street, the purchase 
of the lots of ground, and other details essential to the carrying 
out of that measiu'e. 

The average number of pupils in attendance at all the * 
schools, as appears by the exhibit of the trustees, was 3,412 ; 
and the expenses of the Society amounted, for the year, to 
$14,440. There was a debt of $6,000, secured by mortgage on 
school property, and a temporary loan of $2,500 on the obliga- 
tions of the Society. 

The advantage of a systematic visitation of the schools had 
been long apparent to the board ; and as the number of schools 
was increasing, and a proper division of labor was requisite to 
prevent unnecessary confusion in the discharge of these duties, 
an amendment to the by-laws was proposed, by which a classifi- 
cation of the trustees should be made for the management of the 
schools. The proposition was referred to a committee, who re- 
ported a plan for the division of the members of the board into 
" sections," for the care of the respective schools. These " sec- 
tions " were reqnu'ed to make monthly reports to the board. 
Tlie recommendations of the report were substantially adopted. 

The new school in Mott street, No. 5, was completed and j 
ready for occupancy in the month of October, and on the 28th ! 
of that month it was opened, Avith 111 boys ; the girls' school \ 
commencuig on the 31st, with 49 scholars. Joseph Belden was I 
appointed teaclier in the boys' school, and Maet Otis in the | 
girls' school. 

The erection of the building called for the expenditure of 
$9,591.09 ; to meet which, a loan of $10,000 had been obtained 
of Thomas Collins, at 6 per cent, per annum, and mortgages for 
$5,000 each had been given upon No. 4, in Rivington street, and 
No. 5, in Mott street. 

Tliis school affords one of the illustrations of the economy 
and integrity with wliich the contracts of the Society were exe- 
cuted, the cost of the building complete differing from the esti- 
mates only a trifling sum, including charges for " extra work." 



78 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



The valuation of the real estate of the Society, at the close 
of 1S22, was as follows : 



School ISTo. 1, and lots, . 


. $20,000 


No. 2, • 


10,000 


No. 3, 


. 11,000 


No. 4, 


9,000 


No. 5, . . . 


. 12,000 


Vacant lots in Hudson street, 


2,000 


School furniture in No. 1, 


1,000 


No. 2, . 


800 


No. 3, . 


1,100 


" " No. 4, . 


1,100 


" " No. 5, . 


1,000 



Total, . . . SG8,000 

From this amount, hj deducting a mortgage of $6,000 on 
School No. 3, and $5,000 each on Nos. 4 and 5, making, in all, 
$16,000, we have the sum of $52,000 as the amount of property 
held by the Society beyond its liabilities. 

In accordance with the direction of the board in the early 
jiart of the year, the proposition to raise a building fund, by 
special additional tax, was renewed, and on the 13th of Decem- 
ber the subject was referred to a committee, consisting of Robert 
C. Cornell, Benjamin Clai'k, and Eieazer Lord. 

At the meeting of the board held on the 10th of January, 
1823, a resolution was adopted, ordering corporal punishment 
in the schools to be discontinued, prohibiting entirely the use of 
the rattan, and permitting only the use of a leather strap in ex- 
treme cases — the strap to be applied only to the hand of the 
refractory scholar. This was a step in a reform which became, 
at a later period, a marked feature in the administration of the 
schools. 

The Legislature of the State was at this time in session, and 
active measures were diligently pressed forward to secure the 
repeal of the law granting special privileges to the Bethel school. 
The expediency of having a competent pleader and representa- 
tive to present the views and interests of the Society to the 
Legislature was felt very sensibly ; and, at the meeting of the 
board on the ISth of February, 1823, IIieam Ketchuji, Esq., 



THE SCHOOL FUND. 79 

was elected a inember, and immediately appointed to proceed to 
Albany to attend to the various measures which affected the 
institution, and obtain, if possible, the repeal of the obnoxious 
clause. 

A committee was appointed, on the 1th of February, to re- 
port the draft of a new law relative to the distribution of the 
scliool fund — the committee being conij^osed of Benjamin Clark, 
Eobert C. Cornell, John K. Hurd, Joseph Grinnell, and Lindley 
Murray. Tliis committee rejDortod on the 18th of the sanie 
month, and their report was cominitted to Hiram Xetclnim, 
Gideon Lee, John Kathbone, Jr., and Eensselaer Havens, to 
revise and lay before the Legislature. The committee first 
appointed reported also- a bi-ief memorial to that body, which, 
with other similar papers, form a part of the official action of 
the Society with regard to the distribution of the s-cliool moneys 
to sectarian and rival establishments. The memorial was adopt- 
ed, as follows : 

To tlie Honorable the Senate and AssemUy of the State of New Tori; : 

Tour memorialists, the trustees of the Free-School Society of Kew York, 
being deeply interested in the distribution of the common school fund in 
the city and county of New Yoi'k, respectfully suggest that a revision of the 
existing laws on that subject for this city and county would, in their opin- 
ion, tend to promote the wise and benevolent intentions of the Legislature 
in making the liberal appropriations they have, for the education of poor 
children, and that the following regulations would be highly beneficial, 
viz. : 

That each institution or society that receives of the common school fund 
shall receive in proportion to the average number of scholars that actually 
attend their schools each year, which number shall he ascertainable by the 
teachers keeping a record of the number of scholars that attend each school- 
time throughout the year, and the whole number of scholars thus recorded 
in a year shall be divided by the number of school-times, and this result 
shall be considered as the average number of scliolars that have attended 
for a year. 

That each institution or society (except the New York Free-School So- 
ciety) who may receive of the common school fund shall expend the same in 
the payment of teachers, purchase of fuel and stationery, and for no other 
purpose whatever ; and, should they have any balance unexpendecl at the 
close of a year, they shall pay it to the commissioners of the common school 
fund for the city and county of New York, to be added to the sum to be 
divided the ensuing year. 

Your memorialists respectfully refer to the annexed bill on this subject, 
embracing the above provisions, and some others of imijortauce, for the 



80 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

detail of their views ; and, confiding in your wishes to extend the blessing 
of education to the greatest j)ossible number, we earnestly request that you 
will take this subject into your wise consideration, and, if consistent with 
your views, adopt the annexed bill as a law, which, we sincerely believe, 
would greatly increase the benefit arising from the common school fund. 

The delegates of the Society who visited Albany presented 
the memorial and draft of the proposed law, which M'cre referred 
to the special committee ou the matter of the repeal of the 
Bethel school privileges. The House adopted a resohition call- 
ing for information relative to schools in the city, and further 
action was accordingly postponed until the following session. 
The subsequent proceedings were so intimately involved with the 
Bethel school question, that they have been detailed in the pre- 
ceding cliapter. 

The board deemed it essential to the success and discipline of 
the schools for girls, that they should receive the benefit of su- 
pervision on the part of intelligent and philanthropic women ; 
and, after some care had been given to the selection of proper 
female visitors at the meeting of the board on the 4th of April 
(1823), the following resolution was adopted : 

Resolved, That the secretary te requested to send a written invitation to 
the following ladies to visit the several female schools under the care of this 
board, for the purpose of inspecting those schools and the improvement of 
the girls, and to suggest quarterly, by a report to the trustees, their opinion 
of the state of those schools, and any change they may think advantageous 
in the exercises, &c. 

Committee for No. 1 : Sirs. John E. Hyde, Havens, Lucy Eddy, Grace 
Bleecker, Mary Bleeckcr, Mrs. Najah Taylor. 

Committee for No. 2 : 6arah Grinnell, Eliza Bowne, Hester Hussey, 
Sarah Bowne, Sarah Crocker, Mary Hicks, Anna Mott, Ann Comstock. 

Committee for No. 3 : Mrs. Wm. Torrey, Mrs. T. Whittemore, Mrs. 
Wm. -Torrey, Jr., Mrs. Pringle, Mrs. Bayard, Miss Nichols, Mrs. Peters, Mrs. 
Weeks, Mrs. Oakley, Mrs. Van Buren, Mrs. Meigs. 

Committee for No. 4 : Mrs. Covell, Armenia Palmer. 

Co5nTTEE FOR No. 6 : Elizabeth Pearsall, Sarah Collins, Sarah Mintum, 
Mary Minturn, Jane Anthon, Louisa Anthon, Hannah Shotwell, Margaret 
Dudley, Martha Clarke. 

In the month of Jime, after the annual elect 'on of officers 
for the year, the proposition to classify the trustees as special 
sections for the several schools was adopted, and the first classifi- 
cation was made, as follows : 



SCHOOL AT BELLEVUE HOSPITAL. > 81 

Sec. No. 1 : Benjamin Clarke, John E. Ilyrle, Robert C. Cornell, Najah 
Taylor, Leonard Bleecker, Charles G. Haines. 

Sec. No. 2 : John L. Bowne, Joseph Grinnell, Philetus Havens, Samuel 
Wood, David Lyon, Hiram Ketchum. 

Sec. No. 3 : William Torrey, Eleazer Lord, Samuel Boyd, Ezra Weeks, 
Rensselaer Havens, WiUiam Howard, John Rathbone, Jr. 

Sec. No. 4 : James Olmstead, James Palmer, Gideon Lee, George T. 
Trimble, Solomon Wheeler, John R. Hurd, Wm. T. Slocum. 

Sec. No. 5 : John Slidell, Isaac Collins, Lindley Murray, Robert F. Mott, 
Israel Dean. 

At the meeting at which the above classification was adopt- 
ed, a pi'oposition was offered and entertained relative to the 
organization of a school for the poor children at what was tlien 
known as the Bellevue Hospital. The proposition was referred 
to Isaac Collins and Kensselaer Havens, who reported at the 
next meeting that the Mayor, Commissioners, and Superintend- 
ent of the Almshouse unanimously regarded the enterprise with 
favor. A draft of a memorial relative to the proceeding was 
reported by the committee, adopted by the board, and Samuel 
Boyd being added to the committee, they were directed to lay it 
before the Common Council. On the 1st of August, the com- 
mittee reported that the memorial had been received by the Cor- 
poration and referred to a committee, of M'hich Samuel Cowdrey 
was Chairman, who strongly recommended the plan for a school 
at Bellevue. The commissioners were authorized to fit up appro- 
priate apartments, and make the requisite arrangements for the 
uew institution. The commissioners accordingly appropriated a 
spacious hall, 95 by 21 feet, on the second story of a large brick 
building attached to the Almshouse ; and the room having been 
furnished and fitted up for school purposes, the registry of pupils 
was proceeded with, and, on the 27th of October, School Ko. 6 
was opened, with over 200 pupils, under the temporary charge 
of Shepheed JonxsoN, of No. 3, and several experienced moni- 
tors drafted from other schools for the purpose. Dr. Charles 
Belden was appointed teacher, and, on the 31st of the month, 
entered upon his duties. On the 4th of November, 270 pupils 
were present. 

The attendance at all the schools, as appears by the annual 
exhibit for the year, was 4,090. 

The Mayor and members of the Common Council having 
been invited to visit the schools of the Society and attend the 
6 



82 THE ruELic 'school society. 

examinations and public exercises, tLose gentlemen on a number 
of occasions complied with the invitations, and the result of 
their visits was so satisfactory, that a resolution was introduced 
by Mr. Cowdrey, and unanimously adopted, in M'hicli a well- 
merited compliment was paid to the system. The extract from 
the proceedings of the Common Council is as follows : 

In Coumoh CorNCiL, October 27, 1823. 

Mr. Cowdrey presented the following preamble and resolutions, which 
were unanimously adopted : 

The Common Council, having attended the examination of the several 
free schools iu the city, pursuant to the invitation of the Trustees of the 
New York Free-School Society, and having observed the great improvement 
made by the children in the diflferent branches of useful knowledge, and, at 
.the same time, the exemplary attention that is paid in these scliools to neat- 
ness and cleanliness in the apartments, and regularity in the deportment and 
habits of the children, the zeal with which the teachers of both sexes per- 
form their several duties, and the benevolence and public sjiirit of the trus- 
tees, by which they are prompted to bestow much of their time and to 
employ their best talents in so important a science to this interesting por- 
tion of the rising generation, 

Eesolmd, That the thanks of this board, in behalf of the citizens and 
inhabitants of this city, are due, and are hereby tendered, to the said trus- 
tees and teacbers, for their labors in this department of public duty, and the 
success which has so evidently attended their laudable exertions. 
[Copy from the minutes.] 

J. Morton, Clerh. 

At the meeting held in July, the question of establishing a 
rate of charges for tuition, to be paid by those who desired to do 
so, Avas pressed upon the attention of tlie board. It was stated 
that a considerable number of respectable citizens of the middle 
class would send their children to the' schools of tlie Society, 
were it not for the fact that they were free, and therefore re- 
garded' only as charity schools for jwor children. It was expect- 
ed that a moderate rate of charge could bo adopted without cre- 
ating any unpleasant discrimination as to pay or charity scholars, 
and a committee was appointed to report upon the question. 
The gentlemen selected for the purpose were Isaac Collins, 
Hiram Ketchum, Eobert F. Mott, E. C. Cornell, and John K. 
Hurd. The report was not presented for many months, and will 
be noticed in its appropriate place. 

Sajiuel W. Seton was elected a trustee on the 3d of Octo- 
iber, 1823. 



EPISODE IN SCHOOL LIFE. . «,> 

Tlie approaching session of tlic Legislature made it necessary 
that measures should be taken to present the interests of the 
institution on the general issue, but particularly in relation to 
the special legislation for the Bethel school. The memorials 
which had been presented to the Legislature at the previous ses- 
sion, with an address prepared and printed by a committee, 
under the direction of the board, were circulated, and copies for- 
warded to Albany for the members of the Legislature. Benja- 
min Clark, Hiram Ketchum, Samuel Boyd, and Lindley Murray 
were named as a committee to draft a bill to be submitted to the 
Legislature for their approval. The committee reported the 
draft of a law for the general purposes of the Society, and also a 
draft of a special law to limit the privileges of religious socie- 
ties. 

The year 1824 accordingly opened with an active renewal of 
the important controversy relative to the distribution of the 
school fimd. The delegates to Albany were opposed by able 
and influential disputants, who closely contested the ground 
taken by the board. In February, however, a special meeting 
was held, at the call of the committee, when a proposition was 
submitted, in order to meet the objection which was so violently 
urged against the character of the Society, as being a " monop- 
oly" and " a close corporation." By this scheme the property 
of the Society should be inalienably devoted to school purposes, 
and the schools should be under the supervision of the Common 
Council, and subject to their control. After a protracted discus-' 
sion, the board adjourned, and reassembled the next day, when 
the following resolution was adopted : 

Resolved, That this board will, on belialf of the Society, consent to the 
passage of a law that shall render the property of this institution inalien- 
able, and sacredly pledged for the avowed objects of the institution, and 
place the schools under the general supervision of the Common Council; 
and they will most cheerfully unite with their fellow-citizens in any general 
plan for the extension of the monitorial system. 

An interesting episode in school life was occasioned, in the 
spring of this year, by the liberality of Mrs. Scudder, the widow 
of John Scudder, the former proprietor of the American Mu- 
seum, who generously presented four hundred tickets of admis- 
sion to the Museum for distribution to the meritorious pupils of 



84 THE PUBLIC SCUOOL SOCIETY. 

the schools. The schools were estimated, and an apportionment 
of one ticket to everj' forty-hve scholars was decided upon, the 
time of admission being the Saturday afternoon of each week, 
when the successful scholars were accompanied by teachers, and 
visited the rooms of the Museum. This amusement served as a 
fine stimulus to the pupils, who industriously competed with 
each other for the prize. 

On the 30th of April, Cuaeles Picton, the English teacher 
who had charge of No. 4, resigned his post in order to return to 
England. He had won a high reputation for his qualifications 
and character, and bore, on his return to his native land, the 
confidence and approbation of tlie board. 

The average attendance had increased to 5,209, being a gain 
of 419 over the preceding year. 

The months of August and September, 1824, were rendered 
important and interesting to the American people by the visit 
of General La Fayette to this country. His presence in New 
York created great enthusiasm, and a committee of the Common 
Council was appointed to make the arrangements for the civic 
reception and complimentary tributes of respect from the peo- 
ple. This committee conferred with a committee of the board, 
and preparations were made for an exhibition and review, in the 
Park, of the pupils of the free schools in the presence of the dis- 
tinguished guest. General La Fayette was also invited to visit 
the schools, with which invitation he afterwards complied, in- 
cluding in his visits the colored school of the Manumission Soci- 
ety, subsequently incorporated with the free schools. 

The 10th of September was appointed for the principal occa- 
sion, and, on the morning of that day. General La Fayette visit- 
ed No. 3, where many of the ofiicers and trustees were assembled 
to receive him. After exercises of the kind iisual at an exami- 
nation, an address was made by one of the pupils, and a certifi- 
cate of membership was presented to him by the Yice-President, 
accompanied with some pertinent remarks. 

At 3 o'clock [as is stated in the report of the committee], the children 
of the several schools (except No. 6) were collected in the Park, and 
arranged in two double lines around the walk nest the fence, which was 
roped in for the occasion. The columns stood facing each other, with a 
space between them, through which the General was conducted by the com- 
mittee and Mayor, and introduced to each of the teachers. The children, as 



EEPOET ON THE SCHOOL FUND. 85 

he passed, expressed their feelings hy the. loud and continued cla25ping of 
hands. The General then took a stand in front of the City Hall, and the 
scholars were marched in review before him as they passed out of the Park. 
There were about five hundred boys and two hundred girls present at No. 
3, and three thousand of both sexes in the Park. In conclusion, the com- 
mittee have much pleasure in stating their belief that the proceedings of 
the day were witnessed by the General, and by thousands of our citizens, 
with peculiar interest, and that all were gratified by an exhibition of the 
state and magnitude of an institution whose moral and religious influence 
must be acknowledged, and whose political bearing is expressed in the 
motto on one of the banners used on this occasion — " Education is the Basis 
of Free Government." 

The Legislature of the State having passed the bill to impose 
the duty of designating the institutions which should participate 
in the distribution of school moneys upon the Common Council 
of the city, the delegates to Albany reported the facts to the 
board in December, and a committee was ajjpointed to report 
upon such plans for a reorganization of the system as would 
rnake it more efficient, popular, and useful. Messrs. Stephen 
Allen, Joseph Grinnell, Lindley Murray, Robert C. Cornell, 
Benjamin Clart, James Palmer, and Isaac Collins, were named 
for the purpose. 

The committee promptly proceeded with their labors, and in 
January, 1825, made a long report, which was printed, and dis- 
tributed among the trustees. It was made the subject of ear- 
nest discussion at regular and special meetings, and a committee 
was appointed to confer with the Law Committee of the Corpo- 
ration ; but as that committee declined to give any opinion with- 
out a specific proposition from the Society, the consideration of 
the report by the trustees was continued. The Law Committee 
having called a meeting of all interested in the schools partici- 
pating in the school moneys, to be held on the 7th of March, the 
report was again taken from the table at the meeting on the 4th 
of that month, and adopted. It is valuable not merely for its 
facts, but because it became the basis of the subsequent reorgan- 
ization of the Society, and is deemed worthy of republication. 

REPOKT OP A COimiTTEE OP THE TRtJSTEES OF THE FREE-SCHOOL SOCIETY 
OJf THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE COMMON SCHOOL FtrND. 

The committee to whom was referred the new law relative to the com- 
mon school fund, respectfully report : 

That they have given the subject that consideration which its importance 



86 THE PUBLIC SCUOOL SOCIETY. 

seemed to demand, aud were early led to believe that, as the portion of this 
fund for the city is placed by the new law at the disposition of the Common 
Council, it would be best to examine the whole system of common school 
education in this city, in order that a plan may be devised best calculated 
to economize aud produce tlie greatest good from this noble fuud. In pur- 
suing this examination, the committee have thought it right to extend their 
views beyond those who are considered the proper objects of gratuitous 
instruction, and to include those children who attend the minor aud inferior 
pay schools. 

Some of tlie defects in the present system of elementary education 
• among the lower and poorer classes of society may be stated as follows : 

1st. Of the pricate pay schools. 

Of the four hundred schools which have been ascertained to be in opera- 
tion in this city, a large number are kept in small rooms, without suificient 
light or ventilation, or a due regard to cleanliness — ^requisites so essential to 
the health aud comfort of youth; — and which schools are, in numerous in- 
stances, taught by persons without the necessary qualifications for the dis- 
charge of their important trusts, aud, in some cases, even of doubtful mor- 
als. On such teachers is the hard-earned money of our industrious citizens 
too often wasted, and — what is of much greater consequence — in such schools 
is the invaluable time of their offspring irretrievably lost. 

The great variety of plans pursued in the different schools, and the vari- 
ous and dissimilar school-books used in them, retards the progress of, and 
increases the expense to, children removed from one to another. 

The lower classes who attend pay schools, though taxed to raise a moiety 
of the school fund, derive no immediate benefit therefrom. 

3d. Of the free and charity schools. 

The school fund, by being divided and distributed through so many 
channels, is rendered incapable of as economical management, and of pro- 
ducing so great an amount of good, as would be the case were it under the 
control and applied to its intended purposes by a single society having but 
the alone object in view of general education. 

A fund designed for the civil education of the youth of this State is in 
part placed at the disposal of religious societies. 

Most of the parents of children in the free and charity schools, though 
unable to pay for their instruction the prices usually charged in pay schools, 
could probably aflbrd to make some compensation for the education of their 
children ; and, if so, the propriety of their entirely gratuitous instruction is 
questionable. 

With respect to the oljjections under the first head, and wliich apply to 
a large portion of the lower-priced pay schools, your committee fully believe 
a remedy would be found in the establishment of Lancasterian pay schools, 
conducted by well-qualified and judicious teachers, or by increasing the 
number and opening the establishments of the Free-School Society for the 
reception of pay scholars. It is well known that great complaints have been 
made by many of our citizens in the upper wards of the city, who are too 
poor to send their numerous children to good pay schools, and yet with feel- 



EEVOET ON THE SCHOOL FUND. 87 

ings too independent to send tliem to free schools, that, notwithstanding 
they are taxed for the promotion of education, they do not derive any bene- 
fit from the school fund, as do citizens of all classes in every other county in 
the State. 

In consequence of the jioor condition of many of the minor pay schools, 
and of the very superior instruction and accommodation in our free schools, 
applications are sometimes made to the trustees of the latter for the admis- 
sion of children of poor but industrious citizens, provided they may be 
allowed to pay a small sum annually for tliat which they are unwilling to 
receive as a gratuity. This is, however, iuadraissil^le under our act of in- 
corporation. 

The superior advantages of the Lancasterian, or System of Mutual 
Instruction, so far as applied to au English elementary education, are too 
well established by the light of experience to admit of doubt or need dis- 
cussion ; and your committee therefore think the only question is. How 
shall schools of the description proposed be established, and under what 
auspices ? 

The committee believe tliat their usefulness would be much increased by 
their being subject to regular inspection and the control of trustees, and that 
the latter should be persons influenced by motives of benevolence and pub- 
lic good to undertake the important charge. Hence the propriety is inferred 
of the establishment of a public society for the purpose of promoting and 
superintending elementary instruction in this city. As the Free-School 
Society has had an experience of nineteen years, during which period it has 
educated more than twenty thousand of our poor children, your committee 
have been led to the inquiry, whether this Society could not with great 
advantage combine the proposed object with its present, and thus have the 
general superintendence of the education of all classes who may attend the 
public schools? This question is connected with the second division of our 
main inquiry — the state of our free and charity schools, and the best mode 
of applying the common school fund. 

According to the United States census of 1830, the number of childi'en 
in this city and county, of the age of 16 years and under, was 47,283 (and 
this number has probably increased subsequently to 53,000), of whom 27,000 
may be computed to be between 5 and IS years of age, and 20,000 are sup- 
posed to be receiving literary instruction in a greater or lesser degree ; leav- 
ing 7,000 who do not attend any school. The number of children oiBcially 
returned as having attended the free and charity schools of this city during 
the year ending April 30th, 1824, was 10,383. And the sum of $7,087 was 
drawn from the common school fund, to which a like sum raised by tax on 
our citizens was added, making the amount paid from the public funds that 
year, toward the support of those schools, $14,173. Of these 10,383 chil- 
dren, 6,976 were educated in the schools of the Free-School Society, the 
African Free School, the Female Association, the Mechanics' Society, the 
Hamilton Free School, the Orphan Asylum, and the Economical School, and 
the remaining 3,407 attended the various sectarian or church schools (in- 
cluding 1,616 reported as having been instructed in the Bethel Baptist 



88 THE rCBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

schools). See the report of the Commissioners of School Moneys. There 
then was, and now is, ample room in our large and commodious school- 
houses to acommodate two thirds of these 3,407 children, and who could 
consequently, as no more teachers would be required in our schools, be 
therein educated at very little additional expense to us, and the amount 
annually paid (say $3,000 to $4,000) by the city for their iustruction in 
church schools, might be appropriated to the erection of new school-houses 
in those sections of the city where they now are and may iu future be want- 
ed, so as finally to provide sufficient accommodations to receive and instruct 
the 7,000 poor children now uneducated, and supposed to be roaming our 
streets, and many of them daily acquiring the most vicious habits. 

It hence appears that the public moneys appropriated to schools would 
be more advantageously applied, and would produce a greater amoimt of 
good, by being confined to one channel. -For a further develojiment of this 
foct, your committee refer to the estimates and calculations appended to this 
report. 

In reference to the impolicy of any part of the public funds being placed 
at the control of religious societies, your committee are unanimously and 
decidedly of the opinion that it is totally incompatible with our republican 
institutions, and a dangerous precedent in our free Government, to permit 
any part of such funds to be disbursed by the clergy or church trustees for 
the support or extension of sectarian education. The following remarks are 
extracted from your last annual report to the Society, and to that report we 
refer for a further illustration of this subject. 

With respect to the school fund, it is purely of a civil character, being 
for a civil purpose ; and the proposition that such a fund should never go 
into the hands of an ecclesiastical body or religious society, is presumed to 
be incontrovertible upon any political principle approved or established in 
this country. It is conceded that religion is essential to the preservation 
and prosperity of civil society ; but then, the leading principle of all our 
legislation has ever been, to let religion support itself — let it draw all its 
resources from private benevolence ; and any law that should impose a 
direct tax on our citizens for the support of religion, would assuredly meet 
the disajiprobation of the whole community. And this feeling of the peo- 
ple does not arise from any disresjject for religion, but from a correct idea 
of her exalted character. It has been left to the experience of this country 
to show — what appears problematical in the eyes of Europe — that religion 
requires no aid from the civil arm ; she needs no resources drawn from the 
treasury of the State, but her resources consist of the willing contributions 
of hearts subjected to her influence. 

In this country we have our religious institutions. We have our clergy ; 
they are, for the most part, well endowed and amply supported. The bene- 
ficial tendency of their influence upon society is acknowledged. But how 
are they supported ? By private benevolence. And who would wish to 
have it otherwise ? Nay, it may be asked. Whose heart would not be indig- 
nant at the propositicm that the Government should tax the people for the 
support of these institutions and these clergy ? And might it not be asked 
with equal propriety. If a religious society wish to educate the poor, and 
instill into their minds their own sectarian doctrines, is it not wrong that 
they should command the public funds for this purpose, but ought they not 
rather to do it — as all other religious instruction is afforded — at the expense 



REPORT ON THE SCHOOL FUND. by 

of private benevolence ? It is not believed that the funds of the State were 
ever designed to be used for sectarian purposes ; and the trustees think it 
was a violation of sound political principle to allow religious societies origi- 
nally any participation in the school fund. 

The Committee of the Assembly on Colleges and Common Schools, to 
whose consideration the proposed law relative to the distribution of the 
school fund in the city was referred at the session of last winter, remark as 
follows : 

There is, however, one general principle connected with this subject, of 
no ordinary magnitude, to which the committee would beg leave to call the 
attention of the House. 

It appears that the city of New York is the only part of the State where 
the school fund is at all subject to the control of religious societies. This- 
fund is considered by your committee purely of a civil character, and there- 
fore it never ought, in their opinion, to pass into the hands of any corpora- 
tion or set of men who are riot directly amenable to the constituted civil 
authorities of the Government, and bound to report their proceedings to the 
public. Tour committee forbear, in this place, to enter fully into this 
branch of the subject ; but they respectfully submit whether it is not a vio- 
lation of a fundamental principle of our legislation, to allow the funds of 
the State, raised by a tax on the citizens, designed for civil purjjoses, to be 
subject to the control of any religious corporation ? 

This important question was long agitated and ably argued in our sister 
State of Connecticut, as connected with their school fund, and it finally 
resulted, to the entire satisfaction of the citizens, by excluding the clergy 
and churches from having any control over it. Our own Legislature, at 
their last extra session, wisely erased from the statute-book the only law 
granting this privilege in this State ; and your committee cannot believe the 
Corporation will ever engraft in the local code of the city a power which 
ought to be unknown in a republican State. 

It is, therefore, much to be desired for the preceding reasons, and to pre- 
vent strife and jealousy and preserve that harmony which has heretofore so 
happily existed between the several religious societies in this place, that the 
honorable the Corporation would be induced, at an early day, to pass a reso- 
lution to this effect : " That it is inexpedient to permit any school estab- , 
lished by, or under the care of, any religious society, to draw, in future, any ' 
part of the common school fund." 

There is no reason to doubt but that most of the church schools would 
bo continued and maintained out of their respective church treasuries, as 
was formerly the case before any distribution of the school fund was made, 
and as ever was, and still continues to be, the case with one religious soci- 
ety, who consider it their Christian duty to educate, with their own re- 
sources, all the children of their poor members, and of whom they have 
many. Should the church schools, however, be partially or wholly discon- 
tinued, your committee do not believe that any disadvantage to the public, 
or to the children attending them, will arise ; as the means will be provided 
for educating them elsewhere, and probably in a more economical, and as 
well, if not in a superior manner. 



90 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Your committee now proceed to the inquiry, wlietlier advantages would 
not arise from changing our free into pay schools, so far as to require from 
all the parents a small compensation — if it be only 12J or 25 cents a quar- 
ter — for the instruction of their children. In this, the most important 
division of their report, the committee have availed themselves of the labors 
of a former committee who reported on the subject : 

The primary object which the Free-School Society have in view, is the 
education of cliildren of iiidigent parents in this metropolis. It is better 
that this object should be effected eutii'ely at the public expense, or by pri- 
vate munificence, than that the children .should go uneducated. There are, 
jjcrhaps, in this city a number of charitable institutions, which, by holding 
out certain relief to the destitute, tend to relax those exertions which are 
necessary to the prevention of poverty, thereby increasing and perpetuating 
the very evils which they were humanely designed to remedy. Such insti- 
tutions, it now requires no arguments to prove, do not promote the welfare 
of the community ; experience has furnished ample testimony, that the suf- 
fering ever attendant upon unmitigated poverty is a wholesome moral dis- 
cipline, and that the dread of that suffering is powerfully influential in pro- 
ducing, on the part of individuals, those exertions and that providence by 
which, in most instances, the evil may be prevented. This reasoning, how- 
ever, applies with mitigated force, if at all, to the charity of which the 
Free-School Society are the almoners. The direct effect of this charity is 
the intellectual and moral improvement of its recipients. Imparting to 
them, as it does, knowledge and virtue, they are thus supplied with the 
inducement and the means of all legitimate prosperity. If, however, the 
parents who send their children to the schools of the Society could be in- 
duced to render something in the way of compensation for their instruction, 
the committee are fully persuaded that the moral benefits resulting from 
these schools would be sensibly increased. 

Small contributions from parents would not, probably, so diminish their 
means as to subject them to the least inconvenience, and would, moreover, 
go to foster a principle of most beneficial tendency, that every person is 
bound to render some retm-n for services performed for him or his family : 
or, if he be under the necessity of receiving aid from the public, it must be 
in the way of cooperation with his own exertions. 

The improvement of parents is not, however, the object for which the 
Society was organized : this oliject is the education of children. But if, in 
pursuing this main object, collateral advantages should accrue to parents, a 
consequence will be produced to which the Society can never be iudifl'erent. 

The principal advantages, however, resulting from the proposed measure 
will, in the opinion of the committee, be reaped by the children themselves. 
If parents pay for the education of their children, they will doubtless take 
a greater interest in it, and be more likely to require punctuality in their 
attendance upon the schools than under the existing system. That which 
costs nothing is generally regarded as of little worth ; the only standard of 
value for most things, -nith which the generality of mankind are acquaint- 
ed, being the amount of money whicli they cost. 

And here the committee would avail themselves of some valuable testi- 
mony on this subject contained in one of the reports of the Society for Pro- 
moting the Education of the Poor of Ireland — a Society which, we are 
informed in their Tenth Annual Report, afforded assistance to 513 schools, in 
which are instructed more than 40,000 children, and whose last annual ex- 
penditure was £14,283 9«. 9<?. sterling. In some of the schools under their 
charge they have tried the experiment of receiving one penny weekly, 
amounting to 53 pence annually, from each child in attendance. It is not 
intimated that there was ever "any difficulty in collecting that amount (ex- 



KEOEGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM. 91 

cept in one school, where many of the children became indebted for more 
than a year's dues). From an exiierience of the beneficial results of this 
requisition, the Society recommend to the schools under this charge, that in 
all cases the children should be required to pay a small sum weekly : by 
such means, they observe, the funds of the school -will be augmented, the 
poor will set a higher value on the instruction imparted to them than they 
probably would if they were entirely indebted to the bounty of otbr^rs for 
their education, and a habit of looking to their own exertions for their sup- 
port will be cherished in their minds, which will prove of essential value 
to them throughout life. In a subsequent report, the practice is again 
strongly recommended, and the committee of tlie Society observe: "A 
greater value appears to be set upon the instruction received, where a pay- 
ment, though small, is required. It induces parents to look more closely to 
the regular attendance of their children ; and it meets, besides, a feeling not 
uncommon in this country (Ireland), which ought, perhaps, to be rather 
encouraged than repressed — of repugnance to receiving education as a mere 
charitable boon, instead of obtaining through the means afforded by the 
exertion of honest industry. 

In the eighteenth report of the British and Foreign School Society, the 
committee observe : " Experience has proved that the most effectual method 
of supporting local schools is the demand, in addition to the aid of the 
benevolent, of a small weekly sum from each scholar ; and the desire for 
instruction on the part of the industrious poor is generally so great, that, in 
most cases, nothing more is needed for the establishment of a school than 
the cooperation and activity of a few zealous persons, whose exertions can 
scarcely fail of being crowned with success." It is also stated, in the appen- 
dix to the report, that " in a populous part of Lambeth (a part of London), 
a school for the poor was erected on the plan of the British and Foreign 
School Society, intended to hold 300 children ; the building cost more than 
£1,000 ; subscriptions, though liberal, fell greatly short, and the trustees 
found themselves behind every year. The prospect being so dark, it was 
thought expedient to make the parents of the children pay .something 
toward the education of them, and, ultimately, two pence per week was de- 
manded. Some fear arose lest the attendance would be less. To obviate 
this, the master was instructed not to reject any child whose parents were 
unable to pay ; but only one such circumstance occurred. The experiment 
gave rise to an unexpected circumstance, too important to be overlooked, 
and promising a vast extension of the benefit of schools ; for the poor are 
so well pleased with the new plan, that the attendance has been increased, 
and the regularity of the attendance much improved. They feel a sjjirit of 
independence excited by paying for their children which deserves encour- 
agement, and a hoj)e is held out that the benevolent views of the friends 
to the education of the poor may meet a strong aid in the means thus 
afforded." 

Thus much for the results of this experiment in England and Ireland. 
The committee would add another consideration on this subject. If the 
parents who now send their children to the free schools were in the habit 
of making some returns for the instruction furnished them, it would beget 
a feeling of respect and gratitude on the part of the children toward their 
Ijarents ; they would feel under greater obligations to them, and thus be fur- 
nished with additional motives to the observance of that precept of the 
moral law which lies at the foundation of social order and good government 
— " Honor thy father and thy mother." 

In addition to the preceding evidence from foreign countries, the com- 
mittee are happy to have it in their power to lay before the board the testi- 
mony of some exiDerieuce on the subject of inquiry in our own city. 



yZ THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The Female Association did for some time receive pay to tlie amount of 
one and two cents per week from each of their scholars. They found no 
difficulty in collecting this amount, nor was the attendance on their schools 
diminished, although, at the same time, the schools under the care of this 
board were open for the instruction of their scholars free of expense. The 
Association discontinued receiving pay, from the fear that they would other- 
wise debar themselves from participating in the common school fund. 

The African School at one time received from the children in attendance 
an amount almost sufficient to pay the salary of the teacher. 

With these results of experience before them, and reasoning from the 
knowledge in their possession of the dispositions and feelings of some of 
the poor of tliis city, and the pecuniary ability of most of them, your com- 
mittee are decidedly in favor of the alteration above considered. 

■ Having come to this result, the committee would now connect it with 
the considerations iu the former part of this report relative to the minor pay 
schools, the economical management of the school fund, &c. 

Any plan that can be devised to preserve harmony and good feeling 
jimong the various religious sects, by removing all grounds for jealousy and 
contention, to satisfy the just complaints of our worthy laboring citizens 
who contribute to the common school fund, to increase, and, at the same 
time, to economize the means we possess of enlightening, by literary, moral, 
and religious instruction, our numerous youth, to break up the many inferior 
pay schools, to promote an independent feeling, and unite all classes of our 
citizens, should — and, your committee cannot doubt, would — receive the 
cordial approbation of the Corporation, and of our citizens generally. 

On a review of the whole subject, the conclusion to which the committee 
have arrived is the proposition that the Free School Society be changed into 
a Public School Society, and that children of all classes be admitted into the 
schools, paying therefor such compensation as may be witliin their jjecuniary 
ability ; and that, for the extension and support of these public schools, the 
whole of the common school fund be paid annually to said Society. 

A few of the advantages that would result from the adoption of a gen- 
eral plan of public instruction are : 

1st. A more general attention would be given by our citizens to the all- 
important subject of education. 

2d. Harmony would be preserved among religious sects. 

3d. All of our citizens would contribute, and all be entitled to a share 
of the beneiits of the fund, in the cheap and good elementary education of 
their children. 

4th. A great increase, by the small payments from the children, of the 
amount expended for public instruction. 

5th. A uniform system in all the elementary schools of the city, which is 
very important, in consequence of the frequent removals of the middle and 
lower classes from one part of the city to another, and which uniformity 
cannot be expected in the different church schools and small jsay schools. 

Otii. Feelings of independence, which it is highly important to cultivate, 
would be promoted among our poor and laboring classes. 



EEOEGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM. 93 

Your committee now submit for the conaideration of the board the fol- 
lowing details of the proposed plan ; and they do so with a full persuasion 
of its practicability, and the imi^ortant benefits that would follow its adop- 
tion. 

GENERAL PLAN. 

Proposition 1st. The title of " The Free-School Society of New York " 
to be changed to that of " The New York Public School Society," and its 
charter to be so amended that children of all classes may be admitted into 
the schools, and required to pay for their instruction according to the 
branches they may learn, but not exceeding 50 cents per quarter ; the trus- 
tees to have power to remit the charge in such cases as they may deem 
proper. 

2(Z. Fifty trustees to be elected by the Society at their annual meeting ; 
and the trustees so elected to have power to add to their number, provided 
the whole number of trustees shall not exceed one hundred. 

3d. The Mayor and Recorder of the city to be cx-officio members of the 
Board of Trustees. 

Ml. One fourth of the whole number of trustees being present at any 
meeting of the board to constitute a quorum. 

5th. Any person paying ten dollars to the treasury, for the benefit of the 
schools, to become, by virtue thereof, a member of the Society for life. 

QtJi. The real estate belonging to the Free-School Society to be conveyed 
(subject to the incumbrances now on it) by said Society to the Corporation, 
and by the Corporation a lease thereof to be granted to the Public School 
Society in perpetuity, or so long as they shall use it for the sole purpose of 
promoting common school education in this city. 

1th. The real estate of the African schools to be also conveyed to the t 
Corporation, and leased, as above, to the Public School Society, and those 
schools to be immediately transferred to the charge of said Society. 

%th. The schools of " The Female Association " to be taken under the /x-' 
care and control of the Public School Society, and that Association to in- 
crease the number of its members, and, in future, act as auxiliary to the 
Society in the care of all the female schools. 

^th. The whole amount of the school fund to be paid annually to the 
New York Public School Society. 

lOf^. The Society shall pay over to the Orphan Asylum and Mechanics 
School, $1.50 per scholar for all children gratuitously educated by them. 

Wth. To facilitate the operations of the Society, and to excite emulation 
among the trustees, the latter shall be divided into as many sections as there 
may be school-houses, and each section be attached to a particular school. 
The sectional boards to have the immediate care and management of the 
schools, but the general regulations for all the schools to be made by the 
meeting of all the sections. 

The sectional boards to meet monthly at the school-rooms, to appoint 
school committees, and to attend to the concerns of their several schools. 

The trustees generally to meet statedly once a quarter, and on special 
occasions, when deemed necessary. 



94 THE PUBUC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

At each stated meeting of the general board the seyeral sections shall 
report on the state of their schools, and their reports shall contain a con- 
densed view of their minutes, and those of the school committees. 

A committee shall be appointed at each stated meeting of the trustees, 
to visit, during the succeeding quarter, all the schools under the care of the 
Society, and to report on their situation at the subsequent meeting. 

The annual report of the trustees to the Society shall also be submitted 
to the Corporation and Legislature. 

In the event of this plan being adopted by the board, and subsequently 
receiving the sanction of the Corporation, the only alteration necessary 
(though others may be convenient) in the late law relative to the school 
fund, is in that section requLruig that the subjects of gratuitous instruction 
only be reported to the commissioners. It will be recollected that, although 
the Public School Society will be an independent body so far as it respects 
the management of the schools, they will always be subject to the Corpora- 
tion, as their funds will be at the pleasure of that body. And the commis- 
sioners will- be an intermediate body of general inspectors, independent of 
the Society, and reporting to the Corporation and Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools. The new interest which would be excited among our citizens 
by the proposed jDlan, and the reduction of the life subscription to so low a 
sum as $10, would probably induce a great number to become members of a 
Society which already counts upon its list about five hundred of our most 
respectable citizens. 

By the Committee. 

New York, Jani(ai-y 28(7i, 1825. 

Estimates of the revenue and expenses of the Public School Society, 
predicated on the whole of the school fund being paid to said Society annu- 
ally, and on its schools becoming low-priced pay schools : 

The simple calculation is, that each school will more than half support 
itself by the pay derived from the scholars, and that a considerable part of 
the school fund may therefore be annually ajsplied to the purchase of lots 
and erection of new school-houses. 

The school-houses now belonging to the Free-School So- 
ciety will accommodate, according to the usual aver- 
age attendance, 7,000 scholars, 

And the two African school-houses, .... 1,000 " 

8,000 " 
So that the Society, on the plan proposed, will have sufficient room imme- 
diately for all the children that may probably be transferred during the first 
year to its schools from others, in consequence of the proposed change, ami 
can educate them at but little additional expense. 

Suppose the Public School Society to have, during its first year, 8,000 
scholars, including the colored children, and nearly all of them to be of the 
description of children now attending the free and charity schools : 



EEOEGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM. 



95 



The annual expense of all the 

scliools of the Society, with 5,209 scholars, -was, last year, $10,000 

Add the annual expense of the 

African schools, ... 843 " say 1,800 

Add the annual expense of the 

Female Association, . 543 " say 1,300 

Add the annual expense for chil- 
dren from other schools, . 1,405 " say 500 

8,000 
Which gives, for the expenses of the first year, .... |13,500 
And the revenue of the Society during the same period -will be : 
From the school fund, .... $14,000 

Less appropriation to the Orphan Asylum 

and Mechanics' School, . . . 500 

$13,500 

State annuity from city excise fund, .... 1,500 

Lotteries, 1,500 

Rents, &c., 500 

$17,000 

Leaving a balance in favor of the Society, without pay from 

scholars, of $3,500 

But the 8,000 children would probably pay, viz. : 

1,000, $0,000 

2,000, at 12^ cts. per quarter, per annum, . . 1,000 

4,000, at 25 cts 4,000 

1,000, at 50 cts 2,000 

$7,000 

Giving a balance of receipts over exjienditures amounting to §10,500 



As the receipts and expenses for the second year may be estimated the 
same as those of the first, for the same schools, the whole of the balance of 
the first year may be applied toward the purchase of lots and erection of a 
new school-house. 

In the new schools, a greater proportion of scholars~will doubtless be 
admitted, who are willing and able to pay. 

The annual expense of each new school of 800 children will be : 



For teachers, male, $900, and female, $350, and monitors, $150, 
Stationery, fuel, &c., 



And the receipts, viz. : 

From 400 scholars, 25 cts. per quarter, 

From 400 " 50 " 



$400 
800 



$1,400 
300 

$1,700 



Balance against school. 



$590 



96 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

In the new schools, the children will thus pay an amount equal to two 
thirds of the whole expenses. 

From the preceding estimates, it appears that the Public School Society 
could, without resorting to loans or other sources of revenue, go on continu- 
ally adding to the number of its school-houses. But probably not faster 
than the wants of the city will require ; for it should be remembered that 
there are now 7,000 children not in a course of education, and that the 
population of New York is increasing very rapidly. 

Tliis rei:>ort was widely read and approved. 
The bill passed by tlie Legislature, November 19tli, 1824, 
authorized the Common Council to appoint ten school commis- 
sioners, and to designate the schools which should participate in 
the school fund, and directed the first appointment to be made in 
January, 1825. Accordingly, the Mayor, Hon. Wm. Paulding, 
Jr., informed the Common Council of the requirements of the 
law ; and, upon motion of Alderman Mason, at the session held 
on January 17th, the following-named gentlemen were ap- 
pointed : 

First Ward, .... Oliver H. Hicks. 

Second " ... Jacob Deake. 

Hiird " . . . . John Adams. 

Fourth " ... HiEAM KETcmjM. 

Fifth " . . . . Gideon Tuckek. 

Sixth " ... Samuel Ackeely. 

Seventh " . . . . David Lyon. 

Eighth " ... Petee PI. Wendoveb. 

Ninth " . . . . Geoege S. Doughty. 

Tenth " ... Joseph Piggott. 

The consideration of the fourth section of the law was re- 
Iferred to the Committee on Laws.* The general plans recom- 
mended in the printed report on reorganization being regarded 
with much favor by many prominent men of the city conversant 
with school interests, and the trustees being informed that the 
Law Committee were prepared to entertain the propositions, 
Isaac Collins, Pobert C. Cornell, and Lindley Murray were ap- 
pointed to confer with them on the whole question. 

At the meeting of the Common Council held on May 4th, a 
letter from the secretary of the Free- School Society, on the sub- 
ject of extending instruction to the poor children of the city 
who were not included in the charity schools of religions socie- 

* Sse Appendix A. 




COLONEL HENRY RUT&ERS. 



MONEYS FOR SECTARIAN SCHOOLS. 97 

ties, was read, accompanied with specimens of the penmanship 
of pupils. The papers were referred to the Law Committee. A 
brief report from that committee was submitted on Ma^^ 11, ap- 
proving and recommending the Free-School Society to the conti- 
denee and support of the public. 

At the meeting of the Common Council held on April 25, 
Alderman Cowdrey moved that the law relative to the distribu- 
tion of school moneys be taken up ; but the motion was nega- 
tived, and tlie law was made the special order for the following 
Thursday. At the same meeting, a petition was presented from 
the trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. Peter's Church 
for an apportionment of school moneys, and laid on the table. 

On Thursday, the 28th, on motion of Alderman Cowdrey, 
the special order was taken np for consideration. The petition 
of the trustees of the Roman Catholic churches was read, and 
the law reported by the committee was also read. The fiist sec- 
tion of the law was as follows : 

Be it ordained, by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of tlie city of 
New York, in common council convened, pursuant to the authority vested 
in them by the act of the Legislature of the State of New York, entitled 
" An Act relating to Common Schools in the City of New York," passed 
Nov. 19, 1824, that the institutions which shall be entitled to receive of the 
commissioners of the common school fund, payable to and raised in the 
said city, are hereby designated to be, the Free-School Society of New 
York, the Mechanics' Society, the Orphan Asylum Society, and the trustees 
of the African free schools. 

Mr. Philip Hone, of the Board of Assistants, moved to 
amend, by adding, after the words " trustees of the Atrlcan free 
schools," the following : 

And the trustees of such incorporated religious societies in said city as 
support or shall establish charity schools, who may apply ; 

Provided, That the religious societies above named shall not be allowed 
to receive pay for any scholars except those whose parents or guardians are 
in the habit of attending their rcsijective places of worship. 

After some discussion, Mr. Hone called for a division of the 
question, and it resulted as follows : 

Ayes — Aldermen Wyckoff and Reed, and Assistant Alder- 
man Hone — 3. 

Nays — Richard Riker, Recorder, Aldermen King, Ireland, 
T 



98 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Cowdrcy, Webb, Mann, Taylor, and Ostrandei-, and Assistant 
Aldermen Bolton, St. John, Agnew, Bnrtsell, and Cox — 13. 

The board then passed to the consideration of the bill by 
paragraphs, and it was agreed to, signed, and passed, nnder the 
title of " A Law regulating tlie distribution of the Common 
School Fund in the City of New York." 

On the 26th of September, tlie report of the Law Committee 
was called up, and made the special order at the next meeting 
of the board, October 10 ; at which time, after some discussion, 
it was made the order for the following meeting. 

On the 24111, the special order was resumed, and, after debate 
and amendment, the recommendations of the committee were 
adopted, as follows : 

In Common CotrNciL, Odohcr 24, 1S25. 

The Committee oa Laws, to whom was referred the report of a commit- 
tee of the Trustees of the Free-School Society on the distribution of the 
common scliool fund, proposing a change in the constitution of that Society, 
so as to admit children of all classes to their schools, for a compensation not 
exceeding one dollar per quarter, with power to remit the charge in proper 
cases ; and to whom was also referred a communication from Aaron Ely, 
proposing the establishment of public schools in this city, report : 

That the distribution of the common school fund in tliis city is at pres- 
ent confined to those only who are the subjects of a gratuitous education. 
Tlie necessary operation of this limitation is the rejection from the free 
schools and other institutions participating in this fund, of the children of 
those who can pay for schooling, and the admission of such only as are un- 
able to pay. The consequences are, that the children of poverty and want 
are left to form a community by themselves, and that the classes above them 
in point of circumstances, but whose parents or guardians are not of suffi- 
cient ability amply to provide for them, are omitted as objects of the public 
care and bounty in the invaluable- objects of literary and elementary instruc- 
tion. 

To obviate tliese privations, so injurious in their nature and effects, by 
breaking down the distinctions that now divide these portions of the rising 
generation, and to jsromote their mutu.al benefit by instructing them to- 
gether, as children of the poor citizens of an enlightened and growing 
republic, in the great and fundamental ])rinciples of knowledge and virtue, 
and thus fitting them for a course of future usefulness, is a task worthy the 
solicitude and exertions of our benevolent and public-spirited citizens. 

The following are suggested as the outlines of a general plan for efiect- 
ing this important object, viz. : 

I. The title of the Free-School Society to be changed to that of " The 
New York Public School Society," and its charter to be so amended that 
children of all classes may be admitted to the schools, and required to pay 



EEORGANIZATION OF THE STSTESI. 99 

for their instruction according to the branches they may learn, but not ex- 
ceeding one dollar per quarter, in advance. The trustees to have power to 
remit the charge in such cases as they may deem proper. 

II. Fifty trustees to be elected by the Society at their annual meeting ; 
and the trustees so elected to have power to add to their number, provided 
the whole number of trustees shall not exceed one hundred. 

III. The Mayor and Recorder of the city to be ex-officio members of the 
Board of Trustees. 

IV. One fourth of the whole number of trustees being present at any 
meeting of the board to form a quorum. 

V. Any person paying ten dollars to the treasury, for the benefit of the 
schools, to become, by virtue thereof, a member for life. 

VI. The real estate of the Free-School Society, and of the African 
schools, to be conveyed, subject to the existing encumbrances, by the said 
societies to this corjioration, and a lease thereof to be granted by them to 
the Public School Society, in perpetuity, or so long as they shall exist for 
the sole purpose of promoting common school education in this city. 

VII. The whole amount of the school fund to be distributed to the said 
Public School Society, and such auxiliary institutions as shall be sanctioned 
by the Common Council. 

The advantages which may be expected from the proposed alterations, 
in addition to those first suggested, are : 

I. Experienced and well-qualified teachers, who shall be duly compen- 
sated for the employment of their time and talents. 

n. Convenient, spacious, and well-accommodated school-houses, combin- 
ing the advantages of cleanliness, light, and air. 

in. Uniformity in the systems and modes, and in the books and subjects 
of instruction. 

IV. In respect to the small payments which alone are to be allowed, and 
which are never to be required in cases of inability or inconvenience to make 
them, the expected advantages are : First, a great increase of the amount to 
be received and expended for public instruction. Second, the inculcation 
of the valuable principle, that every person is bound to render some return 
for services performed for himself or his family. Third, an increased inter- 
est on the part of the parents in the education of their children, and their 
due preparation for and their punctual attendance at school, connected with 
the encouragement of a laudable share of pride, emulation, and indepen- 
dence of character, in both parents and children. And fourth, from the 
consideration of the renewed obligation under which children will be placed 
to their parents, that they will be more practically instructed in the great 
commandment which says, " Honor thy father and thy mother." 

V. A new impulse will be excited, and a more general attention be pro- 
duced among our citizens at large, in favor of the all-important subject of 
elementary education. 

VT. Harmony will be produced among religious sects, and, at last, all 
causes of disagreement will be removed, as all will be interested where all 
alike contribute to the great and common object. 



100 THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

In proof of the practicability of -tlie plan now suggested, your commit- 
tee have ascertained that in Great Britain a similar method has been attend- 
ed T\'ith success, as will be seen in the eighteenth report of the British and 
Foreign School Society. And your committee have been furnished with a 
letter from Mr. Charles R. Webster, dated Albany, 25th of April, 1825, to Mr. 
Isaac Collins, of our city, from which they have his permission to make the 
following extracts : 

I have examined the minute-book of the Albany Lancaster school in 
relation to the admission of pay scholars. We have but a single by-law on 
the subject, which requires that all children, on admittance into the school, 
shall pay in advance from twenty-five cents to one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per quarter, according to the ability of their parents or guardians, 
always excepting the children of such poor persons as are imable to pay ; 
and those of this class have in all cases a preference, and are never refused 
on any account whatever. 

We have never met with any difBculty in the school in respect to the 
scholars paying, or not paying. Each child has equal rights and privileges ; 
and though the government of the school requires order and submission, it 
is otherwise a perfect democracy. Each child rises or falls from his own 
merit or demerit, and no regard is ever paid to the standing of the parent 
or guardian. We have never found any difficulty on this subject. 

Your committee, with the utmost brevity, remark in addition, that the 
common school fund is appropriated in the other counties of the State with 
the greatest advantage to the support of common or public schools ; and 
the prosperity and unrivalled eminence of some of the Eastern States in 
their elementary and public schools, and in the consequent dissemination of 
useful knowledge among all classes of their citizens, are matters of notori- 
ety and sources of gratification to themselves and their fellow-citizens. 

And while, in other States, and in other parts of our own State, the 
advantages of literary and scientific instruction are scattered as far and as 
widely as possible, and the policy appears to be adojjted that education 
should be as difi"usive as civil liberty — that it should be made to expand 
with the increase of population as the surest guarantee of political happi- 
ness — and that, with the cfl'ort to extend the right of suffrage, and render it 
universal, the influences of an education as salutary and as universal should 
accompany this right as its correlative and best regulating power, your com- 
mittee will respectfully suggest that the establishment of a similar policy as 
applicable to our city is deserving the efforts of this board, of our liberal 
institutions, and, indeed, of every citizen. 

Tlie committee therefore recommend to the board the following resolu- 
tions : 

I. Sesolued, That this board approves of the establishment of public 
schools in this city on the principles above suggested, instead of free 
schools. 

II. Resolved, That this board recommend that a memorial be submitted 
to the next Legislature l.iy the said Free-School Society (as they propose), 
for effecting the above object, and for securing the lands and buildings now 
belonging to the Free- School Society and the African schools in this city as 



THE NEW SCHOOL LAW. 101 

public or common schools, and also for securing tlie proportion of the com- 
mon school fund, to which this city is or shall be entitled, to the general 
purposes of education, and for the support of public or common schools, 
subject to any future alterations which the Legislature may deem proper ; 
Provided, that the details be first considered by the committee of this board, 
the Commissioners of the School Fund, and the Trustees of the Free-School 
Society, and that they report such details for the consideration of the board. 
Respectfully submitted, S. Cowdret, 

Tnos. Bolton, 
E. W. King. 
On the 2d of November, the Board of Trustees appointed 
Isaac Collins, Benjamin Clark, James I. Roosevelt, Jr., Robert 
C. Cornell, and Lindley Murray a committee to prepare a me- 
morial, a draft of a law, and a detailed plan of operations, to 
correspond with the new scheme, if enacted by the Legislature. 
A special meeting of the Society was held on the lltli o f 
Novemb er, to consider the measures proposed by the Board of 
Trustees, and resolutions were unanimously adopted in favor of 
their action, and directing that the board proceed with their 
appeal to the Legislature for a jiew_char£pr. The committee 
acted with great diligence and intelligence in the matter, and 
all opposition being overcome, and the details of the law having 
been made complete, it was passed on the 28tli of Janua ry, 
1826. The law, being of unusual importance in the course of 
legislation on popular instruction in New York, is here inserted : 

AN ACT 
In relation to the Free-School Society of New York, passed January 28th, 1826. 

WJiereas the trustees of said Society have presented to the Legislature a 
memorial requesting certain alterations in their act of incorporation. There- 
fore, 

Be it enacted by the people of the State of New Tork, represented in 
Senate and Assembly, that tlie said Society shall hereafter be known by the 
name of the Public School Society of New York. 

And he it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of said Society to 
provide, so far as their means may extend, for the education of all children 
in the city of New York not otherwise provided for, whether such children 
be or be not the proper objects of gratuitous education, and without regard 
to the religious sect or denomination to which such children or their parents 
may belong. 

And he it further enacted. That it shall be lawful for the trustees to 
require of the pupils received into the schools under their charge a moder- 
ate compensation, adapted to the ability of the parents of such pupils, to 
be applied to the erection of school-houses, the payment of the teachers' 
salaries, and to the defraying of such other expenses as may be incident to 



102 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tlie education of cliildren ; Provided, That such payment or compensation 
may be remitted by the trustees, in all cases in which they shall deem it 
proper to do so ; and, Provided', furtTwr, That no child shall be denied the 
benefits of the said institution, merely on the ground of inability to pay for 
the same, but shall at all times be freely received and educated by the said 
trustees. 

And he it further enacted, That nothing in this act contained shall be con- 
strued to deprive the said Society of any revenues, or of any rights to 
which they are now, or, if this act had not been passed, would have been 
by law entitled, and that the receipts of small payments from the scholars 
shall not preclude the trustees from drawing from the common school fund 
for all the children educated by them. 

And he it further enacted. That the trustees shall have power from time 
to time to establish in the said city such additional schools as they may 
deem expedient. 

And he it further enacted, That any person paying to the treasurer of said 
Society, for the use of said Society, the sum of ten dollars, shall become a 
member thereof for life. 

And he it further enacted, That the annual meetings of the said Society 
shall hereafter be held on the second Monday in May in each year. 

And he it further enacted, Tliat the number of trustees to be chosen by 
the Society, at and after the ne.\t annual meeting, shall be increased to fifty, 
who at any legal meeting of the board may add to their number, but so as 
not in the whole to exceed one hundred, exclusive of the Mayor and Re- 
corder of the city, wlio are hereby declared to be ex-officio members of the 
Board of Tinistees. 

And he it further enacted. That the stated meetings of the board shall be 
held quarterly, that is to say, on the first Fridays of Februai-y, May, August, 
and November in each year ; Provided, That an extra stated meeting shall 
be held on the Friday next following the annual meeting iu each year, for 
the purpose of organizing the new board, and transacting any other neces- 
sary business. 

And he it further enacted. That one fourth of tlie whole number of trus- 
tees for the time being shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of busi- 
ness at any legal meeting of the board. 

And.he it further enacted. That the said Society is hereby authorized to 
convey their school edifices, and other real estate, to the Mayor, Aldermen, 
and Commonalty of the city of New York, upon such terms and conditions, 
and in such forms, as shall be agreed upon between the jjarties, taking back 
from the said Corporation a perpetual lease thereof, ujion condition that the 
same shall be exclusively and perpetually applied to the purposes of education. 

State of Nein Torh, \ 
Secretary's Office. \ 

I certify the preceding to be a true copy of an original act of the Legis- 
lature of this State, on file in this office. 

Albabt, January Seih, 1826. 

(Signed) Archibai,d Campbell, Dep. Secretary. 



EEORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM. 103 

The annoiincenient of the passage of the act was received 
with great satistaction by the board, and the following resolu- 
tions were adopted : 

Resolved, 1st. That the Comniittee on Public Schools be dis- 
cliarged, and that tlie thanks of the board be presented to Isaac 
Collins, one of their nnmber, for his active and efficient agency 
at Albany in procuring the passage of the law amending our 
charter, and that the treasurer be directed to pay his bill of ex- 
penses. 

2d. That the law be accepted, and that, in accordance there- 
with, this Society forthwith assume the name of the Public 
School Society of New York. 

3d. That a committee of five be appointed to prepare and 
report a revised copy of by-laws founded on the new law, and 
with such alterations and additions as may appear expedient. 

4th. That a committee of three be appointed to look out for 
suitable lots for two additional school-houses within the follow- 
ing districts, viz., in the rear of the Hospital, between Anthony 
and Eeade streets, and near the junction of Spring and Macdou- 
gal streets. 

. 5th. That a committee of three be appointed on the subject 
of the transfer of our real estate to the Corporation, and that 
they report their views of the terms on which a conveyance 
should be made. 

6th. That, until after tlie next annual election, tiie board 
will continue to meet monthly, as heretofore, for the transaction 
of their usual business. 

The committees were appointed to the several duties named 
in the resolutions, as follows : 

To Revise the By-Laws — Lindley Murray, R. C. Cornell, 
J'. E. Hyde, Isaac Collins, and James I. Roosevelt, Jr. 

To Select Locations for Neio <So7wofo— Robert C. Cornell, 
"William "W". Fox, and Isaac Collins. 

On Transfer of Real Estate — James I. Roosevelt, Jr., Ben- 
jamin Clarke, and George T. Trimble. 

The long-continued efforts of the Society to secure a just dis- 
tribution of the school money, irrespective of sectarian institu- 
tions, and to reorganize the system, were thus rewarded with the 
seal of legislative approval and authority. The development 
of new plans and measures commence the history of a new year. 



104 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER V. 

HISTORY FROM 1826 TO 1831. 

New Schools — No. 7 Opened — School No. 8 — Schools at Harlem, Manhattauville, and 
Bloomingdale — School No. 9 — Columbia College — New Locations — School No. 10 
organized — School No. 11 — Finances and Attendance — High School — The Pay 
System — Lotteries — Sunday Scholars — Infant Schools — Death of the President, 
De Witt Clinton — New Measures — Additional Tax — Address to the Public — 
Tagrancy — Visitor — Samuel W. Seton — Memorials — Power to Mortgage and Con- 
vey Property — The New Tax Obtained — The Schools of New York City — School 
No. 12 — School No. 13 — The School Fund — Application of the Roman Catholic 
Orphan Asylum. 

The important proceedings during the year 1825, relative to 
the reorganization of tlie system and the prosecution of the steps 
necessary to ensure t!ie requisite legislation, did not divert the 
attention of the board from those measures which related to the 
healthful and immediate expansion of the sphere of labor of the 
Society, by the selection of additional sites for school buildings, 
and the erection of substantial and commodious edifices thereon. 
At the meeting of the board in May, a committee of five, con- 
sisting of J. I. Koosevelt, Jr., James F. Depeyster, George T. 
Trimble, R. C. Cornell, and Stephen Allen, was appointed, to 
select locations for schools, and to report on the expediency of 
hiring premises or erecting buildings, to meet the wants of the 
city. The committee, having examined several locations, report- 
ed, in September, in favor of establishing a school on the east 
side of Chrystie street, between Hester and Pump (afterward 
called Walker) streets, where three lots could be procured for 
fifteen hundred dollars each. A location in the rear of Trinity 
Church was also recommended, if the premises could be pro- 
cured from the corporation of the church by a permanent lease, 
and, if possible, a purchase of the property. The committee 
reported resolutions authorizing the purchase of the lots in 
Chrystie street, and the appointment of a building committee to 



NEW SCHOOLS. 105 

superintend the erection of a proper house. The resolutions 
were adopted, and William W. Fox, James Palmer, and Isaac 
Collins were selected as the Building Committee, who were 
directed to obtain plans and estimates for the erection of a 
school-house, which should he similar to No. 5, with the excep- 
tion of a cellar instead of a basement. 

On the 23d of September, the committee reported the plans 
and estimates for a house, which should be 40 by 80 feet, with 
furniture, fences, and other requisites, at a cost of $9,500. The 
report was adopted, and the committee directed to proceed with 
the erection of the building. The house M'as built, and 0[)ened 
as Public School No. 7, on the 1st of May, 1820, with eighty- 
seven pupils, under the care of Stephen R. Ivieby. 

In April, the Committee on Locations reported in favor of 
purchasing three lots of ground in Grand sti-eet, between Woosr 
ter and Laurens streets, for $5,000. The board approved the 
recommendation of the committee, and appointed Isaac Collins, 
George T. Trimble, William W. Fox, and Robert C. Cornell to 
procure plans and estimates. They were submitted on the 29tli 
of the same month, and approved ; and Messrs. W. W. Fox, 
Isaac Collins, and James Palmer were appointed the Building 
Committee. The house was opened on the 1st of November, 
under the care of Mr. C. B. Sherman, Principai, and filled so 
rapidly, that, on the 1st of April following, there were 371 boys 
and 264 girls in attendance. 

At the meeting of the board held in May, Messrs. Stephen 
Allen and James F. Depeyster stated that there were two or 
three school districts in Manhattanville, Ilarlem, and Blooming- 
dale, which were entitled by law to certain moneys — the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of the Ilarlem Commons — and they suggested 
the propriety of a conference with the parties interested in those 
schools with reference to a scheme of transfer, by which they 
might be placed under the jurisdiction of the Society. Messrs. 
Stephen Allen, James F. Depeyster, and George T. Trimble 
were assigned the duty of making the requisite inquiries, and on 
the 12th of the same month they reported in general terms rela- 
tive to the schools, but particularly with reference to that at 
Bloomingdale. They offered resolutions for the recognition of 
the school as one of those under the care of the Society, and 
providing for the selection and temporary appointment of a 



106 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

teacher, at a salary of thirty dollars a month. The resolutions 
were adopted, and the school, which had heen under the care of 
the vestry of St. Michael's Church (Episcopal), became known 
as Public School No. 9. Jotham Wilson, a pupil who had for 
sevei-al years been a monitor-general, was selected as teacher. 

The expenses of the Society for the fiscal year had been 
$47,344.99, leaving a balance in the treasury to the new account 
of $6,235.51. The annual exhibit showed the average attend- 
ance of pupils to be 5,170, of whom about three fifths were boys 
and two fifths were girls. 

The Society having at that time no convenient place of 
meeting, an application was made to the Trustees of Columbia 
College, who courteously granted the use of their hall for the 
meetings of the Society. 

The Committee on New Locations reported, on the Sth of 
September, in favor of purchasing three lots of ground in Woos- 
ter street, between Houston and Bleecker streets, and also three 
lots in Anthony, near Hudson street, and recommended the erec- 
tion of a house on the lots in Anthony street. The resolutions 
to purchase land were adopted, but the recommendation to build 
was laid on the table. In November, the committee reported a 
new location in Church street, between Duane and Thomas 
streets, which, however, was not adopted. In January, 1827, 
they reported favorably upon a location in Duane street, near 
Hudson, the price for wiiich would be $8,300, and a dower right 
of $50 per annum in favor of a lady then sixty-eight yeai-s of 
age. The location M'as approved, and the usual steps directed 
to be taken to complete the purchase ; and the Building Com- 
mittee was authorized to proceed with the preliminary measures 
to provide for the erection of an edifice. The house was com- 
pleted, and opened as No. 10, on the 1st of November, 1827. 
Contracts were directed to be made for the building of No. 11, 
in Wooster street (which was completed and opened on the 15th 
of September, 1828), and the purchase of ground. for No. 9, at 
Bloomingdale, and the erection of a frame house of two stories 
thereon. Four lots in Bloomingdale were purchased for $250, 
two of them being granted as a donation. These measures were 
severally jDrosecnted with promptitude and fidelity. 

The annual report of the treasurer exhibited the fact that the 
expenditures of the Society had been $64,724.79, leaving a bal- 



LOTTERIES. 107 

ance to new aecoTint of $5,4S0.G9, witli an average attendance 
of 5,030 pupils. Of the ainonnt expended, about $26,000 were 
paid for buildings and lots of ground. 

The close of the year 1826, and the early part of 1827, were 
partially devoted to the consideration of two important proposi- 
tions : 1st, the establishment of a central high school, for the 
instruction of monitors and tutors, and as an advanced school 
for the reception of pupils from the public schools ; and, 2d, the 
question, whether the pay system had been the means of dimin- 
ishing the attendance of poor children at the schools. The de- 
crease in the number of scholars, as made apparent by the annual 
exhibit, presented a fact the very reverse of what had been a7i- 
ticipated. Instead of a considerable increase in numbers with 
the more extended facilities and new schools, there had been an 
actual diminution. The proceedings relative to these measures 
are presented in other pages of this volume. 

The great evils of the system of gambling known as lotteries, 
had become manifest to the trustees, and thcj' earnestly sought 
to have such a law enacted as would restrict, if not entirely pro- 
hibit, the traffic in lottery tickets. The Society received a con- 
siderable sum annually from the half of the license-tax paid by 
the dealers in lottery schemes ; but this did not blind their eyes 
to the fact that the system was pei-nieious, and should be discon- 
tinued. The annual report for the year 1827 makes the follow- 
ing allusion to this topic : 

The subject of lotteries, iu wliicb, through the medium of moneys re- 
ceived for licenses to sell tickets, they are directly interested, has engaged 
much of the serious attention of the trustees. Fully convinced of, and 
deeply regretting, the great and increasing evils incident to this legalized 
niode of gambling, they have deemed it their incumbent duty to endeavor 
to moderate and lessen the mischiefs of this pernicious system, and accord- 
ingly directed a committee to prosecute offenders against the provisions of 
the old law, which prohibited the selling of tickets in foreign lotteries. 
They also presented a memorial to the Legislature, requesting, if they could 
not constitutionally abolish the whole system, that such further regulations 
might be adopted as appeared necessary for the limitation and curtailment 
of the evil. The board exceedingly regret that an act on this subject, which 
had passed both branches of the Legislature by large majorities, was nega- 
tived by the Executive on the ground of its being unconstitutional. An- 
other bill was, however, subsequently introduced, passed, and has become a 
law, and which, it is hoped, will prove efficacious in preventing that branch 
of the evil arising from the sale of tickets in lotteries not authorized by this 
State. 



108 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Tlie same report contains the following statement in regard 
to the number of pupOs attending school during the year, who 
were also regular attendants at Sunday schools or churches : 

The tiiastees are aware of the importance of early religious instruction ; 
and although the nature of their association and its true interests require 
that none but such as is strictly and exclusively general and scriijtural in its 
character should be introduced into the schools under their charge, they 
require from the teachers stated returns of the number of their scholars who 
attend at the various Sunday schools, or at places of worship, on the Sab- 
bath. The last reports for all schools, except No. 8, show that, on the 1st 
of April, of 3,935 children on the registera, 2,403 belonged to Sunday 
schools, and of the remainder, 1,143 were attenders at the various places of 
worship to which their parents were attached ; leaving but 336 unaccounted 
for, or who are negligent in this important duty. 

During the month of May, a letter was received from Mrs. 
Joanna Betliune, informing the board that an association of 
ladies had been formed for the purpose of establishing an infant 
school, and requesting the use of the basement of No. S, in 
Grand street, for the accommodation of the school. The Execu- 
tive Committee were authorized to grant the use of such rooms 
in the school buildings as were proper, and not otherwise appro- 
priated. This measure laid the foundation of the very impor- 
tant change made in the system soon afterward, by which chil- 
dren of three years of age were taught with others in the infant 
schools, which became known as Primary Schools or Depart- 
ments. The Executive Committee took the whole plan into con- 
sideration, and referred the inquiries to a sub-committee, who 
presented a report in favor of the system. On the 4th of Feb- 
ruary, 1828, this report was submitted to the board, by which 
body it was adopted, and referred back to the Executive Com- 
mittee, with full power to carry its several recommendations into 
effect. This formed the distinguishing feature of the labors of 
the board at the commencement of the year 1828. 

The Society which had been so long favored with the valu- 
able services of many of its original founders, and which still 
retained some of the most honorable and useful in its board, was 
at last called to mourn the loss of one of the most distinguished 
and noble men of the State, who had rendered his name illus- 
trious as well for his philanthropy as for his liberal and enlight- 
ened policy in all that serves to make the State preeminent for 



DEATH OF DE WITT CLINTON. 109 

its resources, its public works, and its literary institutions. His 
Excellency, De Witt Clinton, one of the social circle that origi- 
nated the free-school system, who had been President of the So- 
ciety from the time of its organization, and wlio w-as also Gov- 
ernor of the State, was called from the scenes of his earthly 
labors to his rest and his reward. His death occurred on the 
11th of February, and was announced to the board at a special 
meeting held on the 15th of that month. Alderman Cowdrey 
offered the following preamble and resolutions, which were 
unanimously adopted : 

The Trustees of the Public School Society, being informed of the sud- 
den decease of his Excellency, De Witt Clinton, who, among his other 
testimonials of public esteem aud confidence, has held the office of Presi- 
dent of this Society from its first organization. 

Resolved, As the sense of this board, that, while it is our duty to bend 
with unmurmuring submission to the will of Divine Providence, we view 
this event as a signal calamity to our country, to the cause of science and 
public imijrovement, and the many useful institutions of which the deceased 
was a distinguished ornament and patron. That he occupied a large place 
in the aflection and respect of his countrymen, as one of the most able and 
successful benefactors ; and that, as connected with this and similar associa- 
tions, the cause of literature and benevolence has sustained in his death an 
unspeakable aud irreparable loss. 

This resolution was not one of mere eulogy, but was warrant- 
ed by the great public services of the late President, to whose 
influence and labors the Society was largely indebted for its suc- 
cess, and the extension of its means and its sphere of labor. He 
was succeeded in the ofHce of President by Col. Henev Eut- 
GEES, who was chosen at the annual election in the month of 
May following. 

The increase in the population of the city, and the demand 
for more extensive facilities for instructing children not other- 
wise provided for, together with the fact that the pay system 
was found to disappoint the generous expectations of the board, 
combined to renew the anxiety of the Society for such an im- 
provement and reorganization of the system as would meet all 
the requirements of the metro])olis, and whose expansion should 
correspond with that of the city itself, until it should compre- 
hend the children of every class, and thus promote a harmonious 
intermingling of the youth of the community, as a social and 
public benefaction. 



110 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The Executive Committee made tliese measures a subject of 
earnest consideration, and, at the FeBrnary meeting, submitted 
a rejiort to the board, together with an address to the public, 
relative thereto. Tiie rejiort recommended an additional tax of 
half a mill on a dollar on the real and personal estate in the city 
and county, which, at the valuation of that year, would have 
yielded about $50,000. Tiiis sum, with the income enjoyed by 
the Society at the time, it was estimated would be sufhcient to 
add three new school-houses annually to the number in existence, 
and enable the Society to educate all classes free of expense, as 
well as to establish a high school and an academy, or classical 
seminary, for the preparation of teachers. The report is sub- 
stantially incorporated, in its arguments and facts, in the address 
to the public wliich was submitted at the same time, and which 
was ordered to be printed and circulated. This address develops 
the germ of many of the plans and measures which have since 
that time been made a part of the system of popular education 
in the city, and is valuable as a presentation of the philanthropic 
and enlarged views whicli were realized years afterward in part 
by the Society, but more fully under the change of system in 
1842, when the Board of Education was organized. For these 
reasons, as well as for its own interest, the address is here in- 
serted : 

ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC. 

The Trustees of the Public School Society feel constrained to appeal to 
their fellow-citizens upon the importance of enlarging the means of com- 
mon education. A full knowledge of our condition cannot but produce .a 
universal conviction that our present system of instruction is inaderxuate to 
our wants. 

There is no part of our State which has the means of more ample endow- 
ments for public instruction, nor is there any part of it where the common 
welfare, not to say the common safety, so imperatively demands them ; and 
yet we are compelled to confess that there is not within the State a single 
district of any magnitude with which we could institute a favorable com- 
parison. 

It is an object of primary importance to ascertain, as nearly as may be, 
the number of our children within the proper ages for instruction, who are 
entirely destitute of it. It is impossible, with the data which we possess, 
to arrive at a precisely accurate result ; but it will be perceived by the fol- 
lowing statement, that if we have fallen into an error, it is not that of ex- 
aggeration. 

Provision is made by law for ascertaining, in all other parts of the State, 
the number of children between the ages of 5 and 15, and also the whole 



ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC. Ill 

number annually instructed ; and it is mucli to be regretted that it does not 
extend to this city. It appears, by the report of the Secretary of State for 
1837, that, in other parts of the State, the ratio of scholars in the public 
and other schools to the whole population was 1 to 5, 1 to 4. and 1 to 3 ; 
and that these are about the average ratios which prevail throughout the 
State, with the exception of this city. In this city, this ratio is less than ] 
to 7, supposing the population to have advanced with the same rapidity 
since 1835 as in the preceding tive years. 

If we adopt for our city the proportion furnished by the above report, 
and founded upon actual official returns, between the whole population and 
the children within the ages above mentioned, the result will be, that we 
had 45,300 of these children in 1835, when our population was but 106,000. 
If the increase of our population since 1835 has been in the same ratio as 
from 1830 to 1835, we must add to this number of children more than 7,000, 
making the whole number 53,300. About 10,000 children are taught at our 
public and charity schools. It was ascertained by a committee of teachers, 
about four or five years since, that we had 300 male schools. It is a liberal 
allowance to suppose the female schools equally numerous. If we add to 
these numbers 100 schools, and allow 35 scholars to each school — which wc 
are persuaded is an over-estimate — we have 17,500 for the private schools.* 

AVe have no means of ascertaining the number of Sunday scholars who 
go to no other schools ; but it is evident that this number cannot be large, 
because the whole number of scholars in the Sunday schools does not exceed 
that in the public schools by more than 2,000, and because we know that a 
large proportion of Sunday scholars attend private schools. 

From the best inquiries we have been able to make, the number of those 
scholars who attend no other schools does not exceed one in twenty, or 600 
in the whole. 

The result of these estimates is, that we have titenty-four tliousand Ueo 
h'nuJnd children, within the ages of 5 and 15, who attend no school what- 
ever. 

A large number of children, principally boys, are taken from school as 
soon as they arrive at 14, and some even at 13 years of age, to be bouud out 
to ser\ ice, and others are withdrawn even at 10 years of age, for other pur- 
poses. If we allow one half of the whole number above mentioned to have 
been withdrawn from school before the age of 15 — though jjerhaps one 
third would be nearer the truth — the result will be as follows : 

Whole number of children between 5 and 15 years of age, . 52,300 
" attending public schools, . . . 10,000 

" " private schools, . . 17,500 

" " Sunday schools not before included, 600 

" withdrawn before the age of 15, . . 12,100 

40,300 



Leaving 12,100 

• This estimate corresponds with the opinions of those best acquainted with this 
subject. 



112 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Twelve thousand children, between five and fifteen years of age, 
entirely destitute of the means of instruction ! 

This computation leaves out of view all those cliildren of tenderer years 
who ought to be introduced into infant schools. 

The diversity, magnitude, and character of our population give to this 
subject a deeper interest here than it can have elsewhere. The single fact 
that 20,000 emigrants arrived within our city during the past year, presents 
this subject in a sufficiently striking point of view. 

Believing that the relative importance of our city in the State and 
national councils — that the security of our rights, of our property, nay, of 
our lives, depends upon the character of the people, and essentially upon 
their intelligence, the trustees cannot, under the present state of things, sup- 
press their anxiety and alarm. 

In many of our sister States, the deep interest of the people in common 
education may be traced back to the very fountain of their earliest institu- 
tions. They regarded the proposition, that our republican institutions rest 
upon the general intelligence and virtue of the people, as something more 
than a mere theory. In our own State, the towns in the several counties 
have been authorized to provide, by taxation, for the erection of school- 
houses, and " for fuel and appendages," and have also been empowered to 
levy, in the same way, a limited amount annually over and above the sum 
necessary, to secure a participation in the common school fund. In the city 
of New York there is no legal provision whatever for the sujjport of com- 
mon schools, except from the State fund ; and that is on the condition that 
the city shall raise an amount equal to that received. 

It is time for us to pause, and inquire whether this subject has yet 
received the consideration to which it is entitled, and whether our public 
schools occupy their merited station among our political institutions. 

It appears to the trustees that the due order of things has been inverted 
— that our common schools are not the proper objects of a parsimonious 
policy, but are entitled to an endowment not less munificent than the best 
of our institutions. Neither the sick nor the destitute have higher claims 
upon us than the ignorant. The want of knowledge is the most imjierative 
of all wants, for it brings all others in its train. If education be regarded 
as a charity, it is the only one whose blessings are without alloy. It de- 
mands no jealous scrutiny as to the claims of its applicants, nor does it 
require to be so stinted as not to multiply their number. The obligations 
which rest upon us in regard to this great interest, both as men and Chris- 
tians, are sufficiently obvious and imposing. To these are to be added the 
peculiar claims which are addressed to us as the citizens of a free country. 
If we would preserve our free institutions, the means of education must be 
coextensive with the right of suffrage. 

Although the knowledge of an individual may not always be accompa- 
nied with corresi>onding virtue, yet we hold it to be certain that, politically 
considered, the community will always be more or less virtuous as they are 
more or less enlightened. All private interests harmonize in the public 
good ; and the more clearly this is perceived, the more will a single view to 




PETER AUfrUSTUS JAY 



ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC. 113 

the public Tvelfare be regarded as the test of public spirit, and the just 
measure of popular favor. 

If it be not true that the political power of the people is generally em- 
ployed for what seems to them their own good, we must abandon all the 
theories of a republican government. If this power be thus employed, we 
need only enlighten the mind which directs it, and it is our fault if it be 
not found on the side of virtue and patriotism. Let it not be supposed that 
we would separate the power of knowledge from that of morals and re- 
ligion. The remarks we have made we wish to be understood as applied to 
the people in their civil relations. But if we go further, and regard religion 
and morals as the highest objects of education, as they truly are, it certainly 
will not be denied that education furnishes the principal, and almost the 
sole means, of their diftusion. 

On the other hand, let it be remembered that the uneducated and unen- 
lightened must necessarily be the mere playthings and tools of political 
ambition. Those base men who pervert their station, or abuse the public 
confidence for private purposes, have nothing to fear but from just sentiment 
and enlightened opinion. Prejudice and ignorance are the very elements 
from which proceed all popular error, confusion, and violence. It is the 
business of education to purify this atmosphere and to drive out the pesti- 
lence. The hand which perchance may wield the public destinies, is noth- 
ing in itself; it is the terrible engine which it puts in motion which alone i.<t 
to be dreaded. 

It may not be without just cause that, in some other countries, it is con- 
sidered a dangerous thing to enlighten the people. But with us, the ques- 
tion of their political power is settled — and, if they are true to themselves, 
it is settled forever. We wish to keep that power in their hands, and to 
enable them to exercise it with wisdom. The laboring classes have been 
justly called the backbone and sinews of the republic. It is not enough 
that they know how to read, write, and cast accounts. We wish to provide 
for them better excitements than they now have. We wish them to enjoy 
the pleasures, as well as other advantages, of intellectual occupation. Wo 
wish them to be able to understand and admire the beneficence of the Cre- 
ator in the works of His hands. We wish them to feel that virtue is the 
first distinction among men, and knowledge the second, and to be themT 
selves the great exemplar of these truths. 

Entertaining these views, we hold that there is no object of greater mag- 
nitude within the whole range of legislation, no more imperative demand 
for public revenue, than the establishment of competent schools and semina- 
ries of learning. We hold that, in the nature of things, nothing can be bet- 
ter entitled to a share of the public revenue than that from which private 
and public wealth derive all their value and security. In short, our schools 
are the very foundation upon which rest the peace, good order, and pros- 
perity of society. 

It is time to pass from this general view to a more particular considera- 
tion of the necessity and nature of the reform which is called for. We con- 



114 THE PDELIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ceive that our present establishments are altogetlier inaderiuate to the wants 
of the community. 

The money expended npon public schools in Boston, in the year 1826, 
amounted to upwards of $54,000, exclusive of all exjjenses of building. 
From the best information we can obtain, the expenditures of that city for 
the same object, during the past year, amounted to $70,000. 

The whole revenue of the Public School Society of New York, exclusive 
of about $4,400 received from pay scholars, for the year ending on the 1st 
of May last, was less than $20,000. This sum includes all the public moneys 
expended upon common schools, excejit $2,155.50 distributed to the Me- 
chanics', the Orphan Asylum, and the Manumission Societies. It would be 
a waste of time to attempt to strengthen this statement by any comments 
we could make. We shall hereafter point out those particulars in which we 
conceive that our plan of public education needs to be enlarged. 

We have already stated that our present system does not harmonize with . 
the spirit of our political institutions. It is well known that the schools of 
the Society were formerly exclusively " free schools." It was thought that 
a reluctance naturally arising from a general spirit of independence to re- 
ceive even instructiou as a charity, would exclude many from the benefits of 
education. 

The removal of this impediment, by receiving compensation from such 
as choose to make it, has doubtless been attended with very beneficial conse- 
quences. Public instruction has been, to a considerable extent, freed from 
its degrading associations with poverty and charity. 

Still, these consequences have not been so extensive as was hoped. 
About two thirds only of the whole number admitted into our schools are 
pay scholars. It is not certain what portion of these would have been 
excluded if the old system had continued. 

It is now in the power of the public to remedy this evil entirely, and to 
introduce a corresponding benefit, which the pay system was never compe- 
tent, nor even designed, to produce. 

We desire to see our public schools so endowed and provided, that they 
shall be equally desirable for all classes of society. To effect this, the means 
of instruction which are ofiered to the poor should be the very best which 
can be provided. They may not all be able to proceed so far in the path of 
learning as others in happier circumstances. But to the extent of their 
progress let them have all the helps which the present state of knowledge 
affords. Tliis is no mere fanciful theory. The advantages of a free inter- 
course and competition between persons of all ranks and conditions in life, 
as exhibited in the Edinburgh High School, have been admirably illustrated 
by one of the first British orators of the age. He regarded such an institu- 
tion as invaluable in a free State ; because, to use his own language, men of 
the highest and lowest rank in the community sent their children there, to 
be educated together. The practical beneficence of this system is attested 
iby the noble institutions of a sister city. It is by such an union and inter- 
course that the real worth of outw.ard distinctions is perceived — that the 
»highest rewards of merit arc felt to be equally offered to all — that the jeal- 



ADDRESS TO THE rUBLIC. 115 

ousies which are too apt to arise from difference of condition are melted 
• away, and that the relations which subsist between the different classes of 
society are felt to he the relations of mutual advantage and dependence, and 
not those of hostility. 

We are aware that it will be regarded by many as impracticable, that 
these advantages should ever be realized to the full extent we have contem- 
plated, under the peculiar local circumstances of this city. This objection 
is not without foundation ; but we are satisfied that it will be found to 
grow less and less the more our system of education is improved, and that 
it will be principally confined to the lower schools. But if it be admitted 
that an equal distribution of the blessings of education to all classes of 
society can never be realized, this surely docs not lessen its importance to 
•those who cannot receive it without our aid. 

If we would make our schools what they ought to be, we must ofter 
higher rewards for the qualifications of teachers. The dignity of the office 
of teacher has been too often measured by the subjects of instruction. It 
has been thought that those pursuits which are level to the capacities of 
boys do not require the talents which are called forth by the active compe- 
tition of men. This estimate proceeds, in part, from the idea that educa- 
tion consists in teaching certain truths, as it were, by rote ; whereas its high- 
est office is to instil principles and call forth the powers — to instruct us how 
to think — to teach its pupils how to make that which they derive from other 
sources their own, not by the mere tenure of memory, but by incorporating 
it with the very substance and strength of their faculties. 

We hasten to present to the public some changes in our system which 
we think necessary, and others which we hope to see adopted, sooner or 
later. 

It is obvious, from what we have already said, that these schools should 
be supported from the public revenue, should be public property, and should 
be open to all, not as a charitj', but as a matter of common right. 

We propose that infant schools should be established throughout the 
city, to receive children from three to sis years of age. The separation of 
these from older children is necessary, to prevent disorder^^and to economize 
time and labor. The instruction of these children is peculiar ; its expense 
is very trifling, and is much more than repaid by the great domestic econ- 
omy which results from it. AVe need not enlarge upon its benefits. It is 
obvious that the receptacles of these children must be numerous, and be dis- 
persed throughout the city, and that they should be under the charge of 
females. 

The difficulty of sending very young children to places of instruction is 
among the jDrincipal obstacles which debar them from its benefits. The 
most important consideratiim respecting these schools is, that they appeal to 
parents before they have any apology, or even motive, for keeping their chil- 
dren at home, and that, when these children are once in the way of instruc- 
tion, they are likely to be kept there. 

In the next i)lace, we would greatly enlarge the number of schools in 
which a common English education is taught. A very great majority of 



116 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the scholars will leave these schools at the age of 15, or at an earlier period. 
These schools should be provided with such means of instruction as are best 
calculated to fit their pupils for the various departments of mechanic, mer- 
cantile, and agricultural industry. They should be amply provided with 
teachers of pure morals and sound learning — with men who are capable of 
inspiring and directing a just ambition. 

The schools above mentioned form the basis of the plan which wc pro- 
pose; and until its foundations are liimly and amply laid, we would not 
proceed another step. Let these schools be increased and imjjroved, until 
they shall be equal to the necessities of the community — until all the wants 
which are now felt, or which the people can be made to feel, shall be fully 
supplied — until, if possible, the 13,000 children who can now neither read 
nor write shall be gathered into their folds, and until our instruction shall 
correspond, both in kind and degree, with the capacities and opportunities 
of the people. 

About minor points there will, of course, be differences of opinion. 
Whether those who may have the means of consulting their inclinations on 
this subject shall choose to send their children to the public schools, or not, 
is comparatively of no moment. But that ample means and inducements 
should be provided for all who would be otherwise destitute, is of the last 
importance ; and we trust that, for this object, the opinions and efforts of 
all will bo united. 

Nest in importance to this object is the establishment of one or more 
high schools, in which should be taught practical mathematics, natural 
philosophy, bookkeeping, and, in short, all those branches which are desira- 
ble for the active business of life in any of its departments, the learned pro- 
fessions excepted. 

We would also recommend, if the means to be provided should be suffi- 
cient for that jjurpose, a classical school, in which the ancient and modern 
languages should be thoroughly taught. 

To all these should be added a seminary for the education of at least 
such teachers as are required for common schools. 

Thus we should present to the public establishments for education which 
would afford ample and permanent encouragement to all the talent of the 
community, instead of holding out a short-lived patronage, to be withdrawn 
when most needed — which would make that talent public property, and 
which would open to universal emulation the path to all public distinctions. 

This plan is not without example, and is substantially, with the excep- 
tion of a school for teachers, in successful practice in a neighboring city, to 
which we have before alluded. 

To effect this object, the trustees would recommend a tax of half a mill 
upon the dollar on the amount of property in the city, according to its 
valuation in the present estimates of assessment. The fund thus to be raised 
should be forever kept separate from all other taxes, and sacred to the pur- 
poses for which it was created. 

It is well known that the estimates just mentioned fall far short of the 
actual value of the property embraced in them, and that there is a vast 



ADDEESS TO THE PUBLIC. 117 

amount of property which they do not touch. If no allowance were made 
for these circumstances, this tax would amount to 5 cents on $100 — to 50 
cents on $1,000 — to $5 on $10,000. It is true that the poor man, who puts 
in 5 cents, has the same direct interest in the fund with the rich man, who 
contributes $50 ; but this difference is more than made up by the indirect 
advantages of the latter. We submit to the liberal consideration of the 
rich, whether their proportion of this money, expended for the purpose of 
disseminating wholesome knowledge and pure morals, would not be a profit- 
able investment for their children ; and whether their bonds and mortgages 
and public stocks are altogether beyond the reach of public opinion, and of 
that which must ultimately depend ujiou public opinion — the administra- 
tion of the laws ? 

We may go still further, and say that, in so far as the expenditure pro- 
posed is necessary for the establishment of common or English schools, it is 
recommended by the principles of economy, in the strictest sense of that 
word. Those who are without education, must always be a degraded caste. 
Having no prospect of a material improvement in their condition, they are 
without the common incentives to industry, and hardly know what frugal- 
ity means. Those who are unacquainted with the habits and pursuits of 
humble life, do not know how generally education is connected with inde- 
pendence, and the want of it with abject poverty. Add to this that the 
easte of which we are speaking — for such it unhappily is — is necessarily 
removed from all wholesome social influences, and that they are the natural 
prey of the cunning and profligate, and it will be perceived that, with 
regard to a great portion of them, and particularly the children of emi- 
grants, we must choose between the expenses of thcii- education and the 
cost of their maintenance in our almshouses and penitentiaries. It is jiroof 
enough of this, that, small as is the proportion of those who cannot read 
and write to our whole population, they constitute the majority of our con- 
victs and paupers. 

The more the community is enlightened, the more equally will its bur- 
dens be borne. It has not, perhaps, been sufficiently considered by political 
economists, that national wealth chieflj' proceeds from the activity of mind, 
and must, therefore, bo proportioned to the extent and universality of its 
development. There is a striking illustration of this truth in a lecture not 
long since delivered by Baron Dupin before one of the institutes of Paris. 
It appears by his statement, that, in some parts of France, those who are 
educated are ^V, in others, -^^, in others, only ^^Vj part of the whole popu- 
lation, and that the national revenue of these districts is nearly in corre- 
sponding ratios. Nay, more — that these jiroportions are not materially 
varied by the most striking superiority or inferiority of soil and climate. 

It may be said that we have mistaken the effect for the cause. Wealth 
and education undoubtedly act and react upon each other. But it is certain 
that there would be little or no capital without education, and that capital 
derives its power of accumulation from education, which points out its uses, 
and creates a demand for it. 

If it were necessary to add any thing to these considerations, the trustees 



118 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

might claim the support of all the middling and even wealthier classes of 
society, on the ground of private interest. The amount of their taxes 
would be repaid to them fourfold by the greater cheapness of education, 
even sujjposing they were to avail themselves only of the higher schools ; 
and it will doubtless be an object of consideration to some individuals of 
these classes, that the cheaper education is, the more they can afford to pur- 
chase. 

It would be impossible, without going too much into detail, to show 
iiow great a saving in the expenses of educating our children would result 
IVom large establishments under a proper superintendence. Suffice it to say, 
that, as far as experiments have been made, the results have been greater 
and more satisfactory than could have been exj)ected.* 

Is it necessary that the trustees should offer any further apology for pro- 
posing that a small portion of the public wealth should be devoted to the 
great objects of education? We perceive no evidence- of a parsimonious 
spirit in our public councils in regard to the ordinary objects of public reve- 
nue. There is no lack of taxation for lighting and gratling our streets — for 
our almshouse and penitentiaries. The expenditures for these objects, to 
say nothing of the enormous capital invested in these establishments, 
amounted, in the year 1826, to upward of $196,000. The expenditures for 
the same objects, during the past year, amounted to $221,000. We might 
refer to inferior objects for proofs of equal public lilierality. In short, 
whenever revenue is wanted for any purpose deemed important to the com- 
fort or character of the city, it is a matter of course to raise it by tax. We 
humbly suggest that a similar liberality ought to be shown toward an object 
inferior to no other. 

We will not anticipate objections. It is impossible that there can be 
two parties in this community — one in favor of education, and one against 
it. We have none among us who are the avowed advocates of popular 
ignorauce. The blessings of generations yet unborn await the success of 
our efforts. In their behalf, as well as our own, we mahe our solemn appeal 
to all classes, in the name of religion, of humanity, and of freedom. We 
would say to those who are in the most prosperous conditions of life, that 
the best security for their prosiieriry and their privileges is to be found m 
their greatest possible diffusion. To those who belong to its humbler ranks, 
we would suggest that no more honorable occasion was ever offered for the 
exercise of that political power which our free Constitution has given 
equally to all. 

The address was printed, and five thousand copies were cir- 
(;ulated among tlie citizens of New York, under the direction of 
Messrs. Ileman Averill, Rensselaer Havens, and John R. Ilurd. 

* The expense of teaching 7,044 pupils in Boston, in 1S2G, in the public schools, 
was $54,41'?. The expense of 3,392 pupils, in priwite schools, w.is $97,395. Some- 
thing ouglit, probably, to be allowed for there being a greater proportion of scholars 
in the private than in the public schools engaged in the higlicr paths of education. 



SAMTJEL W. SETON. • 119 

The recommendation of the Executive Committee, that petitions 
be circulated among the jseople, was also adopted, and Messrs. 
Erastiis Ellsworth, William Howard, and James B. Erinsmade 
were appointed a committee to obtain signatures. 

The expenditures of the Society for the year amounted to 
$41,246.25, and the average attendance of pupils was 6,195. 

The large number of vagrant and truant children, who spent 
their time in the streets and around the wharves of the city, 
indulging in idle and vicious habits, had constantly attracted the 
attention of the Society. As a mode of exerting a more direct 
and special influence upon these children and their parents, it 
was thought that the labors of an agent, who should devote a 
large share of his time to a personal visitation of the pupils and 
their parents, as well as to a canvassing of the city among tliose 
who did not attend the schools, would be productive of good 
results. The Executive Committee, therefore, made such an 
appointment, and, on the 1st of February, 1827, Samuel "W. 
Seton entered upon his duties in that capacity. In May, he 
submitted a brief report, in which he stated that he had visited 
1,700 families, numbering 3,700 scholars, of whom about 1,500 
families sent their children to Sunday school. 

The summer and autumn months of this year had been 
employed in ascertaining fully the sentiment of the citizens in 
regard to the Society, and the propositions embraced in the 
address relative to the new tax, and the remodelling of the sys- 
tem. The inquiry proved that great unanimity existed among 
the tax-payers in favor of the plans recommended, and the ap- 
proach of a new session of the Legislature made the close of the 
year a fitting season to prosecute their claims before the public, 
and the authorities of the city and State. In December, the 
draft of a meinorial was prepared and printed, and the trustees 
were districted into Ward Committees, to obtain signatures to 
the applications to the Corporation and Legislature. On the 
26tli of the month, these committees reported that 3,200 names 
of responsible citizens had been obtained, the number being sub- 
sequently increased to 4,000. They were referred to the commit- 
tee having the subject of the new law under their consideration. 

The Society having found it necessary, on several occasions, 
to raise money by loans secured by mortgage upon portions of 
the property of the Society, and the contingency of sales being 



120 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

likely to become expedient, the question of its legal power to 
make such transfers was fully disunssed. To remove all doubt 
in reference to such a procedure, and to obtain the authority of 
the Legislature to act in the premises, application was made to 
that body, and, in Januaiy, 1829, a bill was passed and became 
a law, with the following features : 

1. Whenever, by a resolution of a majority of the whole 
number of trustees of the Society, at any regular meeting of the 
trustees, duly convened, confirmed by a vote of any subsequent 
regular meeting after the said resolution shall have been pub- 
lished at least one month in one of the papers of the city, it shall 
be declared necessary to dispose of or mortgage any property of 
the Society, it shall be proper to grant, convey, or mortgage the 
said property. 

2. That no mortgage or conveyance hitherto made shall be 
impeached or defeated by reason of any doubt as to the power 
of the Society. 

Tlie bill did not fully meet the desires of the trustees, but as 
it conferred the authorit}^, the demand for which prompted the 
application, the board immediately resolved to mortgage school- 
houses Nos. 3 and 4, in order to raise a loan of $25,000. 

The committee having in their care the application to the 
Legislature for an additional tax, discharged their duties with 
great zeal and efSciency, and, before that body adjourned, a bill 
was passed which received the signature of the Governor, au- 
thorizing the imposition of an additional tax equal to one eighti-" 
eth of one per cent, of the value of the real and personal prop- 
erty in the city, for the purposes of common school education. 
This much-needed revenue was at last assured to the Society, 
and contributed to remove doubts and apprehensions in regard 
to the future capability of the institution to meet the demands 
upon its treasury. 

The expenses of the system for the year ending May 1, 1829, 
were $62,250.72, the average number of pupils being 7,031. 

In connection with the labors of the year, with reference to 
the action before the Common Council and the Legislature, an 
important step was taken to establish a comparison between the 
schools of the Society and the private schools of the city. The 
annual report for that year gives the following summary of the 
result : 



EDUCATIONAL STATISTICS. 



121 



Wliilsfc the proposition for a special school tax was before the Corpora- 
tion, two of the trustees were employed by their committee to take a census 
of the whole number of schools of every description in the city, their gen- 
eral character, number of scholars, &c. Much valuable information was 
thus collected, and a correct and very interesting view of the state of edu- 
cation in New York was obtained, and embodied in their report. From this 
document it appears that, about the 1st of February, the whole number of 
schools, of every class and quality (other than Sabbath), from Columbia 
College down to the most indifferent, was 403, under the charge of 484 prin- 
cipals and 311 assistant teachers, and containing 24,953 pupils. Of which 
numbers, our institution, in 11 buildings, counted 21 schools, with 21 prin- 
cipals and 24 assistant teachers (or monitors), and 6,007 children. Of the 
pupils in the private schools, about 11,000, or two thirds of their entire 
number, " are of nearly an equal grade as to advancement with those in the 
public schools. The cost of educating the children in our schools may be 
estimated at $2.75 each per annum, exclusive of interest on the buildings ; 
and including the latter, it does not exceed $4, or $1 per quarter, which is 
less than is charged in the worst description of schools in the city, and is 
only about one third or one quarter of the price paid in a great many oth- 
ers, in which the course of instruction and branches taught are much the 
same as in the public schools. The system adopted and pursued in the lat- 
ter is excellently adapted to promote habits of order, and to advance the 
children in their studies ; and the trustees have no hesitation in asserting 
their belief that the pupils are better and more efficiently taught than in the 
great majority of the minor schools, and even in very many which are con- 
sidered of a better class. 

The annexed schedule presents the condition of the schools 
of the citv in a condensed form : 











AGES. 






3 

a 
a 




















m 














m 




. 


» 




t,. 






scnooLS. 












1" 


i 
a 


H 


■s 




1 


& 






1 


1 
1 






1 
1 


.# 


s 


5 


1 


a 

w 

1 


II 


n 

"E 
a 


i 


J 


5 

s 


1 


1 


fri 


•130 


Privatp 


432 


2SI1 


1,013 


13,631 


an 


4 433 


6,!»7 


7 214 


1,86!) 


4-12 


442 


860 


7,922 


7,398 


16.320 


3 


Incorporated 


B 


23 


33 


1008 


40 


163 


220 


84 1 


•<!7(1 


f,'! 


48 


141 


633 


418 


1081 


19 


Charity 


•J.'. 


.'> 


1117 


2,207 


so 


970 


2,430 


96(1 


15 


12 


1 


4 


1,305 


1,239 


2,644 


11 


Public 


21 


24 




6,007 




3,808 


6,007 


476 










3,113 


2,895 


6,007 


463 


Total 


484 


311 


1,243 


22,943 


766 


9,435 


15,564 


9,490 


2,164 


656 


491 


995 


12,872 


11,980 


24,952 



Notwithstanding the very considerable provision made by 
the various establishments for the education of the youth of the 
city, an incontrovertible fact still remained to embarrass the 



122 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

friends of the system witli the solution of the question of va- 
grancy. The report thus alludes to the facts : 

The committee of tlie Common Council, from tlie result of the census of 
the schools and the estimated population of the city, draw the appalling 
inference that there are 20,000 children between the ages of 5 and 15 who 
attend no schools whatever ; and if one third be deducted from this num- 
ber, as having probably left school previous to the age of 15, and 3,000 
more for any possible error in the data on which the calculation is founded, 
we have still the enormous number of 10,000 who are growing up in entire 
ignorance. 

The year 1829 passed without any marked event other than 
the efforts made to develop the efficiency of the system of in- 
struction, and the removal of all impediments to its greatest use- 
fulness. The principal topics of inquiry were in relation to the 
infant schools, the system of rewards for the pupils, the practical 
results of the pay system of tuition, the manual for the schools, 
and a thorough revision of the by-laws. These several topics 
are treated under their appropriate sections, to which the reader 
is referred. 

In February, 1830, a communication was received by the 
board from a committee appointed by a meeting of the residents 
in the vicinity of Eighth avenue and Twenty -first street, asking 
for the organization of a school in that part of the city. Hon. 
Gideon Lee presided at that meeting, and he addressed a letter 
to the Society, which accompanied the application, in which he 
offered a donation of $500 toward the erection of the building 
when contracted for. He also named a location near the Third 
avenue atul Twenty-eighth street, to which he would contribute 
another sum of $500. The subject was referred to Messrs. 
Charles Oakley, James N. "Wells, E.obert 0. Cornell, and Samuel 
F. Mott, as a committee to report \ipon the necessity for a school 
in those locations. 

The committee promptly reported in favor of a school in the 
first-named vicinity, and another between No. 2 (in Henry 
street) and No. 4 (in Kivington street). The first of these 
schools was built as No. 12 and the second as No. 13, and loca- 
ted in Madison street. Four lots were selected in Seventeenth 
street, near the Eighth avenue, and the Property Committee 
were directed to proceed with the erection of a building thereon. 



INCREASED INCOME. 123 

During the year, a neat building for No. 9, at Bloomiugdale, 
was also constructed, and the school opened in August. 

The new building for School No. 12, in Seventeenth street, 
was opened on the 17th of January, 1831, under very flattering 
auspices ; but the expectations of the board, and of the citizens, 
were very soon changed into feelings of regret and disappoint- 
ment. Tlie house had been occupied only iive days, when, on 
the 22d of the same month, it was destroyed by fire. The 
report of the committee, which submitted the facts relative to 
the building, the opening exercises, &c., also gave official infor- 
mation of the loss. The building Iiad been nearly covered by 
insurance, so that a loss of only about $3,000 was borne by the 
treasury. The Building Committee were directed to proceed 
immediately to rebuild the house, which was completed and 
opened on the 29th of August. 

The necessity for an increase of funds for the use of the Soci- 
ety was pressing with greater urgency than ever upon the board, 
and measures were talcen to call the attention of the Corporation 
to the wants of the Society. The Executive Committee appoint- 
ed a sub-cgmmittee to draft a memorial to the Corporation, and 
that body approved the measure, but introduced a section into 
the law lodgin'g the control of tlie additional tax of three eighti- 
eths of one per cent, excli^sively in the hands of the Common 
Council. To this objection was made, and the Society remon- 
strated against the section, as being calculated to lead to per- 
nicious results. The law was passed in accordance Avith their 
views, and the Society thereby placed in possession of a material 
increase to their resources. 

The controversy respecting the distribution of the school 
fund was revived duiing this year (1831), by the applications 
from the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum and the Methodist 
Charity School, the discussion of which made a special event in 
the labors of the year. 



124: THE PXTBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTEE VI. 

THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM AND METHODIST CHARITY 
SCHOOL. 

Application from the Asylum for a Portion of tlie School Moneys — Memorial and 
Remonstrance of the Society — Proceedings of the Common Council — Address 
of the Trustees, .and Reasons for their Remonstrance — The Methodist Charity 
Free School — Report of the Law Committee — A Proposition — Report of the Com- 
ndttee on Arts and Sciences of the Board of Assistants, on the Application of the 
Trustees of the Methodist School — Memorial of the PuIiUc School Society — 
Report of the Committee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, of the Board of Alder- 
men — Decision Thereon. 

The law of 1824 relative to the distribution of tbe school 
fund, entrusted to the Common Council the duty of apportion- 
ing and distributing the school moneys of the city. Ten years 
had elapsed since the enactment of the law granting to the trus- 
tees of the Bethel Church the special privileges which gave rise 
to the spirited controversy which was terminated at the close of 
the year 1824 by the passage of the law, at the extra session of 
the Legislature, annulling these privileges, and restricting the 
trustees of the Bethel schools to the use of the public fund for 
the payment of teachers' salaries. The interval of seven years 
had witnessed the extinction of these schools, and the- harmoni- 
ous development of the public school system on a broad basis of 
liberality and union. 

The directors and friends of the Eoman Catholic Orphan 
Asylum, in Prince street, feeling the want of means to meet the 
large demands upon their resources by the increasing number of 
their pupils, and the accommodations requisite for their comfort- 
able residence and instruction, determined to make application 
to the Common Council for a pro rata in the distribution of the 
school moneys, in order to test the liberality of the public au- 
thorities, as well as the sentiment of the community. Accord- 
ingly, on the 7th of March, 1831, an application was submitted 



EOMAN CATHOLIC OKPHAN ASYLUM. 125 

to the Common Council, and referred to the Committee on Com- 
mon Scliools. The trustees of tlie Methodist Charity School, 
under the conviction that they had at least an equal right to the 
public fund, prepared and presented 'b, petition, which was sub- 
mitted to the Common Council on the 21st of the same month, 
and referred to the same committee. 

The report was submitted on May 2, with the memorial and 
remonstrance of the Public School Society, which were laid on 
the table and ordered to be printed. The Executive Committee 
of the Society had taken the subject into consideration, and pre- 
pared a remonstrance, which was adopted at a meeting held on 
May 2, and ordered to be presented to the Common Council at 
the meeting to be held the same evening. The committee of the 
Society had already been heard in opposition to the proposed 
apportionment before the committee of the Corporation, which 
committee had concluded to report in favor of the Oi-plian Asy- 
lum. Alderman Lee, chairman of the committee, strongly 
urged that the trustees of the Society should withdraw their 
opposition, as they had resolved to report adverse to the Metho- 
dist, and all other church schools. The following is the memo- 
rial : 

To tlie Common Council of the City of New Torh : 

The memorial and remonstrance of the Trustees of the Public School 
Society of New York respectfully represents : 

That the applications now before the Common Council fropi the Catholic 
Orphan Asylum and the Methodist Charity School, for a portion of the com- 
mon school fund, are opposed to what your memorialists understand and 
believe to be a sound and well-settled principle in the distribution of this 
fund, as well as of all other moneys raised by general tax for the exclusive 
purpose of promoting literary education. That moneys so raised cannot 
constitutionally, consistently with the spirit of our free institutions, nor in 
accordance with good policy, be appropriated to the support of church 
schools, has, after mature deliberation, been so fully acknowledged by our 
city government, and the reverse now findiso few advocates in any quarter, 
that your memorialists refrain from remarks on that subject ; and it is with 
no little regret they find themselves called upon, by the relation in which 
they stand to the deeply interesting subject of public education, to oppose 
the application from the Catholic Asylum. To the merits of this institu- 
tion your memorialists willingly award the praise due to its object and 
mode of management ; but believing, as they confidently do, that said appli- 
cation is liable to tlie objections heretofore successfully used against church 
schools, they feel bound to call the attention of the Common Council to the 
facts, that none but Catholics are permitted to participate in the manage- 



126 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tnent of the Asylum ; that the children attached to the institution are edu- 
cated in the most rigid manner of the Church whose name it bears, and 
that any moneys devoted to its maintenance are and must be applied to the 
support and extension of the doctrines of that particular Church. That 
this is the case, will not be denied by those whose petition your memorial- 
ists respectfully and earnestly remonstrate against ; and these facts mark in 
bold relief the strongly sectarian and exclusive character of this institution. 

These objections are not deemed applicable to the Orphan Asylum at 
Greenwich, which is not sectarian, inasmuch as any female, of whatever or 
no religious name,. may become a member of the Society by an annual sub- 
scription of the small sum of one and a half dollars, and entitled to vote 
for, and eligible to be elected, a member of its Board of Managers, and be- 
cause this association, with its managers,,has always and does now consist 
of members of various religious denominations. 

It cannot be supposed that the rejection of church schools in the distri- 
bution of school moneys is owing to the single fact that they are connected 
with religious congregations, but because one of the objects aimed at in all 
such schools is to inculcate the peculiar doctrines and opinions of the sect 
having the management of them. It appears indisputable to your memo- 
rialists, that any institution having the same objects in view, and under the 
same exclusive control, is thereby rendered lialile to the same objection, 
whether under the direct management of a religious society or not. 

Your memorialists further contend, that, in asking to be taxed for the 
support of common schpols, their fellow-citizens fully believed that the 
juuount thereby raised would be devoted exclusively to the cause of literary 
education, and that no part would be given to institutions of a sectarian 
character. 

Believing that the enlightened ■s'icws of this community will be fully 
with them on this occasion, the Trustees of the Public School Society ear- 
nestly solicit that the applications from the Roman Catholic Benevolent 
Society and the Methodist Free School may not be granted. 

So deeply interested do your memorialists feel in this important subject, 
and so intimately do they consider the result of these applications to involve 
the interests of common school education in this city, that they deem it 
their duty respectfully to request that a committee of their body may be 
heard before your honorable board before a decision be had thereon. 

Witness the seal of the Public School Society, this 2d day of May, 1831. 


Tlie Executive Committee exercised a vigilant watchfulness 
in tlie case, and the consideration of the question before the 
Common Council having been postponed until the following 
Monday, they prepared an address to the public, giving their 
reasons for dissent. Very great and powerful efforts were con- 
stantly making to ensure the success of the joint application of 
the Eoman Catholic Asylum and the Methodist Free School, 



KOMAIf CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASTLDM. 127 

and the Executive Committee, therefore, at a meeting of the 
trustees held on the 6th of May, submitted their address, which 
was adojJted and ordered to be printed, as follows: 



Of the Trustees of the Public School Society for their Remonstrance against fhe 
Petition of the Roman Catholic Benevolent Society to le admitted to a Com- 
mon Participation of the ScJiool Fund. 

The " New York Roman Catholic Benevolent Society " having petitioned 
the Common Council for a participation in the common school money, the 
Trustees of the Public School Society have felt it to be tbeir duty to pre- 
sent to the Corporation their solemn remonstrance against the said isetition ; 
and they now feel bound, by the urgency and importance of the occasion, to 
state more particularly the reasons on which their remonstrance is founded. 

It appears that the committee of the Corporation, to whom this subject 
has been refeiTed, have reported in favor of the jjetition. The committee 
have probably been in part led to this result by the great respectability of 
the petitioners, and by the humane character and excellent order of their 
institution. While this board acknowledges the weight of these recommen- 
dations, they cannot but regard the decision of tlie committee as a virtual 
abandonment of those " cardinal principles " which were established in 
1825. 

There are few, as we trust, who are willing to return to the dominion 
which was then cast off; but the first step in a retrograde course may ren- I 
der it impossible to stop short of the last. The petition of the Roman 
Catholic Benevolent Society ought, in the opinion of this board, to be 
rejected, because it is contrary to the fundamental principles of liberty and 
equal rights, to the Constitution of the State, and to a recent act of the 
Legislature. 

It is not now to be denied in this country, that the power of taxing the 
whole community is given solely for the benefit of the whole community, \ 
and that, so far as it is practicable, the benefits procured at the e.xpense of 
all should be participated by all. It is plain that the Corporation has no 
right to constitute a privileged class, however benevolent its character 
may be. 

' In order to test the- case now under consideration, it is only necessary to 
ascertain whether the funds now jjroposed to be given to the Roman Catho- 
lic Benevolent Society would be so bestowed or employed as tliat all persons 
in the same circumstances would have an equal ojiportunity of enjoying 
them. In prosecuting this inquiry, we must look to probable practical 
results, and not to mere theoretical principles. 

The Society in question is, to all intents, a close corporation. It may be 
true that the object of the Society is declared, by its constitution, to be 
" the support and education of destitute and unprotected orjjhans, without 
distinction of sex, country, or religious creed ; " but it is proper to observe, 
that the constitution of the Society, so called, is necessarily merged in its 



128 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

charter, and that the objects of the Society, as there stated, are somewhat . 
narrower. That barely recites, that certain persons had formed a Society 
for " the humane and benevolent purposes of assisting and relieving the 
poor, and of protecting and educating orphan children." 

But let us suppose that the words of the constitution are as controlling 
as if in the charter ; who are to select the orphans to be admitted into this 
asylum ? The charter answers this question : " The said corporation " — that 
is, the persons who petitioned to be incorporated — " and their successors, 
have power to make all by-laws for the election or admission of new mem- 
bers," and these members choose the managers. All the managers of this 
institution are understood to belong to the communion whose name the 
Society bears ; and it is not to be denied that it must always continue under 
the management of members of the Roman Catholic Church. The Society 
have not room for all orphans. Those of another faith are not formally 
excluded. But will it be pretended that the Roman Catholics, as a sect of 
Christians, disregard the injunction, " to do good unto all, especially to 
those who are of the household of faith " ? Can it be pretended, then, that 
the benefits of the institution are equally open to all ? 

But there is another, and, perhaps, more serious objection to an equal 
enjoyment of these benefits by the whole community. It is believed that 
the system of education at this institution is so combined with religious 
instruction, that many persons having, as guardians or friends, an authority 
or interest in the disposition of orphan children, would be deterred from 
sending them "there by preconceived oijinions or conscientious scruples. 
And yet such persons may be compelled to contribute the very moneys 
which go to support this institution. But the objection to this principle 
extends much further ; it embraces all, of every persuasion, who have con- 
scientious scruples about paying their money for the support of any particu- 
lar faith, or who, if they have not such scruples, derive no benefit from the 
expenditure, and regard it as an abuse. 

In this point of view, how can this taxation be regarded as any better 
than the system of tithes ? It is the same thing — compelling men to sup- 
port an institution against their consciences, or of which they do not par- 
ticipate the benefits. 

Let us now inquire why, if the petition of the Catholics is admitted, 
that of the Methodists, now before the Corporation, is to be rejected ? or 
why any other church or any society within the fold of a church, may not 
set up similar claims ? 

Why were all the churches and religious societies deprived of a partici- 
pation in the school fund in 1835 3 

There were many reasons why one harmonious system, under the inspec- 
tion of the public and under the direction of one body of men, should be 
preferred to incongruous and irresponsible institutions ; but it was none of 
these which procured the victory, then thought to be final, c f liberal princi- 
ples in education over sectarian views, and which brought about the revolu- 
tion which then took place. That proceeded from the conviction that the 
school fund ought not to be diverted, in whole or part, to the purposes of 



ROMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM. 129 

sectarian instruction, but sliould be kept sacred to the great object, emphat- 
ically called COMMON education. 

The Roman Catholic Benevolent Society was placed among those ex- 
cluded in 1825, because they were considered as clearly embraced in the 
same principle. The " Female Association " was excluded at the same time, 
though it received all children from every persuasion, and inculcated no 
particular tenets, because it was chiefly under the patronage of individuals 
connected with the Society of Friends. It will not be pretended that the 
orphanage of their pupils, however it may appeal to our hearts, can in this 
case affect our judgments. 

Is an exception to be made in their favor, because they receive all of 
every sect ? Was it ever charged against either of the church schools that 
they refused to receive any children who came to them, whether heretics 
themselves, or the children of heretic parents ? 

The committee of the Corporation say that neither equity nor so und 
p olicy can " warrant the continuance of the participation to the Greenwich 
Asylum, and at the same time withhold it from the Prince Street Asylum." 
The Greenwich Asylum was retained by the Corporation, in 1825, because it 
was not considered sectarian, and the Prince Street Asylimi was rejected 
because it was sectarian. In other words, the schools of the one institution 
were regarded as, properly speaking, common schools, while those of the 
other were rejected as not such. 

The Greenwich Asylum is not a close corporation. It is open to the 
membership of every female who chooses to pay $1.50. This board is per- 
fectly satisfied with the decision which the Corporation then made ; but if, 
upon investigation, it shall be found that this institution does, in conse- 
quence of its administration, come within the principle of exclusion, it is 
infinitely better that it should be excluded, than that the principle upon 
which all the honor and glory of the cause rests should itself be destroyed. 

This board believes, with the committee above referred to, that the car- 
dinal principle adopted by the Corporation in 1825 was so generally and 
strongly ajiproved of by the community, that no deviation from it can now 
be advised. But this board cannot perceive that the principle was any 
other than that above stated. 

Let us now look to the language of our State Constitution. It is there- 
by declared, " that the proceeds of certain public lands belonging to the 
State, together with ' The Fund denominated the Common School Fund,' 
shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which shall be inviola- 
bly appropriated to the support of common schools throughout the State." 

It is well known that our common schools are supported by the joint 
funds derived from taxes and from the said school fund, so that no part of 
the money distributed by the Corjjoration can be diverted from the support 
of common schools without a violation of the Constitution. 

What are common schools ? This phrase cannot possibly mean any thing 
else than those schools which are commonly known by that name, and have 
been so called because they are common — that is, open to all. Those can- 
not be common schools which are the property of a particular corporation, 
9 



130 THK rODLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

and ftom wliicb all persons may be lawfully excluded who do not belong to 
a particular sect. 

It seems unnecessary to go beyond the Constitution, which is the para- 
mount law ; but the act of the Legislature to wl'.ich we have referred was 
passed under circumstances -which clothe it with a peculiar authority in this 
discussion. 

la the winter of 1828-'9, a petition to the Corporation was, at the in- 
stance of the board, circulated through the community, and very extensively 
subscribed, praying the Corporation to petition the Legislature for an 
increase of our ta.xes for the support of common schools. The sole and 
express objects of the petition were, that the means of "common educa- 
tion " might be extended, and that a fund might be set apart and kept 
sacred to that object. This board presented a memorial to the Corporation 
at the same time for the same object, and couched in nearly the same lan- 
guage. 

The Corporation accordingly ajiplied to the Legislature, and a law was 
passed, by which they were authorized to raise a certain sum "to be applied 
exclusively to the purposes of the common scJwols in the said city." See 2d 
vol. Rev. L., 340. 

Can it be believed that the individuals who petitioned for the privilege 
«f being taxed for common schools, or that the Legislature who granted 
that privilege, intended that the moneys thus to be raised should be applied 
to the support of any school not equally open to all ? If the Roman Catho- 
lic Benevolent Society had asked that not they, but the city, should be 
taxed for the support of their school, would it have been granted ? 

The charity for which aid is now sought is of a most interesting charac- 
ter, but it ought, in the opinion of this board, to be supported by voluntai7 
donations, and not by compulsory levies. 

Whatever may be the result of our opposition to the present application 
we trust it will be seen that it proceeds from no jealousy or prejudice in 
regard to the Catholic religion, but that, on tlie contrary, it has arisen from 
principles which are truly catholic, in the largest sense of that word, and 
upon the maintenance of which depend the vital interests of civil liberty. 
Robert C. Cornell, Vice-President. 

l/TNDLET MuRU\T, Secretary. 

New York, May 6, 1831. 

At the special meeting held on May 12, after the organiza- 
tion of the new Eoard of Aldermen, the petition and rejiort o^ 
May 2d, of the old coininittee, were referred to the Commit- 
tee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, consisting of Messrs. Dibblee, 
Meigs, and Hall. 

While the committee had the matter under consideration, the 
Commissioners of School Money sent a communication to the 
Board of Assistants, presented July 11, stating tliat the time had 
.arrived to designate the schools wliicli sliould be entitled to par- 



:\ 



KOMAN CATHOLIC ORPHAN ASYLUM. 131 

ticipate in the distribiition of the school moneys for the coming 
year. The communication was referred to the Committee on 
Arts and Sciences. 

At the next meeting of tlie Board of Assistants, held Jnly 
18, Mr. Brush offei'ed the following for adoption as an ordinance 
relative to common schools : 

Be it ordained by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of 
New York, in common council convened, that a law regulating the distribu- 
tion of the common school fund of the city of New York, passed July 14, 
1828, and all other ordinances amendatory of the same, be, and the same 
are hereby, revived. 

Tlie statute of 1828 sj^ecificd that " the institutions which 
shall be entitled to receive of the Commissioners of the School 
Fund, payable to and raised in the said city, are hereby desig- 
nated to be the Public School Society of New York, the Me- 
chanics' Society, the Orphan Asylum Society, and the Trustees 
of the African Free School in the city of New York." 

The' ordinance was sent to the Board of Aldermen for con- 
currence at its meeting on the 25th of the same month, on the 
reading of which Alderman Dibblee moved an amendment, to 
add to the societies or schools named in said law " The New 
York Catiiolic Benevolent Society." 

A motion was made to lay the same on the table, which was 
lost. Considerable discussion followed, when it was moved to 
reconsider the vote last taken. The question being taken there- 
on, and a tie vote being had, the President gave his vote in the 
affirmative. The question being then reconsidered, it was moved 
that the matter be laid on the table, which was agreed to. On 
motion of Alderman Dibblee, it was made the special order at 
the next meeting. 

The preliminary business of the meeting having been dis- 
posed of, at the session of the board held on August 3, Alder- 
man Strong called up the special order of the day, and the ordi- 
nance was then read, as follows : 

Be it ordained by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of 
New York, in common council convened : 

That " A Law regulating the Distribution of the Common School Fund 
of the City of New York," passed July 14, 1828, and all other ordinances 
amendatory to the same, be, and the same are hereby, revived and reenacted. 



132 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The amendment proposed by Alderman Dibblee when the 
subject was previously under consideration, was also read, as 
follows : 

To add to the number of societies or schools named iu said law, the 
New York Catholic Benevolent Society ; which additional Society shall be 
entitled to a portion of the common school money for such orphan children 
as are, or shall be, taught in the school and maintained in the Oi-phan Asy- 
lum House in Prince street, at the expense of said Society ; and the said 
school be subject, moreover, to all the provisions, limitations, and restric- 
tions recited and prescribed in and by said ordinance. 

The ordinance and amendment occasioned — as they could not 
fail to do — a protracted discussion, in which many of the mem- 
bers took part. The question being at length called for, and a 
vote on Alderman Dibblee's amendment being had, it resulted 
as follows : 

Affirmative — Aldermen Strong, Scott, Meigs, Dibblee, Hall, 
Woodruff— 6. 

Negative — Aldermen Sharpe, Yan "Wagenen, Lamb, Tucker, 
Jeremiah, Palmer — 6. 

The vote being thus equally divided, the President of the 
board. Alderman Cebra, gave his vote in the affirmative, and the 
amendment was adopted. The question being taken on the ordi- 
nance as amended, it was carried in the affirmative, and directed 
to be sent to the Board of Assistants for concurrence. 

A special meeting of the Board of Assistants was held on 
the 5th of the same month, at which time the law, as amended, 
was submitted, and, on motion, was made the special order for 
the first Monday in September. At the appointed time (Sep- 
tember 5) the special order was called up, on motion of Dr, 
Rhinelander, who moved a postponement for two weeks, iu con 
sequence of the absence of several of the members of the board, 
The motion was agreed to, but subsequently, on motion of Mr 
Murray, the whole question was referred to the Law Committee. 

The following petition from the Methodist Society was pre- 
sented in the Board of Assistants on September 5, and referred 
to the School Commissioners : 

To the Honorable the Board of Assistants : 

The memorial of the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 
city of New York, respectfully sheweth : 

That your memorialists have supported for nearly forty years, in this 



MEMOEUL OF TRUSTEES OF M. E. CHURCH. 133 

city, a school for the gratuitous instruction of male and female orphans, and 
the children of the poor and destitute. For a few years duiing this period, 
your memorialists, in common with the managers of other charitable insti- 
tutions for the instruction of youth, annually received a portion of the 
school fund, which added to their ability in communicating instruction to 
those under their care, and assisted in furnishing articles of clothing to those 
orphan children who had no other dejiendence ; many of whom, having 
received a suitable education, became useful and industrious citizens. 

It is with deep regret your memorialists have to state that, in the year 
1826, they were, by a decision of the Corporation, cut off entirely from 
receiving any further benefit from the school fund, and thrown altogether 
upon private charity for support, notwithstanding their school was in the 
same need of help and assistance as heretofore. In consequence of this sud- 
den diminution of the means of snjiport, many of the children under the 
care of your memorialists, and particularly the poor and destitute orphans, 
were deprived of many of the advantages they before enjoyed. The ordi- 
nary funds arising from the contributions of the benevolent being uncertain 
and insufficient for providing them with clothing in the season of the great- 
est need, whatever of clothing the orphan children have since received, has 
been the spontaneous bestowment of a few individuals. 

Tour memorialists would respectfully represent, that, while they con- 
tinue their school operations as formerly, and freely admit every one who 
applies for admission whenever a vacancy occurs, whatever may be the re- 
ligious profession of their parents or guardians, or to whatever religious 
community they belong, their resources, since the imblic school money has 
been withheld from thera, are by no means sufficient for the pressing wants 
of the institution ; and apprehensions are entertained that they will be un- 
able to meet the expenses of the present year. 

Your memorialists would therefore most respectfully entreat that your 
honorable board would take this their memorial into your most serious con- 
sideration, and grant them such an equitable proportion of the school fund 
as may enable them to provide, as formerly, for the comfort and instruction 
of the destitute children and helisless orphans now under their care, of 
which last-named there are more than fifty now in the school. 

And yoiu- memorialists, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c. 

The Trustees op the Methodist Episcopai, Chtkch 

TN THE CiTT op NeW ToRK. 

By order of the board. 

Joseph Smith, President. 

The report of the Law Committee * was submitted at the 
meeting held on September 19, as follows : 

The Committee on Laws and Applications to the Legislature, to whom 
it was referred by a resolution of this board, to report on the constitution- 

* Doc. No. XXI., Board of Assistants, September 19, 1831. 



134 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ality of the ordinance passed by the Board of Aldermen, appropriating the 
common school fund to the schools tlierein named, respectfully repokt : 

That they entered upon the examination of the subject deeply impressed 
•with its importance, and fully determined to give it a careful and dispas- 
sionate consideration. 

The subject of education is at all times interesting, and particularly so 
in a country like ours, where the Government, iu theory and practice, is 
purely one of public opinion — the stability of which depends solely on the 
virtue and intelligence of the people. The constituted authorities of thi.s 
State, impressed with its consequence, took early measures to establish our 
primary seminaries of learning on a permanent basis, and munificently appro- 
priated a large and liberal share of the public funds for the establishment 
ami support of common schools, and for the diffusion of general informa- 
tion. The Constitution of 1821 provides, that " the interest of this fund 
shall be inviolably appropriated and applied to the supjDort of common 
schools throughout this State.'' 

Each county in the State is compelled to raise' a sum equal in amount to 
that which is apportioned to such county out of this fund. 

The city of ^New York now receives about ten thousand dollars from the 
State ; which places twenty thousand dollars at the disposal of the Commis- 
f siouers of the School Fund. The general act regulating school districts and 
the election of trustees and school commissioners, clearly points out what 
schools in the country are common schools ; but as it was inconvenient, if 
not impracticable, to divide this city into school district?, the Legislature 
itself designated what schools should receive a portion of this fund prior to 
the year 1834. 

This course frequently gave rise to difBculty and embarrassmout, and 
opened a door for imposition, which was practised to no inconsiderable 
extent. By an act passed in that year, the Legislature imposed on the Com- 
mon Council the duty of making such designation at least once in every 
three years. That act has been incorporated into the revised statutes, and 
this board is now called upon to exercise the discretionary power of dis- 
tributing the interest of the school fund. 

The first question which presents itself to the consideration of your com- 
mittee is. What is meant by the term. Common Schools ? 

It is urged by many intelligent gentlemen, whose opinions are entitled to 
great respect, that every school and institution in which children are taught 
gratuitously is a common school. If the term be so broad and comprehen- 
sive, then every free school attached to the churches of the various religious 
denominations throughout this State is a common school. Such, however, 
could not have been the understanding of the early advocates of the estab- 
lishment of a fund for the support of common schools, as no church schools 
have ever participated in this fund except those in this city. 

A school, to be common, ought to be open to all ; and those branches of 
education, and those only, ought to be taught in it, which tend to prepare a 
child for the ordinary business of life. If religion be taught in a school, it 
strips it of one of the characteristics of a common school, as all religious 



EEPOET OF THE LAW COIIJIITTEE. 135 

and sectarian studies have a direct refei'encc to a future state, and are not 
necessary to prepare a child for tlie meclianical or any otlier business. No 
school can be common unless parents of all religious sects, Mohammedans 
and Jews as well as Christians, can send their children to it to receive the 
benefits of an education, without doing violence to their religious belief. 

Your committee cannot, therefore, find a more correct and accurate defi- 
nition of the term " common school," than to call it a school in which noth- 
ing but the rudiments of an English education are taught to all who are 
admitted into it, which is open to every child that applies for admission, 
and into which all can be admitted without doing violence to their religious 
ojDiuions, or those of their parents or guardians. 

Such, in the opinion of your committee, were the schools which the 
founders of our system of education intended to patronize and foster when 
they created the school fund. Such were the schools which the members 
of the Convention of 1831 had in view, when they adopted that article of 
the Constitution, by which the fund thns set apart by the bovmty and mu- 
nificence of the representatives of an enlightened and liberal people, was 
inviolaljly appropiiated to the support of common schools. 

The schools and institutions embraced in the ordinance referred to your 
committee, are the Trustees of the Harlem School, the Trustees of the Man- 
hattanville School, the Trustees of the Hamilton School, the Trustees of the 
Yorkville School, the African Free School, the Public School Society of the 
city of New York, the Mechanics' Society, and the Orphan Asylum Society ; 
and it is proposed, by the ordinance now under consideration, to add to the 
list the Roman Catholic Benevolent Society. Your committee, anxious only 
to arrive at a correct conclusion, feel constrained to examine particularly 
into the character of these schools and institutions, and ascertain what title 
they have to the appellation of common schools, as their claim to a portion 
of this fund depends solely on the decision of this question. Acting in 
their representative capacity, and discarding all private feeling and individ- 
ual considerations, your committee will endeavor to test their claim to a 
participation in this fund by that Constitution which they have sworn to 
suj^port. 

Tlie Harlem, Hamilton, Manhattanvillc, and Yorkville schools are incor- 
porated iusfitutions, located in the Twelfth "Ward. They are free schools, 
to which parents of any religious denomination may send their children, 
and in which the ordinary branches of an English education are taught, dis- 
connected with all sectarianism. If parents are desirous that their children 
should study any catechism in the Hamilton School, they are gratified in 
that respect ; but it is not obligatory upon any one to study such catechism, 
nor is it introduced as a part of the system of instruction adopted by the 
trustees of the institution. 

The African free schools were established for the special purpose of 
opening the avenues to a gratuitous education to the descendants of an 
injured race, who have a strong claim cm the humanity and justice of our 
State. 

It may be objected, that these schools are not open for the education and 



136 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

instruction of any except colored children. This, however, is not an insur- 
mountable objection. The blacks are, by common consent, and by the Con- 
stitution of the United States, regarded as a distinct race, and the " parti- 
tion wall " between them and us cannot be broken down, without doing 
violence to those feelings and prejudices which have become a part of our 
nature. These children must, then, be entirely shut out from all the means 
of obtaining an education necessary to make them good members of society, 
unless schools are established into which they can be admitted. Such insti- 
tutions we find in the African free schools ; and it is due to the trustees of 
those schools to remark, that they have been eminently useful, and that they 
are prepared for the instruction of more scholars than now attend them. 

Your committee are fully convinced that these five schools come within 
the meaning of the term " common schools." 

The only remaining institution which, in their opinion, is entitled to a 
portion of this fund, is the Public School Society. This institution has 
been the most useful of all, as its operation is annually felt by more than six 
thousand of the rising generation, on whom will devolve the sacred duty 
of preserving and perpetuating our republican institutions. 

This Society was incorporated in 1805, by the name of " The Society for 
Establishing a Free School in the City of New York, for the education of 
such poor children as do not belong to, or are not provided for by, any 
religious society." 

In 1808, the power of the Society was extended to any children who are 
proper objects of gratuitous education, and its name changed to that of 
'' The Free School Society of New York ; " and, in 1826, the name of this 
Society was changed to that by which it is now known, and its jjowers fur- 
ther extended so as to embrace children of all descriptions, whether the 
objects of gratuitous education or not, and without regard to the religious 
sect to which such children or their parents may belong. The public 
schools are open to all, the poor as well as the rich, and no particular re- 
ligious creed is taught to the children who attend them. But a portion of 
the Scriptures is read in the morning by the teachers, without comment, in 
these as well as some of the other schools above named. The schools under 
the direction of the Trustees of the Public School Society may be emphatic- 
ally called common schools, and have a just and legal claim to a portion of 
the school fund. 

The original charter of the Mechanics' Society did not authorize the 
appropriation of any of their funds to the support of a school ; but, by an 
act passed January 26, 1821, the Legislature " empowered the Society to 
appropriate such part of their funds as may by them be deemed expedient, 
to the establishment and maintenance of a school for the education of the 
children of indigent or deceased members of said Society." 

The Society, in conformity with the power vested in them, established a 
school ; and, by one of the school regulations, it is provided that " the 
legitimate subjects of it shall be children of the members of the Mechanics' 
Society, or the orphans of deceased members, and the children of respecta- 
ble mechanics pursuing some trade or branch of mechanics in this city. 



EEPOKT OF THE LAW COMMITTEE. 137 

The cLildren of other respectable citizens may be admitted by a special reso- 
lution of the School Committee." It was stated to your committee, by one 
of the trustees of said Society, that none except the children of members, 
or deceased members of the Society, were gratuitously educated in this 
school. 

If your committee have been correct in the view which they have already 
taken as to the requisites of a common school, the Mechanics' School cannot 
receive a portion of the common school fund. It is exclusive in its charac- 
ter, and is calculated to divide society into classes and grades, contrary to 
the spirit of our Constitution and Government. 

It has ever been a favorite maxim with American legislators, that " all 
mankind are born free and equal ; " and so closely is this principle connect- I ,> 
ed with our political institutions, that, to make any discrimination between p "^ - tp. . 
the different occupations of individuals, it would be considered as a de- . J-^ 
parture from first principles, and a virtual violation of the Constitution. 
The division of society into grades, even for the purpose of education, would 
be productive of the most fatal consequences. An odious distinction will 
be early instilled into the minds of children, and the division lines of classes 
of society will be more strongly drawn than they ever have been under the 
most despotic governments of Europe. Children will then regard them- 
selves as belonging to a particular rank in life, which will give rise to jeal- 
ousies calculated to disturb the harmony and 23resent arrangement of soci- 
ety. It was to obviate these difficulties that our system of common school 
education was adopted. The early associations of children make a deep 
and lasting impression ; and the intimacies formed between the children of 
the rich and jDOor at school will ripen into indissoluble friendship in maturer 
years. 

It has been urged upon your committee, that, by the act of 1821, in rela- 
tion to this Society, they have a perpetual vested right to a portion of the 
school fund. The second section of that act directs that the Commissioners 
of the School Money for the city of New Tork shall pay to the Mechanics' 
Society, in pursuance to the fourth section of the act entitled " An Act for 
the Establishment of Common Schools," jjassed March 13, 1813, a portion 
of the school money. The fourth section referred to merely designated what 
schools in the city of New York should receive a portion of the school fund. 
As the Mechanics' Society was, subsequently to the passage of that act, 
authorized to estabKsh a school, in order to entitle them to receive a portion 
of the school fund, it was necessary that the Legislature should authorize 
the Commissioner of the School Fund to pay a portion of the money to said 
Society. It was for this purpose the second section above referred to was 
incorporated into the act of January 26, 1821. That section did not confer 
on the Mechanic's Society any other or greater right to the school fund than 
the fourth section of the act of 1813 did on all the other schools in the city 
of New York. The Legislature had the same power to repeal the one as the 
other, which power was exercised in 1824. Your committee, therefore, can- 
not avoid coming to the conclusion that the Mechanics' School is not enti- 
tled to a portion of the school fund. 



138 TOE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The Orphan Asylum Society heretofore has received a portion of this 
fund, but it ought, in the opinion of your committee, to be placed oa the 
same footing with the Roman Catholic Benevolent Society. 

Your committee, however, individually take a deep interest in the wel- 
fare of these institutions, and are extremely solicitous for their continued 
prosperity and success in the work of benevolence. Although they have 
contributed in an eminent degree to alleviate the wants and miseries of a 
helpless class of individuals, who are thrown uj)on the world destitute and 
unprotected, and physically disqualified from procuring the means of assist- 
ance, yet they are very limited in their operations, and the schools attached 
to them are solely for the education of orphans who are supported by the 
bounty of these institutions. 

The trustees of these institutions have assumed the station and responsi- 
bility of the natural guardians of the orphans received into them, and arc 
bound to provide for their support and education. If the funds of these 
societies are insuiiicient to pay for the education of the children, they can 
be sent to the 23ublic schools, where they would be cheerfully received, and 
their education strictly and justly attended to. 

As asylums, these institutions appeal to the sympathies of our nature 
and the best feelings of the human heart ; and although they rank among 
the most laudable of the institutions which have sprung up in this age of 
benevolence, they want the most im25ortant characteristic of common schools, 
and are placed beyond the reach of legislative aid, so far as relates to this 
fund, which has been inviolably appropriated to a specific object. 

It has been repeatedly charged that those institutions are sectarian. The 
information before your committee on this point is full and satisfactory. 
Any respectable female may become a member of the Orphan Asylum Soci- 
ety by paying a specific sum, and the door is open to all who wish to be- 
come members of the institution, without distinction of religion or country ; 
but the recipients of their bounty are instructed in the Catechism of the 
Dutch Reformed Church, and are compelled to attend religious worship at a 
church of tliat denomination. This renders the Greenwich Asylum secta- 
rian in its character. 

The Roman Catholic Benevolent Society also has strong marks of secta- 
rianism about it. None except Catholics can become regular members of 
the Society, although any person whose piety, dignity, and morality will 
reflect honor on tlie Society, may become honorary members. This feature 
in the organization of that institution will forever keep its government ex- 
clusively under the direction of that religious sect. And although it ia 
open for the reception, support, and education of destitute and unprotected 
orphans, without distinction of sex, country, or religion, yet all who partici- 
pate in its bounty are exclusively instructed in the doctrines of the Roman 
Catholic religion. 

Here another objection presents itself, in which is involved a grave and 

serious constitutional question, a correct decision of which will save us from 

. most of those religious struggles which have disturbed the peace ami repose 

of Europe, and which have caused so much bloodshed throughout the world. 



KEPORT OF THE LAW COMMITTEE. 139 

The question is this : Can we, without violating the Constitution, appro- 
priate any of the public funds to the support of those schools or institu- 
tions in which children are taught the doctrines and tenets of religious sec- 
tarianism ? The Constitution of this State declares that the free exercise 
and enjoyment of religious professions and worship, without discrimination 
or preference, shall forever be allowed in this State to all mankind. This 
article of the Constitution recognizes not only religious toleration, but per- 
fect religions freedom, so long as that freedom is exercised in a manner not 
inconsistent with the p)eace and safety of the State. Each individual, in 
religious matters, is left to pursue the bent of his own inclination, and to 
follow the dictates of his own conscience. 

If an eflbrt should be made to raise a fund by taxation, for the support 
of a particular sect, or every sect of Christians, it would unhesitatingly be 
declared an infringement of the Constitution, an.d a violation of our char- 
tered rights. Your committee cannot, however, perceive any marked differ- 
ence in principle, whether a fund be raised for the support of a particular 
church, or whether it be raised for the support of a school in v.hich the 
doctrines of that church are taught as a part of the system of education. 

In the one case, an ordained and regularly constituted ministry are paid 
for delivering their lessons from the pulpit ; and, in the other, a more hum- 
ble, though not less useful'class of teachers are paid for giving the same 
instructions in a different manner. Both tend to the same end, and both 
designedly promote the growth and extension of sectarianism. The one act 
will be as great a violation of the constitutional rights and conscientious 
scruples of the people as the other. Jews, Christians of every denomination, 
deists, and unbelievers of every description, contribute their due portion to 
the school fund, and it ought to be so distributed and disposed of that all 
may participate in the benefits flowing from it, without doing violence to 
their consciences. It would be but a poor consolation to an individual to 
know tliat he may entertain whatever religious opinions he pleases, and 
attend any church he may select, and at the time be legally compelled to 
contriljute a portion of his property to the support of a school in which 
religious doctrines diametrically opposed to those he entertains are taught. 
Any legislation sanctioning such a principle would meet with the decided 
disapprobation of this community. 

So thoroughly were the founders of our State convinced that religion in 
every shape should be untouched by legislative acts, that they urged and 
procured the adoption of an article of the Constitution disqualifying minis- 
ters of the gospel, and priests of every denomination, from holding any 
civil or military office or place within this State. 

, The duties of a. spiritual guide and religious instructor were considered 
as incompatible with those of a civil or military station. It would be a vir- 
tual violation of this article of the Constitution to appropriate a fund, purely 
civil iu its .character and object, to the support of religious schools, and 
would not lie sanctioned by a people ardently and devotedly attached to the 
maintenance of civil and religious liberty. 

Your committee are of the opinion that, if the two asylums are admit- 




140 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ted to accept a portion of the school fund, it will open the door for the 
admission of every school or institution in which children arc taught gra- 
tuitously, notwithstanding it may be sectarian to the fullest extent. 

Methodist, Episcopalian, Baptist, and every other sectarian school, must 
come in for a share of this fund. And the Common Council cannot stop 
here. If charity schools are foimded in which the doctrines of an Owen 
and a Wright are taught, or in which the " Age of Reason " or the Khoran 
is adopted as a standard work, they will stand on the same footing as other 
religious schools. Should such a course be pursued, it will be a violation 
of the liberal princii^le established by the Common Council in 1825, of deny- 
ing admission to all schools and institutions which were considered as secta- 
rian. A departure from this salutary precedent will be productive of incal- 
culable mischief. If all sectarian schools be admitted to the receipt of a 
portion of a fund sacredly appropriated to the support of common schools, 
it will give rise to a religious and anti-religious party, which will call into 
active exercise the passions and prejudices of men. A fierce and uncompro- 
mising hostility will ensue, which will pave the way for the predominance 
of religion in political contests. Tlie imnatural union of Church and State 
will then be easily accomplished — a union destructive of human happiness 
■ and subversive of civil liberty. 

i It should ever be borne in mind, that ecclesiastical despotism is the 

\ worst and most oppressive si^ecies of tyranny ; it is unnecessary to inquire 
I why it is so. The fact is well attested by the history of every people who 
have lived under the government of monarchs and priests. Many of the 
miseries now endured by the laboring class in England are attributable to 
the accumulation of the immense revenues of the bishops and clergy, and 
to the odious and oppressive system of exacting tithes for the support of an 
established church. It would be an incipient step toward engrafting in our 
ijistitutions a system not less odious and oppressive, not less fatal in its con- 
sequences to the liberties and happiness of our country, to place the interest 
of the school fund at the disposal of sectarians. It is to tax the people for 
the support of religion, contrary to the Constitution, and in violation of 
their conscientious scruples. 

Your committee are of opinion that the ordinance referred to them is 
unconstitutional, so far as relates to the Mechanics' Society, the Orphan Asy- 
lum Society, and the Roman Catholic Benevolent Society, and therefore 
recommend that the same be amended so as to exclude those institutions 
from any participation in the school fund. 

William Van Wtck, j 

Erastus Babnes, > Law Committee. 

Nehemiah Brush, ; 

The report was read, and laid on the table. 

At the meeting of tlie board on the 24th of October, Dr. 
Ehinelander moved that tlie school question be made the order 
for the day at tlie next meeting, which was agreed to. At the 



METHODIST FEEE SCHOOL. 141 

time designated, t.lie board went into Committee of the Wliole, 
Mr. Labagli in the chair. After considerable discussion the 
committee rose, reported, and asked leave to sit again, which 
was granted. 

The Trustees of the Methodist Free School, while the mat- 
ter was thus pending, sent a proposition to the Public School 
Society, which was laid before the Board of Trustees at their 
meeting on November 4th, in the following form : 

New Yoek, 4/A Ifovember, 1831.4 

The subscribers, representing the Trustees of the Methodist Charity Free 
School in this city, respectfully offer to the New York Public School Soci- 
ety their school-house in Forsyth street, and 213 scholars attached thereto. 

The premises are two lots of ground, under lease for twenty-four years 
unexpired, at the yearly rent of |100. The building thereon is a two-story 
frame building, 30 feet front by 85 feet deep. The whole upper part is 
occupied for the school-room, the lower jiart by the teacher, and for society 
meetings. The lower part is wished to be retained by the Trustees of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church until August next, and the school-rooms can be 
had immediately, upon an arrangement being made with the teachers, who 
are employed until May next. 

Gilbert Coutakt, 
Chahman of tJie Committee appointed hy the Board of Trustees. 

This proposition was referred to a committee, consisting of 
Najah Taylor, George T. Trimble, and Eobert C. Cornell, who 
were appointed to confer with the committee of the Trustees of 
the Free School, and report their action thereon. The j)rice 
demanded by the latter for their real estate — $3,500 — was 
deemed to be too high, and at a meeting of the Trustees of the 
Public School Society, held on the 3d of February, 1832, the 
proposition was declined, and the committee authorized to con- 
tinue the negotiation. No arrangement, however, was made 
between the parties. 

The matter remained in this position until December 19, 
when Mr. Smith introduced the following resolution : 

Hesolved, That the Committee on Arts and Sciences, to whom was re- 
ferred the petition of the Trustees of the Methodist Society, for a participa- 
tion of the school money, be requested to report without delay. 

The resolution accordingly went to the committee, who, how- 
ever, did not report until May Tth of the following year — only 



142 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

one day previous to tlie expiration of its term of ofBcc, at which 
time the following report was made : 

The Committee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, to whom was referred the 
annexed memorial from the Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
praying to be admitted to participate in the benefits of the common school 

fund, RESPECTFULLY REPOET : 

That they have had the same under consideration, and have come to the 
following conclusion, viz. : That, inasmuch as the memorialists have stated 
in their petition — which your committee have every reason to believe to be 
trfte — that they at all times have admitted children of every denomination 
into their schools, and have, at the present time, about fifty orphans who 
are educated upon general principles, without reference to sectarianism, your 
committee are of oinnion that they are of right and ought to be admitted 
to a participation of the fund, and would therefore beg leave to offer the 
following resolution, viz. : 

Resolrecl, That the ordinance defining what societies shall be admitted to 
a participation of the common school fund be so amended as to embrace 
" The Trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the City of New 
York." 

Rcsjicctfully submitted by the committee, 

Nehb.miah Brush, 

WiLLI.VM M.iNDEVILLE. 

Tlie order of time is anticipated by the insertion of th.e above 
report in this place ; but as it gives the decision of the commit- 
tee of the Board of Assistants, and permits a return to the pro- 
ceedings iu the Board of Aldermen, it is deemed proper to pre- 
sent it in this connection. No action M'as taken on the report. 

The Trustees of the Methodist Free School had thus pressed 
their application upon the Common 'Council ; bnt the con- 
flicting opiniims and interests which were brought to bear upon 
the members of both boards occasioned a protracted delay. 

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Public School 
Society, held on March 30th, the committee of the board sub- 
mitted a memorial, which they stated had been referred to a 
committee, and had been printed, and made the special order for 
the day on the first Monday in Ajoril following. 

To the 'Honordhle the Corporation of the City of New Torlc : 

The memorial of the Trustees of the Public School Society humbly 

SHEWETH : 

That they have seen, with deep concern, that the application of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church for a participation in the fund raised for the 



STETHODIST CHUKCH SCHOOL. 143 

support of common schools, has met with a favorable report by a committee 
appointed by the Board of Aldermen, and they feel constrained to present 
their lespectful but plain and solemn remonstrance against the measure pro- 
posed. Your honorable bodies are not ignorant that the distribution of the 
school fund among the cliurch schools of the city, prior to 1S25, gave rise 
to multiplied abuses, which were arrested, and, it was hoped, terminated, by 
an ordinance of the Common Council, which was receiyed with almost uni- 
versal jjublic approbation. 

The reform which was thus established was followed immediately by an 
increased puljlic interest in the schools ; subsequently, by an accession to 
their funds ; and recently, by a liberal and ample provision for that object; 

Your memorialists, believing that the circumstances in which the in- 
crease of the school fund originated are worthy of great consideration, in 
reference to the measure now before the Board of Aldermen, beg leave to 
recall them to the memory of your honorable bodies. 

In the year 1828, your memorialists made an earnest appeal to their fel- 
low-citizens " upon the importance of enlarging the means of common edu- 
cation." Your memorialists soon after were instrumental in procuring the 
circulation, among the citizens generally, of a petition addressed to the 
Common Council in behalf of this great object. That petition was sub- 
scribed by several thousands of respectable individuals, and embraced a 
large proportion of our most wealthy citizens. 

The object embraced in that petition is very plainly pointed out. The 
petitioners say they are desirous that the common schools of the city should 
be multiplied and improved, and, if possible, that others should be estab- 
lished for the introduction of certain of the higher grades of instruction. 
They propose an annual tax of not less than half a mill on the dollar upon 
the amount of assessed property in the city, " for the purpose of free and 
common education ; the fund thus to be raised to be kept separate from all 
others, and sacred to the purposes for which it is designed." And they 
pray the aid of the Corporation for the obtaining such a law as might be 
necessary for the purposes aforesaid. 

If any further evidence be wanted as to the design of the petitioners 
above mentioned, your memorialists beg leave to state, from the best means 
of information, that great numbers of persons refused their signatures until 
they were assured that the funds to be raised were to be entirely protected 
from sectarian employment or control. 

The petition above referred to was presented, together writh a special me- 
morial from your present memorialists, to the Common Council, early in 1839 ; 
and they were referred to a committee, who reported favorably thereto. 

Application was accordingly made to the Legislature, substantially con- 
forming in tenor, and exactly in spirit, with the petition and memorial 
aforesaid. The Legislature promptly passed a law, viz., on the 2.5th of 
April, 1829, by which the Corporation was authorized to collect, by tax, a 
sum of money equal to one eightieth of one per cent, upon the assessed 
property of the city, " to be applied exclusively to the purposes of common 
schools in the said city." 



14i THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIKTT. 

On the 13tb of April, 1831, the Legislature passed a law increasing the 
amount to be raised to four eightieths of one per cent, for precisely the same 
objects. 

Your memorialists cannot entertain a doubt that not a single cent of the 
fund thus raised by taxation ought to be under sectarian control, or applied 
to the exclusive benefit of any particular class of individuals. 

Your memorialists presume that the present application has been encour- 
aged by the success of that recently made by the Catholic Orjjhan Asylum. 

Your memorialists feel bound to protest in this instance, as they did in 
that, on the ground that the admission of this school would be a violation 
of the Constitution and of the laws, and of good faith toward the public. 
They deem it also irreconcilable with the spirit of our republican institu- 
tions, inasmuch as it involves a compulsory support of religious instruction, 
without the ability to participate its benefits. 

Your memorialists are compelled to difier with the respectable commit- 
tee of the Board of Aldermen. The fact that " the school fund is raised 
equally," in their judgments, leads to the conclusion that it ought to be dis- 
tributed equally. 

In regard to the Methodist school (which alone is now under considera- 
tion), it appears that a preference as to admission is given to the children 
of parents of the same persuasion, provided they are sufficient to fill the 
school. 
,,^ If, in such cases, no express preference or prohibition is given or enacted, 
if the same result indirectly obtains from the sectarian character of the instruc- 
.' tion or government of the schools. 

A perfect equality in the distribution of school moneys characterizes 
every provision of the Legislature on this subject. It is alleged that they 
have not " shut out any school on account of its religious connections." If 
the omission of any prohibitory enactment furnishes an argument in favor 
of the present application, almost any claim that can be imagined may be 
established. But your memorialists, without further comment upon the 
great principles involved in the proposed measure, beg leave to state that 
the general principle of excluding the church schools, adopted in 1825, was 
not, as they have understood, intended to be given up or impaired by the 
admission of the Catholic Asylum School, but, on the contrary, this princi- 
ple was expressly sanctioned and approved by the Common Council. 

Your memorialists, in support of this assertion, refer to the report of the 
committee on the Catholic application, and which was signed by the chair- 
man of the committee, who have now reported in favor of the Methodist 
school. 

Your memorialists quote the language of that report : 

It is known to the Common Council that few questions of public policy 
have caused so much excitement, as well in the government of the State as 
in the council of the city, as that of the distribution of school money. 
During several years prior to 1835, the agitation pervaded all classes of peo- 
ple, as well as most of our public institutions. The adjustment of the ques- 
tion, in the spring of 1825, was hailed with joy. The facts, arguments, and 
principles which guided the government and dictated the laws of distribu- 



METHODIST CHURCH SCHOOL. 145 

tion ^t that period, are too well understood by this Common Council to 
require to be recited in tliis report. The cardinal principles then adopted, 
the classes of societies and schools then admitted to a participation, and the 
classes of societies and schools then excluded, were so generally and strong- 
ly approved by the community, that no deviation from those principles can 
now be advised. 

(Signed by) G. Lee, 

John Rogers, 
David Brtson^, 
Henry ARcnLAKius, 
Tyler Dibblee. 

The Methodist Church Charity School — the applicants now before you — 
was of the class and one of the number then excluded from participation in 
the school fund. 

Your memorialists suppose that your honorable bodies considered the 
Catholic school as not coming within the rule applicable to sectarian 
schools, but, on the contrary, as entitled to a portion of the school fund, 
because the children of the Asylum would otherwise be deprived of the 
power of participating in it. 

It is not difficult to perceive that, if the Methodist school is admitted, 
another, and the only remaining barrier to the admission of all the church 
schools, will be broken down. The children of the Catholic Asylum are all 
orphans. The Methodist school embraces " destitute children " also. If 
destitute children arc to be admitted under the patronage of one persuasion, 
what fair and equitable distinction will your honorable bodies be able to 
fix, which will exclude any other persuasion ? It is well known that the 
children of all the church schools were fairly embraced in the description 
of destitute children. The circumstance that the children in question re- 
ceive other aid than that of instniction, creates, instead of removing, an 
objection, in the opinion of your memorialists. This distinction between 
the Methodist and other churches, if it now exists, will be shortly removed 
by sectarian zeal, and the schools of the Society represented by your memo- 
rialists will, of course, be subjected to a competition in which it is to be 
feared that their superior advantages will be outweighed by inducements of 
more than doubtful expediency. The bare suggestion of the subject in this 
view involves considerations on which your memorialists had supposed the 
public mind was made up. 

If any thing more than what has been stated be necessary to show how 
the principle of " equal rights " would be affected by the measure now con- 
sidered, let it be remembered that the moneys given to church schools arc 
taken away from the public schools, and that there is a large portion of our 
fellow-citizens who belong to no religious society, and a great many who 
would refuse any instruction if encumbered with any ecclesiastical connec- 
tion. 

Your memorialists beg leave to add, that they feel confident that a return 
to the sectarian system will not ultimately bo tolerated by public opinion. 
The public will not and ought not to consent to be taxed for sectarian edu- 
cation. 

10 



146 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

Tour memorialists are therefore apprehensive, that, -while the hopes held 
out to the churches by the success of the present application must prove 
ultimately fallacious ; that the sources of the present revenues of the public 
schools would in that event be greatly diminished, and, in so far as the same 
depend on the aforesaid acts of the Legislature, would be withdrawn. 

If the public confidence in the equal distribution of the school fund is 
ever lost, it is possible, not to say probable, that it will never be regained. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

(Signed) Peter AtrairsTus Jay, President. 

LrNDLET Murray, Secretary. 

Dated this 2-lth day of March, 13-32. 

A long and earnest discussion took place upon the niemorial, 
and it was deemed important that the members of the Board of 
Aldermen should be seen personally by committees on behalf of 
the Society, and they were accordingly appointed, as follows : 

Alderman Cebra, to be seen by Messrs. J. I. Eoosevelt, Jr., 

and James Heard. 



Stevens, " 


Hiram Ketchum, Clark, and 




Kichards. 


Van Wagenen, " 


J. I. Eoosevelt, Jr., and James 




Heard. 


Lamb, " 


Ketchum, Clark, and Depey- 




ster. 


Tucker, " 


Oakley and Wells. 


Meigs, " 


Mott and Peters. 


Jeremiah, " 


• Leveridge and Brinsmade. 


Hall, 


Swan and Depeyster. 


Palmer, " 


Childs and Najah Taylor. 


Woodruff, 


Dclamater and Wells. 



The petition from the Methodist Society was presented in the 
Board of Aldermen on the same evening (September 5) on 
which it was laid before the Assistants, and was referred to the 
Committee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools. The report in favor 
of the application for school money was submitted on March 12, 
1833, and was laid on the table, to be printed. 

The remonstrance of the Public School Society against grant- 
ing the application was laid before the board at the meeting held 
on March 26, and was referred to the Committee on Arts, Sci- 
ences, and Schools, and, with the other papers relative to the 



METHODIST CHURCH SCHOOL. 147 

matter, was made the order of the day for the following meeting 
of the board. The committee reported on the remonstrance at 
the session held on April 2, in wliich the recommendations of the 
first report were reaffirmed, and their adoption strongly urged. 
The report was recommitted. 

On May 2, the report, on motion of Alderman Palmer, was 
made the special order for the next meeting of the board, which 
was held on the Yth of tlie same month, when Mr. Palmer called 
up the special order relative to the school question. The report 
of the Committee on Arts and Sciences was then read, as fol- 
lows : 

The Committee on Public Schools, &c., to whom was referred the petition 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, praying that a portion of the common 
school fund may be given to aid in the instruction of the destitute children 
and helpless orphans who are taught and assisted with clothing, &c., at the 
Methodist free school, ask leave to report : 

That said committee have had the subject under their deliberation, and 
submit the following facts and resolutions : 

That, for nearly forty years, the Methodist Episcopal Church have sup- 
ported a school in this city for the gratuitous instruction of orphan children 
and the children of poor and destitute parents. 

That they have received for several years a share of the common school 
fund, for all children taught in their school. 

That, encouraged by this public munificence, and prompted by a laud- 
able desire to render more e.xtensivc and desirable their free school institu- 
tion, and during the time while they were admitted to participate in the 
school fund, the trustees took a lease, for twenty-one years, of two lots of 

ground in street, and the Society erected thereon a school-house 

thirty by eighty feet, at the expense of about four thousand dollars. 

That, in the year 1836, they were unexpectedly deprived of all participa- 
tion in the common school fund, and they have since found great difficulty 
in sustaining their school. 

That they have usually about two hundred scholars who are instructed 
at their school, among whom there are about fifty orphans, or children of 
parents entirely destitute. 

That for shoes, clothing, &c., their poor children are dependent on pri- 
vate charity, the funds raised for the school being inadequate ; and the peti- 
tioners therefore ask that the Corporation will grant to the said school an 
equitable proportion of the school fund. 

It further appeared before your committee, that the concerns of said 
school were managed by fifteen trustees, chosen by the Methodist Episcopal 
Church. 

That the fund which supports the said school is raised by contributions, 
and is kept distinct from the church fund. 



148 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETI'. 



^ 



That the teachers are of the Methodist religious denomination ; that the 
children of parents of any other religious denomination are admitted into 
the school when there are vacancies. 

That the school-house is distant about fifty or sixty rods from Public 
School No. 7, in Chrystie street ; that the trustees never encourage children 
to leave the public schools, but, on the contrary, refuse to receive such chil- 
dren. 

After a full examination of facts, your committee have come to the unani- 
mous conclusion that the prayer of the petitioners ought to be granted ; 
that they believe such a conclusion to be consistent with equity and justice, 
because the common school fund is raised equally. They believe it is con- 
sistent with the intention of the enlightened Legislature of the great State 
of New York, who, in their statutes which create and distribute their 
bounty to common schools, did not think proper to shut out any school on 
account of its religious connections. 

"Whether the Common Council would deem it expedient (should they 
adopt this report) to admit said school wholly, or only in part, to partici- 
pate in the school fund without a more general enactment, your committee 
have no means of judging. They therefore submit the following resolution, 
which applies only to the destitute children in said school : 

Itcsolved, That, in addition to the institutions in this city entitled to 
receive a portion of the common school fund, and the tax raised for the 
benefit of the public schools within the said city, the school of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church shall be entitled to receive its proportion for all the 
orphans and children of destitute j^arents who may be taught in said 
school, and who shall be duly returned, agreeably to the provisions of the 
revised statutes. Tyler Dibblee, 

Charles H. Hall, 
Henrt Meigs. 

The memorial of the Trustees of the Methodist Society, and 
the remonstrance of the Public School Society, were also read. 
On motion, the board went into Committee of the Whole, Alder- 
man Cebra in the chair. After some time spent in discussion, 
the committee rose, and the chairman reported that the Commit- 
tee of the Whole had disagreed with the report of the Commit- 
tee on Arts and Sciences. 

The President then put the question. Will the board agree to 
the report of the Committee of the Whole ? and a decision being- 
called, the question was decided in the affirmative, as follows : 

Ayes — Aldermen Cebra, Van AVagenen, Sharpe, Lamb, 
Tucker, Jeremiah, Palmer, Woodruff— 8. 

Nays — Aldermen Meigs, Dibblee, and Hall — 3. 

The report of the Committee of the Whole being thus adopt- 
ed, the agitation of the question ceased, and the Trustees of tho 
Methodist Society abandoned their claim. 



PEIMAEY SCHOOLS. 149 



CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORY FROM 1831 TO 1834. 

Infant Schools — Primary Departments — Harlem School — Pay System Abolished — Lot- 
teries — Deaf and Dumb Institution — Transfer of Property to the Corporation — 
New Flans — Delegation to Boston — Primary Schools — Female Teachers Em- 
ployed — Vagrancy and Tiuantsliip — Ordinance of the Common Council — New 
Public Schools, Nos. 13 and 14 — The Asiatic Cholera — Hospital School-Houses — 
Evening Schools — African Free Schools — Report on Reorganization— Manhattan- 
villc Free School — Samuel F. Mott — Public School No. 15 — Opening of No. 14 — 
Nonnal School— Salaries of Teachers — Evening Schools. 

The expansion of tlie school system, in order to enable it to 
keep pace with the wants of the metropolis, continnally made 
new demands upon the labors of the Society. As the number 
of the schools increased, and the population in their respective 
districts became more dense, it was made apparent that a new 
order of facilities was required, and that a better classification 
of the scholars, as to age, proficiency, and qualification, would 
increase the efficiency of the system. An experiment bad been 
made by an association of ladies for the establishment of infant 
schools, and the basement of School Ko. 8, in Grand street, had 
been granted for tiie purpose. A committee to examine this 
school and report upon the question, recommended the adoption 
of the plan which is fully detailed under its appropriate section, 
and also that a committee be appointed to examine into the ex- 
pediency of a revision of the system of instruction in use for the 
" Junior Classes." Tliis committee reported in Jul}^, 1830, and 
submitted a resolution that the 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4tb classes be 
designated as the 3d or Junior Department, and that, where 
practicable, female teachers be employed for the care of the 
schools. The subject was subsequently referred to a new com- 
mittee, who reported a manual and regulations for the Junior 
departments, which were to be called " Primary Departments ; " 
and it was directed that application be made to the Legislature 



150 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

for authority to educate and draw money for children between 
two aud sixteen years of age. 

Overtures were made at this time by the Trustees of the Har- 
lem School for the transfer of that scliool to the Society ; but as 
advantageous arrangements could not be made, and it appeared 
that, at most, only two of the residents at that part of the island 
could be induced to become members of tlie Society, and aid in 
the supervision of the school, it was deemed inexpedient to en- 
tertain the proposition. 

Thus opened the year 1831. 

An application having been made for a school at tlie Five 
Points, a committee was entrusted with the duty of examining 
the location, and reporting the facts in the case. Their recom- 
mendations were in the affirmative ; but the party with whom 
they supposed they had agreed relative to the terms of lease of 
the premises, subsequently refused to fulfil the contract except 
at a very considerable advance, and with restrictions which were 
deemed to be inimical to the objects of the Society, and the 
project was, for the time, abandoned. 

The Society had now under its charge twenty-three schools 
and 7,383 pupils. 

The practical as well as tlie financial results of the " pay sys- 
tem " were observed with much solicitude ; and when, at the 
beginning of the year 1832, the amount of tuition fees had been 
reduced to a comparatively trifiing sum per qiiarter, the treas- 
urer, Samuel F. Mott, in his quarterly report suggested that the 
charges for tuition be abandoned. Accordingly, on the 3d of 
February, on a consideration of the quarterly report of the 
treasurer, it was resolved, '' That the pat system be abolished." 

By the statute which had been in operation many years, and 
in obedience to which the Society had received considerable 
sums of money, the Society and the Institution for the Deaf and 
Dumb had been made the recipients of the tax upon lottery 
dealers. The directors of the latter institution inibrnied the 
board, in February, that they had decided to apply to the Legis- 
lature for a grant of the wliole amount- so collected. The mat- 
ter was referred to a committee, to consider and remonstrate ; 
but, on a conference with the Finance Committee of the Institii- 
tion for Deaf-Mutes, they reported that it would be advisable to 
leave the disposition of the revenue to tlie Legislature, and a 



TEANSFEK OF REAL ESTATE. 151 

resolution was adopted declaring it inexpedient to interfere witli 
the action of that body. Tliis was substantially a surrender of 
the income, and was in harmony with the sentiments of the 
trustees, who had long borne their testimony against the lottery 
system, and felt unreconciled to receive the fruits of " that mode 
of legalized gambling," even that they might be expended in 
the cause of educating and reforming the children of those 
classes who suifered most by that vicious and seductive scheme. 

The transfer of the property held by the Society to the Cor- 
poration of the city, which had been under consideration at vai'i- 
ous times, was again agitated at the beginning of the year 1832. 
The fact that the Society was in the annual receipt of a large 
amount of money from the public funds, part of which was ex- 
pended in the purchase of grounds and the erection of valuable 
buildings, thus enabling the Society to become possessed of a 
constantly accumulating mass of real estate, was urged on every 
occasion by the advocates of opposing interests as a formidable 
objection to the institution. The pretext that the Society was 
" a close corporation," perpetuating itself by the choice of its 
own members and officers, was not weakened by the plea of its 
possession of so much real estate, which M'as obtained by the 
means of taxes upon " the people ; " and the trustees, ever anx- 
ious to promote the primary and noble object of the enterprise, 
and having no personal interests to subserve, were as desirous 
of lodging the title in the city as any of their opponents. Their 
desire was, however, just as strong that the proj^erty should not 
be diverted to other purposes, and that they should not be de- 
prived of the power of carrying out the scheme of popular in- 
struction whenever the wants of the city called for the purchase 
of additional locations and the erection of new buildings. At 
the meeting held on the 14tli of February, the following pream- 
ble and resolutions were considered and laid on the table, and 
subsequently discussed, and the matter referred to a committee: 

Whereas, By an act of the Legislature passed January 8, 1826, the Public 
School Society was authorized to convey their school edifices, and other 
real estate, to the Corporation of the city of New York, upon such terms 
and conditions, and in such form, as should be agreed upon between the 
parties, taking back from the said Corporation a perpetual lease thereof, 
upon condition that the same shall be exclusively and perpetually ajjplied 
to the pui-poses of education ; and, whereas, it is deemed expedient and 



152 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOCIETT. 

proper that the authority given by the act of the Legislature above recited, 
except so far as relates to School No. 1, should now be exercised ; therefore, 
Resolved, That a respectful communication be made to the honorable the 
Common Council, of the readiness of this board to make such conveyance 
to the city, and to accept from the city in return such lease as above men- 
tioned, and that a committee of three trustees be appointed to arrange the 
terms and conditions of the transfer, and the form in ■which the same shall 
be made. 

The transfer contemplated was not carried into cft'ect, and 
the school property remained in the care of the Society untU 
transferred to the Board of Education, in 1853. Tlie Corpora- 
tion did not deem it advisable or necessary to remove the prop- 
erty from the jurisdiction of the Society. 

The State Superintendent had devoted a considerable portion 
of his annual report to the Legislature to a review of the school 
system of New York city, and had made important suggestions 
relative to the improvement of the schools. At the meeting of 
the board held on the 21st of the same month, the report was 
submitted, and, on consultation, a committee was appointed to 
report such plans as might be deemed calculated to meet the 
necessities of the schools. This committee was composed of 
Samuel F. Mott, James I. Roosevelt, Jr., Hiram Ketchum, R. 
Havens, J. B. Brinsmade, Lindley Murray, and R. Sedgwict. 

The committee acted promptly upon the matters referred to 
them, and .appointed Mr. Sedgwick and Samuel W. Seton as a 
sub-committee to visit Boston, for the purpose of inspecting the 
school system of that city. The deputation wei'e deeply im- 
pressed with the flourishing state of the schools and the better- 
developed system of instruction in use in that cit^', as well as the 
more advantageous classification with regard to age and degree 
of attainments of the pupils. The committee, deeming a very 
material change of the whole system necessary, reported their 
views in part on the 4tli of May, confining their recommenda- 
tions to the introduction of "PEniAET Schools" for young chil-- 
dren who resided at too great distances from the schools already 
established. The recommendations were to the effect that ten 
primary schools be established, under the care of a " Committee 
on Pi-imary Schools ; " that female teachers be employed, at a 
salary of $200 per aimum, with an assistant, at a salary of $50 
per annum ; that the ages be from four to ten years, and that, 



VAGRANCY AND TEUANTSHIP. 153 

■when scholars should reach the age of seven years, tliey should 
be transferred to the upper schools, if fitted to enter the sixth 
class. 

The resohitions were adopted, and Messrs. S. W. Seton, G. 
T. Trimble, J. B. Brinsmade, J. H. Taylor, Mahlon Day, Heman 
Averill, arid Samuel Dcniilt, were appointed as the Committee 
on Primary Schools. For specific information, the reader is re- 
ferred to the cliapter devoted to this grade of the schools. The 
growth of the city exhibited a corresponding increase in the 
multitude of its vagrant and untrained youth. The original 
object of the Society grew in importance with each year of its 
existence, and the adoption of remedial measures pressed upon 
the attention of the board with greater urgency than at any pre- 
vious period. 

The views entertained of this question may be inferred from 
the following passage, contained in the twenty-seventh annual 
report, adopted in the month of May : 

The city of Boston, with a population more than two thirds less, ex- 
pends annually nearly double the largest sum heretofore appropriated in a 
year to the purposes of education in New York. Their system should, of 
course, be much more complete and effectual than ours ; and although, in 
'some respects, it is so, yet it may be stated with confidence that the New 
York schools compare favorably with those of the same grades in Boston. 

Truantship in that city is deemed a criminal offence in children, and 
those who cannot be reclaimed are taken from their parents, and placed in 
an institution called the " School of Reformation," corresponding, in many 
respects, with our House of Refuge, from which they are bound out by the 
competent authority, without again returning to their parents. As a neces- 
sary consequence, the percentage of absentees, or the difference between 
the number of children on register and the actual attendance, is less in the 
Boston public schools than those of New York. This subject has during 
the past, as in former years, received the attention of the trustees, and will 
probably be brought before the next board, in connection with the general 
subject of non-attendance at any school, which exists to such an alarming 
extent in this city. Efforts have been made by the present board to obtain, 
in some way, the active cooperation of the city government in applying a 
remedy to this extensive evil. Every political compact supposes a surren- 
der of some individual rights for the general good. In a Government like 
ours, " founded on the principle that the only true sovereignty is the will of 
the people," universal education is acknowleged by all to be not only of the 
first importance, but necessary to the permanency of our free institutions. 
If, then, persons are found so reckless of the best interests of their children, 
and so indifferent to the public good, as to withhold from them that instruc- 



154: THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tiou without wliicli tliey cannot beneficially discharge those civil and politi- 
cal duties which devolve on them in after life, it becomes a serious and 
important question whether so much of the natm-al right of controlling 
their children may not be alienated as is necessary to qualify them for use- 
fulness, and reuder them safe and consistent members of the political body. 
The expediency of such a measure would be confined pretty much — per- 
haps entirely — to large seaport towns, and, in its practical operation, would 
be found to affect but a few native citizens. The number of families arriv- 
ing in this city almost daily from Europe is so great as to require some 
measure of the kind ; for the means heretofore used to induce the attend- 
ance of their children at the public schools have proved insufficient. The 
objectionable manner in which these children are employed, on their arrival 
here, needs no description ; it cannot have escaped the notice of any observ- 
ing citizen. 

The subject having been brought to the notice of the city 
authorities, proceedings were had in the Common Council which 
resulted in the adoption of the resolutions which follow : 

Resolved, That the Trustees of the Public School Society, and the Com- 
missioners of the Almshouse, be requested to make it known to parents, and 
all persons, whether emigrants or otherwise, having children in charge 
capable to receive instruction, and being between the ages of five and twelve 
years, that, unless said parents and persons do or shall send such children to 
some public or other daily school, for such time in each year as the Trustees 
of the Public School Society may from time to time designate, that all such 
persons must consider themselves without the pale of public charities, and 
not entitled, in case of misfortune, to receive public favor. 

Resolved, That the Trustees of the Public School Society, and the Com- 
missioners of the Almshouse, are hereby authorized to take such steps as 
they may deem expedient, from time to time, to give the necessary publicity 
to the preceding resolution ; and the commissioners are hereby requested to 
use such means as may be in their power and discretion to carry the same 
into effect. 

Adopted by the Board of Aldermen, April 23, 1833. 

Adopted by the Board of Assistants, May 7, 1832. 

Approved by the Mayor, May 10, 1832. 

Twenty thousand copies of these resolutions, in tlie form of 
a circular, were directed to be printed and distributed by the 
agent of the Society. 

Tlie Board of Trustees recommended Sunday-school teachers, 
the officers and agents of charitable institutions, and others, to 
urge constantly upon all their pupils or beneficiaries the impor- 
tance of attending tlic public schools. 



THE CHOLERA SEASON. 155 

At the same meeting of the board, the Finance Committee 
sabmitted a statement, showing that the treasurer woiihl have 
at his disposal, at the end of the fiscal year of the Society, a bal- 
ance of about $37,000. This favorable state of the treasury led 
the board to adopt a resolution directing the appropriation of 
$10,000 toward the payment of the loan from the Savings Bank, 
and also another resolution to locate a school in the Eleventh 
Ward, and in the vicinity of Corlear's Hook. A Committee on 
Locations was appointed, consisting of Messrs. J. Heard, Benja- 
min L. Swan, Charles Oakley, Samuel F. Mott, William W. 
Fox, and R. C. Cornell. In November, the committee reported 
the purchase of four lots in Madison street, for No. 13, at a cost 
of $8,000 ; and, in December, the further purchase of four lots 
in Houston (then North) street, near Norfolk, for $6,000. The 
Building Committee proceeded promptly with tlieir duties in 
reference to the erection of houses upon these locations. 

The year 1832 is memorable in the sanitary history of the 
city, as the period of the first visitation to the New World of 
the Asiatic cholera. Its presence in the city, and its desolating 
sweep, arrested business, and impelled tens of thousands to leave 
their dwellings for a temporary residence in the country. Many 
also removed from one section of the city to another. Some of 
the school buildings were used as hospitals, and the schools gen- 
ei'ally were dismissed in advance of the usual season. The com- 
mittee having the matter in charge made a report of the pro- 
ceedings during the summer, fi'om which the following facts are 
gleaned : 

On the 6th of July, the committee were informed that the 
Board of Health intended to take possession of No. 4. They 
waited on the Mayor and the Board of Health, and i-emon- 
strated against using the school as a hospital, but to no purpose. 
The school was dismissed, the desks and furniture were taken 
out, and the building appropjriated for the sick. On the Otli of 
July, No. 1 was closed. On the 15th, the Board of Health 
gave directions to close No. 2, in order that the building should 
be occupied as a hospital. On the 17th, Nos. 8 and 10 were 
closed ; on the 18th, No. 11 was also closed ; and on the 20th, 
No. 5 was dismissed. A large number of children having been 
sent to the " Sailors' Snug Harbor " from other poitions of the 
city, a temporary school was opened during the season at that 



156 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 60CIETT. 

place, a building being granted for the purpose. The school was 
kept open from the 27th of July to the 31st of August, two ses- 
sions daily, seven days in the week, making a term of seven 
weeks of five days each, with an average' of 101 pupils. 

The epidemic passed away, and the schools resumed their 
Bessions in the fall, at such times as were deemed expedient by 
the respective sections having them in charge. 

The committee having in charge the recommendation to reor- 
ganize the system, made a partial report in November, specially 
with' reference to evening schools. The committee reported a 
resolution declaring it inexpedient to establish evening schools, 
and a second resolution, offering accommodations to such per- 
sons or associations as would take the care of such schools under 
their own charge. The first resolution was laid on the table, 
and the second, after having been negatived, was reconsidered, 
and referred to James I. Roosevelt, Jr., to report upon the legal 
right of the Society to appropriate moneys to schools not under 
the charge of the board. The report was adverse to the appro- 
priation, and the opinion was adopted in tlie form of a resolu- 
tion, declaring it inexjDedient to make a distribution of its funds 
to schools not under the management of the Society. 

The Committee on Primary Schools reported that locations 
for five schools had been selected, these being the initiative of 
that branch of the system. 

In November, the board received a communication from the 
Ti-ustees of the African Free Schools, stating that they had ap- 
pointed a committee to confer with a similar committee of the 
Society, relative to a union of the schools and a transfer of the 
colored schools to the Society. Messrs. Samuel Demilt, George 
T. Trimble, J. R. Hard, S. F. Mott, and Lindley Murray, were 
selected for the purpose. 

The committee on the improvement of the system, having 
been interrupted in their plans bj'' the prevailing epidemic of. 
the sumnjer months, renewed their labors with increased zeal 
and earnestness in the fall, and, at the meeting in December, 
submitted a report, accompanied with a revised code of the by- 
laws, which foi'med the subject of protracted discussion, until 
they were finally adopted, after a long and careful examination. 
The general principles and measures recommended by the com- 
mittee were the followinrr ■ 



IMPROVEMENTS IN THE SYSTEM. "157 

The extension of the system of primary schools, so as to em- 
brace every portion of the city ■where the younger cliildreu were 
unable to attend the larger schools, as already contemplated and 
partially introduced. 

Tiie consequent iuiproved classitication of pupils in the upper 
schools. 

The extension and advance of the grade of studies pursued 
in the public schools. 

Tlie establishing of a high school, or academy, where the ■ 
higlier branches should be taught. 

The appointment of a larger number of qualified teachere, 
retaining, however, the monitorial system, which would be im- 
proved by this measure. 

To accept the aid of gentlemen not connected with the board, 
in the care of the primary schools, the large number of which 
would call for the services of more committees, or " sections," 
than could be constituted from the board at that time. 

To discontinue the system of rewards. 

The appointment of a superintendent, or agent, in place of 
the " visitor," whose special attention should be given to the 
primary schools. 

To regulate the depository and mode of distributing supplies. 

The year being now at its close, the maturing of these plans 
became the prominent measure for 1833, during which year the 
system, materially improved and expanded, was placed in a 
position of increased strength and importance. 

The operations of the year 1833 were opened in the board by 
tlie presentation of a memorial from the Trustees of the Manhat- 
tanvilie Free School, asking the Society to adopt it as a part of 
their system. The trustees had pi'epared a bill for enactment by 
the Legislature authorizing the transfer, which was afterward 
presented to that body ; but, after some discussion, it failed to 
meet approval, and was lost. The transfer was, accordingly, not 
made at that time, although it was subsequently consummated 
under the authority of the Board of Education. 

Pending the discussion of the new code of by-laws, the com- 
mittee submitted a new chapter relative to evening schools, and 
a resolution was adopted declaring it to be expedient to establish 
evening schools under the care of the board. 

Tlic proposition from the Trustees of the African Free Schools 



158 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

for their transfer was reported upon fevorably by ihc Committee 
of Conference ; but an impediment being discovered which made 
the authority of the Legislature necessary to secure the title to 
the property when transferred, further action was postponed. 

In October, Samuel F. Mott, the Treasurer, tendered his 
resignation. The resignation was accepted, and George T. Trim- 
ble was elected as his successor. 

An application for a school from a number of respectable 
citizens in that portion of the city near the Third avenue, be- 
tween Fourteenth and Twenty-eighth streets, was presented to 
the board. The Mayor, Gideon Lee, united in the request, and 
a Committee on Locations was appointed to report thereon. 
Messrs. Charles Oakley, J. Heard, B. S. Collins, Benjamin L. 
Swan, and J. N. Wells, were selected for this purpose. The 
committee were directed to select a location in the vicinity of 
Avenue C and Seventh street. 

On the 8th of November, School ISTo. 14, in Houston street, 
was opened, on which occasion Peter A. Jay, the President of 
tlie Society, and lion. Gideon Lee, the Mayoi-, delivered appro- 
|iriatc addresses. The school, at the following examination, met 
the expectations of the trustees — 283 boys, 256 girls, and 261 in 
llic primary department being present. 

The report of the Committee on Locations was submitted at 
the meeting of the board in February, 1834, at which time they 
reported the purchase of four lots in Twenty-seventh street, 
between Second and Third avenues, at $800 per lot ; and the 
committee were authorized to select and purchase locations for 
six primary schools. 

Communications were received at the same meeting from a 
committee, of which Gideon Lee was chairman, and T. Dwight, 
Jr., secretary, appointed by a public meeting of citizens to pro- 
mote the formation of a school for the special instruction of 
common school teachers ; and from a joint meeting of conference 
of that committee, and a committee of the council of the Uni- 
versity, of which Rev. Archibald Maclay, D.D., was chairman, 
inviting the appointment of a committee on behalf of the board 
to confer with them on the subject. A committee was accord- 
ingly appointed, consisting of Robert C. Cornell, Gulian C. Ver- 
planclv, and J. I. Roosevelt, Jr. 

The board were enabled in tiieir annual report, published in 



EVENING SCHOOLS. 159 

May, 1834, to state that the number of pupils in the schools was 
11,2G5 ; the receiiDts, including a balance of $15,000, were 
$100,056.31, and the expenditures were $91,656.10. The debt of 
the Society amounted to $40,000, due to the Bank for Savings, 
and secured by bond and mortgage on the ]3roperty of the So- 
ciety. 

The salaries of the teachers had been raised during the year, 
so as to give the principals of the male departments $1,000, to 
principals of female departments, $400, and to assistant teachers 
in the female and primary departments, $160 to $250. The sal- 
ary of monitors ranged from $25 to $200. There were then 
employed forty-nine teachers, twenty-eight assistant teachers, 
and seventy-five monitors, to whom $35,600 were annually paid 
for their services. 

The experiment of evening schools for apprentices had been 
made during the winter of 1833-34, four schools having been 
kept open for six months, from October to March. The result 
was satisfactory, although some difficulties had arisen which 
served to impair their usefulness. 

The close of the twenty-ninth year of the existence of the 
Society, in view of the extent of the system which had been 
developed by its labors and the good which had been done, was 
an occasion of pleasure and congratulation. The promising con- 
dition of the schools, the practical value of the new measures, 
which had been fairly tried and found eminently useful, the lib- 
eral endowment from the public treasury, and the evidences of 
growing interest with which the institution was regarded by 
many of the prominent men of the city, as well as by distin- 
guished strangers, were at once rewards and incentives of no 
small magnitude, and the board addressed itself to the labors of 
the future with confidence and hope. 



160 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL 60CIETT. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BISHOP DUBOIS AND PUBLIC SCHOOL No. 5.— 1834. 

Application of Bishop Dubois to the Trustees — Action of the Board — Committee 
Appointed — Report of the Committee — Expurgation of School-Books. 

The reader will recollect that, in tlie year 1821, previous to 
the controversy with the Trustees of the Bethel schools, the 
Board of Trustees of the Public School Society had resolved to 
occupy the ground below Bleecker street, and between Broad- 
way and Bowery, by the erection of a commodious school-build- 
ing. The location was chosen in Mott street, not far from St. 
Patrick's Cathedral, on the spot which it still occupies. The con- 
dition of the children attracted the attention of Rev. Dr. Du- 
bois, then Roman Catholic bishop of tlie diocese of New York, 
and he was earnestly solicitous to improve the social and moral 
condition of the multitudes of young persons of both sexes who 
inhabited that portion of the city. No man professing the Chris- 
tian faith, and a witness of the destitution, moral and intellect- 
ual, of hundreds who were either nominally or really professors 
of the faith wliich he taught, could fail to be profoundly con- 
cerned at the spectacle. The benevolent bishop, moved as well 
by his philanthropy as by his zeal to have the young instructed 
in the doctrines of his Church, devised a plan for making avail- 
able all the agencies and facilities which could be used in this 
benevolent object. He therefore made an application to the 
Board of Trustees in the following form, which was laid before 
that body at a meeting held on the 1st of August, 183-t : 

The Roman Catholic Bishop, anxious to promote the education of the 
children belonging to his persuasion around St. Patrick's, begs leave to 
submit to the Board of Managers of the Public Schools ti.e following re- 
quests, which he considers as sufficient to ensure the confidence of Catholic 
parents, and remove the false excuses of those who cover their neglect under 
the false pretext of religion, which they do not practice. He assures tlio 



BISHOP DUBOIS. 161 

board that he is influenced by no sectarian motive, no views of proselytism, 
and that he is as much averse to encroach upon the conscience of others, as 
to see others encroach upon his. As his demands are grounded upon a long 
experience of the evils produced l>y the vrant of tliose regulations — abuses 
which it would require a long time to explain — he hopes the board will rely 
upon his candor in this case. 

1st. That the board would permit him to present a Catholic teacher for 
that school, subject, of course, to the examination and approbation of the 
board, and also to the removal by the board, whenever they think it fit, 
according to the rules admitted for the other schools. 

2d. That the use of the school shall be admitted to the Bishop, or 
clergyman appointed by him, with a society of young men employed by 
him, on Sundays, for the purpose of giving to the Roman Catholic children 
instructions in their religion ; and of keeping a Sunday school in the eve- 
ning for poor ajjprentices and servants, who have no other time to devote to 
their educatiou. 

3d. That no books shall be received in the school but such as will have 
been submitted to the Bishop, as free from sectarian principles, or calum- 
nies against his religion. And as many otherwise good books may require 
only that such passages should be expunged, or left out in binding, that on 
the recommendation of the Bishop, the board will order it to be done. 

4th. That the bishop will be permitted to visit the school eveiy now 
and then, and submit such observations to the board as he may think calcu- 
lated to improve the system of education, but so that their final adoption 
may be left entirely to the judgment of the board. 

5th. The bishop, moreover, begs leave to have evening instruction on 
religion given only to the Roman Catholic children by a clergyman appoint- 
ed ad hoc by him after the school is broken up, any time between five and 
seven. 

6th. As the School of the Sisters has been burnt in the late conflagra- 
tion in Mulberry street, by which accident more than two hundred girls 
have been thrown out of education, if the upper part of the school could 
be conceded to them, with a different passage from that of the boys, until, 
at least, another school-liouse could be built on their own premises, this 
new favor would add to the gratitude of the bishop ; but, if found imprac- 
ticable, may be dispensed with by the bishop having that school in the very 
inconvenient, unwholesome, and dark school-room under St. Patrick's. 

Should the above requests be objectionable, could not one of the school- 
houses, which the bishop heard was for sale for want of suflicient scholars, 
be obtained en easy terms, and bought by the Trustees of St. Patrick's ? 

The proposition wns considered, and, after mature discission, 
the following preamble and resolutions were adopted : 

Whereas, The Constitution of the Public School Society ofil'rs and en- 
sures to all classes and denominations of our fellow-citizens a free and equal 
participation in the advantages which it attbrds ; and, wherea.i, the religious 
11 



( 



162 THE I'LBr.IC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

and moral instruction is given in the public schools entirely free from sec- 
tarianism, and it always has been and is now the design and endeavor of 
the trustees so to conduct them as that all sects may have their children 
educated therein, without fear of their peculiar religious views being inter- 
fered with ; and, whereas, the propositions made by the Catholic bishop 
contain requirements of privileges from this Societj', which have never been 
asked by, or granted to, any other, and which would be incompatible with 
the constitutiton : therefore, 

Resolved, That it is both unconstitutional and inexpedient to accede to 
said propositions, but that it is deemed by the trustees highly desirable that 
the Catholic children generally should attend the public schools, and that 
the interest and cooperation of the bishop be requested in promoting this 
object. 

Reaohed, That a committee be appointed to wait on the bishop, furnish 
him with a copy of the preceding preamble and resolution, and give him 
such verbal explanations as may be proper ; and particularly, that they in- 
form him that the use of one of the rooms in each of the public school 
buildings is freely granted to any denomination of Christians for Sabbath- 
school instruction ; and that, if there be in any of the school-books used 
in the schools, matter which can fairly be considered objectionable by any 
sect, the trustees would deem it a duty to have such matters erased, or the 
use of the book discontinued. 

Tlie committee to confer with Bishop Dubois was appointed, 
in accordance with the resolution to that effect, and consisted of 
Messrs. Lindiey Murray, Charles Oakley, and James F. Depey- 
ster. They discharged the duties assigned to them, and had an 
interesting and amicable interview with the venerable prelate. 
At the meeting of the board held on tlie 7th of Tiovcmber fol- 
lowing, they submitted a report, which reads as follows : 

The committee appointed to confer with the Roman Catholic bishop 
respectfully report : 

That they have had a satisfactory interview with Bishoji Dubois, fur- 
nished him with a copy of the resolutions adopted by the board, and gave 
such verljal explanations as appeared proper. The committee propose that 
a letter of the following import be addressed by the board to the bishop 
and trustees of the Catholic schools, viz : 

To Bis?wp Dulois and the Trustees of the Roman Catholic Schools : 

Gentlemen : The attention of the Trustees of the Public School Society 
having been recently called to the consideration of the expediency of some 
means being adopted to induce a more general attendance of the children 
of Catholics at the public schools, and Bishop Dubois having submitted 
several propositions which were deemed by the board inconsistent with the 
constitution of the Society, on account of their requiring certain privileges 



BISHOP DUBOIS. 163 

for one sect which had never been, nor could constitutionally be, granted to 
any, the trustees, impressed with a strona; desire that tlie children of our 
Roman Catholic population should all attend the public schools as far as 
their education is not otherwise provided for, would respectfully invite such 
lay-members of the Catholic Church as feel an interest in this important 
subject, and are disposed to take an active part in the management of these 
schools, to become members of the Public School Society, and of its Board 
of Trustees. 

The board have always desired, and do now decidedly wish, so to con- 
duct the schools under their charge, as that all Christian sects shall feel 
entire freedom in sending their children to them. And if there be in the 
system of the schools, or in the books used in them, any matter which can 
reasonably be objected to by any denomiuation, they would gladly remove 
the same. And this invitation is given with the conviction that, if accejited, 
the gentlemen who may unite with us will have no difficulty in inducin-; 
such alterations, if any be needed, as will or should convince the members of 
your Cliurch, that they may freely send their children to our schools, without 
fear of their peculiar views being in any degree interfered with. 

By order and in behalf of the trustees. 

The letter submitted by the committee was adopted, and 
ordered to bo signed by the President and Secretary, and trans- 
mitted to Bishop Dubois and the trustees of the schools connect- 
ed with that church. 'No reply was ever sent to the communi- 
cation, and the matter was abandoned. 

The proposition of the bishop relative to the expimging or 
erasing of certain offensive passages from the school-books was 
not then acted on ; but on a revival of the school question, in 
1841-42, a revision was carefully executed li/ order of the 
hoard. • 



164 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 



CHAPTEE IX. 

HISTORY COXTIXUED.— 1834 TO 1839. 

Transfer of the African Schools to the Public School Society — The Manumission Soci- 
ety — School for Female Monitors — George T. Trimble — Transfer of Property to 
the Corporation — Library for Teachers — House of Refuge — School for Male Moni- 
tors — Public School No. 16 — School for Colored Children — Music in No. 10 — 
Death of Lloyd D. Windsor — School in Oak Street — Superintendent of Repairs — 
Workshop — Loan — Schools for German Children — Study of French — Public 
School No. 16 Ojiened — Surplus Revenue and the School Fund — Opening of Cen- 
tre Street — Public School No. 1 Removed to William Street — African Schools — 
Trustees' Hall — Death of Joseph Lancaster — Vagrancy — Religious Instruction — 
Primary Schools — School for German Children — Lots for the Trustees' Hall Pur- 
chased. 

The year 1834 was rendered specially interesting by the 
transfer of the schools for colored children, under the care of the 
Manumission Society, to the Public School Society, and the 
foundation of the Female Normal School, under the name of 
" School for Monitors." 

The impediment which had affected the power of the Manu- 
mission Society to give a perfect title to the property proposed 
fo be transferred, was subjected to a close investigation, and an 
application to the Legislature was found necessary. This appli- 
cation was made, and the authority having been granted, nego- 
tiations were immediately renewed, and on the 1st of August 
the Coinmittee of Conference were enabled to report the comple- 
tion of their labors. The property consisted of two lots of 
ground in Mulberry street, and the perpetual lease, for school 
purposes, of two lots in William street, both sites having brick 
buildings thereon. In addition to the real estate, the buildings 
contained fixtures, furniture, books, cabinets of specimens, &c., 
as also similar apparatus in seven hired rooms, where smaller 
schools were kept. The total appraised value of the property 
was .$12,132.22. The number of scholars on register on the 1st 
of May was 1,G08, with an average of 757. The school moneys 



A TEACHERS LIBEART. 165 

ill the possession of the Manuniissioii Society, or to ■which it was 
entitled for the year, amounted to $9,304.64, which sum was 
paid over to the Treasurer of the Public School Society. 

Resolutions comprising the proceedings of the committee 
were adopted, and the following named gentlemen from the 
Manumission Society were elected members of the board : 
Messrs. Israel Corse, Thomas Bussing, Edmund Willetts, Henry 
Hinsdale, Charles Walker, Edmund Haviland, Thomas L. Jew- 
ett, William L. Stone, and Ira B. Underbill. These gentlemen, 
together with Samuel Wood and Mahlon Day, were appointed a 
" section," or committee, for the care of the colored schools. 
The title of No. 2, in Mulberry street, was changed to No. 1, 
and No. 1, in William street, was changed to a primary school. 

Messrs. Samuel W. Seton, George T. Trimble, Samuel De- 
milt, Ii'a B. Underbill, and Thomas Bussing, were named as a 
committee to report on the system of instruction pursuetl in the 
schools, and recommend such changes as should make it conform 
to that of the schools for white children. 

The Executive Committee, at the same meeting, submitted 
the report of a sub-committee on the expediency of establishing 
a school for female monitors, or normal school, which recom- 
mended the early organization of a school which should hold one 
session of five hours on Saturday of each week, in Public School 
No. 5, in Mott street. The report was referred back to the Ex- 
ecutive Committee, to be carried into effect at the earliest day. 

In November, George T. Trimble, the Treasurer, resigned 
his office, his predecessor, Sanmel F. Mott, having returned from 
his visit to Europe. The latter gentleman, being nominated for 
the office, was unanimously elected to perform the duties which 
he had previously discharged with so much fidelity and ability. 

The Board of Supervisors of the city and county held a 
meeting on the loth of October, at which it was resolved that a 
special committee be appointed, to confer with the board of the 
Society relative to the transfer of the property to the city, tak- 
ing back a perpetual lease of the same for school purposes. The 
proceedings were laid before the trustees at the quarterly meet- 
ing in November, and a committee of fifteen was appointed on 
behalf of the Society to negotiate the transfer. 

In February, 1835, resolutions were adopted appointing a 
committee to procure a librarj' for the trustees and teachers, and 



166 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETV. 

authorizing the expenditure of $100 the first year, and $50 
annually thereafter, for works on education and science suitable 
for common schools, and such periodicals and other publications 
as related to popular instruction. Messrs. Gulian C. Verplanck, 
Hamilton Fish, and J. E. Collins were appointed as the com- 
mittee. 

A proposition submitted to the board by the managers of tlie 
House of Eefuge, to adopt the school in that institution as one 
of their number, was subsequently reported upon adversely, and 
the measure was abandoned. 

The necessity for a school in which instruction of a higher 
grade should be given, had been already frequently urged upon 
the board in various forms, and at the quarterly meeting in Feb- 
ruary, the board directed the Executive Committee to take the 
question of establishing such an mstitution into consideration. 
In November, the committee reported in favor of a school for 
male monitors, and the board authorized the organization of 
such a school, to be held every evening, except Saturday and 
Sunday of each week, from October to March, in No. 5, and the 
rest of the year on Saturdays, at school-house No. 7. 

The Committee on Locations reported in jfavor of the pur- 
chase of four lots of ground in Fifth street, between Avenues C 
and D, and also two lots of ground in Laurens street, for a school 
for colored children ; both of which were confirmed by the 
board. 

The number of pupiis at this time in the schools was 17,318, 
and the expenses had been, for the year, about $115,000. 

The year 1S36 opened upon the Society with promises of 
increasing usefulness, which were at the time unclouded by any 
signs of adverse influences. The diligent care and faithfulness 
of the board had been guaranteed by its previous history, and 
thev were cheerfully given with a singleness of purpose unsur- 
passed by that of any similar institution in the world. 

A new proposition was now destined to awaken the interest 
of the board and of the schools. Mr. Darius E. Jones, a gentle- 
man of cultivation and liberal views, who was a profes^onal 
musician, had, for a period of six months, been giving lessons in 
vocal music in School No. 10 ; and the quarterly report from 
that section, presented at the February meeting of tlie board in 
1836, proposed and recommended the introduction of vocal 



SUPERINTENDENT OF IIEPAIES. 107 

music as a branch of instruction in tlie schools. The scheme 
was referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. Theodore 
Dwight, Jr., James I. Eoosevelt, Jr., Jolm Morrison, Samuel B. 
Chiids, Samuel F. Mott, J. K Hurd, and A. E. Lawrence. The 
committee reported six months afterward, without any declara- 
tion of policy other than that the matter should be left to the 
discretion of the several sections, and with the proviso tiiat, 
wbere introduced, the Society should bear no expense in conse- 
quence, and that the lessons in music should not interfere with 
the regular course of school studies. 

The Society and the cause of education met with a great loss, 
in the early part of the year 1836, by the death of Lloyd D. 
Windsor, Principal of No. 1, which position he had held for 
twenty years, with great honor to himself and advantage to the 
school. His loss was universally lamented, and he left behind 
him a hallowed memory and an unsullied name. 

At the meeting of the board held in August, the Property 
Committee Avas authorized to erect a house on the lots in Fifth 
street, for No. 16. 

The Committee on Locations had selected a piece of property 
on Eoosevelt and Oak streets, near Pearl, and, acting under the 
powers vested in them, had negotiated for its purchase, at the 
price of $21,500. The board ap])roved the selection of the com- 
mittee, and in May. 1837, directed the President and Secretary 
to complete the purchase and affix the seal of the Society to the 
usual forms. 

Peter A. Jay, Esq., the President of the Society, and Lind- 
ley Murray, Secretary, having declined a renorainatiim, their 
offices were filled, at the annual election, by the choice of Robert 
C. Cornell as President, and Anthony P. Halsey as Secretary. 

Considerations of economy, both in time and expense, sug- 
gested to the board the propriety o;' employing a Superintendent 
of Repairs, who should have the care of the carpenter's work, 
painting, glazing, &c., required upon the school-houses. The 
bills for carpenter's work alone averaged from seven to eight 
hundred dollars per month, and the remaining items of expendi- 
ture for other work made a considerable aggregate duiing the 
year. The Property Committee were therefore directed, early 
in the year, to examine the facts and make such recommenda- 
tions as appeared to them necessary to meet the requirements of 



168 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the system. A report from the committee, presented in August, 
advised the erection of a workshop, and the ajjpointment of a 
competent foreman, at a salary not to exceed eight luindred dol- 
lars per annum. The recommendations of the committee were 
adopted, and tiie new feature thus introduced was successfully 
and advantageously put into operation. A workshop was erect- 
ed on the rear of the lots belonging to tlie Society, known as No. 
Gl Thompson street, and Amuon McVey was appointed foreman, 
at a salary of $750 a year. 

At the close of the year, the board, in view of the demand 
for additional means to purchase lots and erect buildings, ordered 
a loan of $30,000, to be secured by bond and mortgage upon the 
prtfjierty of the Society. 

The great increase in the number of children of emigrants 
from Europe suggested the adaptation of the system to meet the 
wants of that class of the population, as far as it could be done 
consistently with tlie objects of the Society and the powers vest- 
ed in them by the Legislature. The rapid increase in the popu- 
lation speaking the German language, and the very large num- 
ber of children who were j)rofessedly shut out of school in con- 
sequence of the absence of opportunities to speak or learn in 
their own tongue, were made the subject of earnest consideration 
by tlie board, at tlie meeting in November of this year (1837). 
Several communications had been laid before the Executive 
Committee at its session on the 2d of the month, and the matter 
was referred to a sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Lyman 
'Cobb, Joseph E. Collins, Lindley Murray, G. T. Trimble, and 
A. P. Ilalsey. This committee siibmitted a resolution to the 
board, which M-as unanimously approved, and is introduced in 
the following report to the Executive Committee. As this ques- 
tion afterward became identified, in another form, with the name 
of a gentleman who held a high position in the State, the pro- 
ceedings in relation to this measure are entitled to a full detail, 
independently of their own importance. The report is as fol- 
lows : 

The committee to whom was referred the application of John Rudy and 
Thomas Cook, for the establishment of schools for the benefit of German 
children, have had that subject under consideration, and hare given the 
attention to it which its imj^ortance demands. They are satisfied that a 
necessity exists for affording to that class of our population opportunities 



GEEMAN AND FKENCH. 169 

for receiving instruction which our present schools do not supply. Under 
this conviction, and knowing that the present by-laws do not invest the 
Executive Committee with power to establish schools of a diiferent character 
from the present primaries, they presented to the trustees, at their meeting 
on the 17th of November, the following resolution, which was unanimously 
adopted : 

Besohed, That the Primary School Committee be authorized, under the 
advice of the Executive Committee, to establish one or more primary schools 
for the instruction of German children in the English language ; and that 
the operation of existing by-laws be so for suspended as to allow the admis- 
sion of children of that class to these schools from the ages of four to sis- 
teen years ; also, to place the schools for boys under the care of male teach- 
ers, with such other modifications as may be necessary. 

Believing that much good may be done to this class of emigrants by 
thus affording them the means of instruction, the committee rccommefid 
that an experiment be made with two schools for children of the ages con- 
templated in the above resolution ; and as the object is simply to jjreparc 
the children to pursue their education in the existing public schools, and 
thus to become identified with our native populaticm, from doing which 
they are debarred by the causes stated in the ajjplications, they further 
recommend that the term of attendance be limited to twelve months, and 
that it be particularly urged upon the sections, under whose care they may 
be placed, to give attention to this part of the subject, and to insist very 
rigidly ou a compliance with this rule ; and in special cases where the re- 
moval to a pulilic school may be beneficially made at an earlier period, to 
cause it to be done. 

They therefore ask leave to introduce the following resolution : 

Bemhed, That the Primary School Committee be requested to open two 
schools for the instruction of German children in the English language, 
under such regulations as may be necessary, and in compliance with the 
general scope of the preceding remarks. 

An eifort was made to introduce another novelty into the 
schools, by the formation of classes for the study of French. 
The proceeding was altogether iin6fficial, and, the facts having 
been brought to the attention of the Executive Committee, the 
Committee on Teachers and Monitors investigated the matter, 
and made the following report : 

The committee on teachers and monitors report on the subject of instruc- 
tion in the French language, that they find on inquiry that a teacher of 
French offered his services some months since at Public School No. 10, pre- 
vious to the present teacher of the male department taking charge thereof; 
that with the implied, if not expressed, sanction of one or more of the 
section, he was permitted to attend one hour a day, three times a week, and 
to instruct all such of the scholars, male and female, as wished to attend, 



170 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

and were willing to pay one dollar per quarter, the hour appropriated to 
this object not being permitted or intended to interfere with the usual school 
hours. 

The committee also find that tuition in French has been allowed in 
nearly all the qther schools, on the same terms, precedent being assigned by 
the teachers as a ground of permission, and generally without the previous 
knowledge of the sections. 

One or more of our teachers have become satisfied, from the experiment, 
of the impolicy of the measure, and it would probably be permitted to 
cease without any action of the trustees. But as none of the teachers appear 
to have thought there was any illegality in the plan, so long as it was not 
allowed to interfere with the usual school hours, your committee deem it 
proper to say, that although they do not consider the teachers much, if any, 
to blame for the past, as they have acted under an erroneous impression 
aftd from good motives, yet they think it requisite that in future our teach- 
ers should understand that the trustees are not willing that any person not 
in the emj^loy of the Society be allowed to give instruction in any branch 
whatever, in our buildings, whether for pay or not, without the previous 
sanction of the Board or Executive Committee. 

The committee recommend the adoption of the following resolutions : 

1st. That the teachers be directed to put an end to the existing courses 
of instruction in French, so soon as agreements made with the French in- 
structor will jiermit. 

2d. That the teachers be directed not to permit instruction in any 
branch whatever to be given in our buildings, by any person not in the em- 
ploy of the trustees, without the consent of the board. 

TJie report and resolutions were adopted, and experiments of 
the kind were not again made, except under the proper author- 
ity and control of the several sections, or of the board. 

The Property Committee, during the month of July, had 
made contracts for the erection of a building on the lots in Fifth 
street, between Avenues C and D, and the Avork was carried for- 
ward with all the promptitude whicli the case permitted. The 
house was completed and opened on the 27th of April, 1838, 
and this circumstance was the first marked oecuiTence of the 
new year, which was preceded, a few days before, by an order 
for the purchase of lots in Thirteenth street for a new school, 
No. 17, in order to relieve Nos. 3 and 12, which were over- 
crowded with pupils, the .new location making a very appropri- 
ate site for a school. 

The remarkable occurrences in our national .and commercial 
history, which render the years 1834 to 1842 memorable as a 
development of grand economical laws, had matured in tlie first 



TEUSTEES' UALL. 171 

stage of their operation in a plethora in the national treasury, 
arising from the vast receipts from the revenue on imports and 
the sale of public lands. Under this state of things, a Uill was 
passed in Congress and became a law, depositing the surplus 
revenue with the several States of the Union ; and that portion 
which was deposited M'itli the State of New York was, by a law 
passed at the session of the Legislature (1S37-'3S), appropriated 
for school purposes. This became a source of increased and 
very desirable revenue to the Public School Society, and, the 
facts being committed to the board by Hon. Gulian C. Ver- 
planck, a committee on the subject was appointed, which re- 
ported a statement of the measure, with a copy of the law, and 
were thereupon discharged. 

The Common Council bad adopted resolutions and taken the 
preliminary steps for the opening of Centre street to Chatham, 
the Park at tliat time extending to an angle which made a cir- 
cuitous route through Chambers street necessary for all other 
than pedestrians. The extension required the demolition and 
removal of No. 1, as that building occupied a position on the 
line of the opening. The school for colored children, known as 
No. 1, was located in William street, on lots leased from the 
city, but which had been vacated soon after the transfer to the 
Society in 1834, and a new iiouse erected in Laurens, near 
Broome street. The building in William street was occupied, at 
the time of the extension, for public purposes, and, on its sur- 
render to the Society, was replaced by a new and commodious 
house, the schools, in the interval, being accommodated in hired 
premises. 

On the ith of May, the name of the "African" schools was 
changed to that of " Colored." 

The average attendance for the year ending May 1, 1838, as 
reported to tlie Commissioners of School Money, was 19,982, of 
which 1,441 were colored children. 

The increase in the business of the Society by tlie multiplica- 
tion of schools, the system of supplies, &c., made it expedient to 
secure sufficient apartments for the meetings of the board and its 
committees, as well as to provide for the preservation of the 
records, and a suitable dejwsitory. Only a part of tliese pur- 
poses were originally contemplated in a resolution by which a 
committee was appointed in November, 1837, to take such steps 



172 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

as might be deemed necessary to procure a hall for meetings of 
the board. The committee, in 1838, were directed, on tiieir own 
recommendations, to apply to tlie Common Council for the use 
of an apartment in one of the public buildings, but the request 
was not granted. The committee reported in favor of making 
an appropriation of not over $1,500 a year for the puipose, 
wliicli should be expended in rent, or in " interest on the cost," 
as the case might be. The recommendation was adopted, and 
the foundation laid for the " Trustees' Hall," now occupied by 
the Board of Education. 

Tiie new building for No. 1, erected on the lots occupied as a 
school for colored children, having been completed and prepared 
for tlie reception of pupils, the dedication exercises were held on 
the 16th of October. The scholars passed a creditable examina- 
tion, and the audience were highly gratified at the condition of 
the school. Thirty of the trustees and a lai'ge number of visit- 
ors were present on the occasion. 

During the month of October, the friends of education in 
New York were called to ])ay their tribute of respect to the 
memory of Joseph Lancastek, the distinguished and indefatiga- 
ble laborer in the cause of popular instruction, and the founder 
of the system known by his name, which had been so success- 
fully adopted and improved by the Public School Society. 

Mr. Lancaster took a great interest in the schools, and had 
commenced a series of visits for the j^urpose of inspection and 
counsel. On the 22d of Octobei', an examination took place at 
No. 7, in Chrystie street, at the close of which he left the school. 
In crossing Grand street, he was thrown down by a horse and 
carriage, and very seriously injured. He was taken to the house 
of a friend, where his physicians attended him, but without 
avail. lie was called to his rest on the 24th, two days after- 
ward, and his remains were placed in the bui-ying-ground of the 
Society of Friends, in Houston street, between the Bowery and 
Chrystie street. 

On the announcement of the death of Mr. Lancaster in the 
Board of Trustees, Benjamin Clark, Lindley Murray, and Sam- 
uel F. Mott were appointed a committee to jirepare a testimonial 
to his memory ; which duty was performed, and the following 
" minute " was directed to be engrossed by a competent pupil 
of the public schools, and placed in the trustees' room : 



TRIBUTE TO JOSEPH LAXCASTEK. 173 

JOSEPH LANCASTEE, 

THE ADTDOR OF TIIS MONITORIAL OR SYSTEM OF MUTDAL INSTP.UCTIOK, ORIGINALLY KNOWN AS 

THE LANCASTEPJAN SYSTEM, 

WAS BOBN 

NEAR LOXDON ON THE CoTH OF SEPTEMnER, 1778, 

AND DIED 

AT WILLIAMSBUnGH, IN^ THE STATE OF NEW YOnK, 

ON THE 241 H DAY OF OCTOBER, A. D. 1838. 



ILE TUAVELLED EXTEXSIYELY IN BOTH HEMISPREEES, FOR THE PURPOSE OP 
INTP.ODICIXG AND PROMOTIXG HIS 

I^JinurabU Bptcm sf (jtiiutation: 

A SYSTE^f WHICH is rapidly AMELIOKATING the rONDITION OF MAN, 



MHOS OF 



EDUCATION 

TO JIILLIO.VS WnO MIGHT OTnERWISE HAVE LIVED AND DIED IN THE DARKXESB OP 

IGNORANCE. 



IN THE PliOSEOUTION OF THIS XOELE AND BENEVOLENT OBJECT 
ITE WAS ON A VISIT TO THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND HAD JCST LEFT ONE OF THE 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 

WHEN nc MET WITH THE CA8CALTT WHICH IS A FEW HOURS TERMINATED HIS MORTAL CAR 



AS A 

TRIBUTE OF RESPECT 

TO HIS MEMORY, 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 

HATE CAUSED THIS SHEET TO BE EXECUTED BT A PUPIL OP PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. , IN THE 

CITY OF NEW Y'ORK. 



174 THE PUrtlC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Eavly in life, Mr. Lancaster had become impressed with the 
advantages of the system of mutual instruction, and resolved 
to develop his method at the most favorable opportunity. He 
opened a school in Southwark, in 1789, whei'e he taught almost 
gratuitously. The success of his labors soon attracted atten- 
tion to his system, and subscriptions began to pour in upon 
him to sustain him in his benevolent work, by which he was 
enabled not only to enlarge his own school, but to travel 
through the kingdom and introduce it in other cities. Numer- 
ous schools were established under his personal supervision. 
Dr. Bill now appeared as a rival, and claimed to be the origi- 
nator of the monitorial system, and by his personal and pro- 
fessional influence he commanded so much attention, that Mr. 
Lancaster, who was a member of the Society of Friends, was 
overborne in the competition, and compelled to yield to the 
pressure of his more pretentious and successful rival. He 
visited the United States and Canada, the Legislature of which 
jtrovince made him an appropriation to assist him in develop- 
ing the school system ; but, not deriving suflicient income from 
that source to complete his plans, he was again forced to re- 
tire from the active pursuit of his scheme, and sought a home 
in New York, with the expectation of giving some additional evi- 
dences. of the pei'fection to which he had brought his system. He 
had submitted a proposition to the Executive Committee to make 
an experiment with forty children, and with the aid often others 
as monitors, to teach them in from four to six Aveeks to read and 
spell accurately. Mr. Lancaster was reluctant to communicate 
the details of his plan to the committee, or to permit them to be 
present at any of his exercises. The committee reported unfa- 
vorably npon the application, but recommended that he be 
allowed the use of a room for the pui-pose of teaching his class- 
es. ITie report was accepted, laid on the table, and a resolu- 
tion adopted declaring it to be inexpedient to grant the appli- 
(iation. 

Mr. Lancaster shared the fate of most pioneers in literature, 
science, and reform, for he never amassed any pecuniary rewards 
from his labors. A few friends had, however, purchased a small 
anmiity for him, and he was devoting his time to general visita- 
tion and advisory examinations when his labors were terminated 
by his death. 



VAGEANCY. 175 

The condition of the vagrant and unemployed cliildrcn of 
the city was made again the subject of special consideration by 
the Executive Committee, and referred to a sub -committee to 
devise plans for correcting the evil. The committee reported a 
project, of which the leading features were : 

1st. To appoint three visitors, who should visit certain sec- 
tions of the city where such labors were most required, and urge 
upon children and parents the necessity and duty of improving 
the privileges oftered them. 

2d. To_ procure the passage of a law making it an offence in 
a minor to be found idle and uninstructed, and subject to com- 
mitment if reformation did not take place. 

3d. The establishment of a Manual Labor Farm School, to 
which such children should be sent when arrested under the law. 

Visits, printed addresses, handbills, and other means of se- 
curing the greatest publicity, were also recommended. The 
report was adopted, and a committee to prepare a memorial to 
the Corporation of the city submitted a draft of the paper tliey 
had prepared, in which similar views and plans were advocated. 
The memorial was adopted, and ordered to be properly signed, 
authenticated, and submitted to the Common Council. Kothing. 
however, resulted, except indirectly, from these efforts, as tiie 
plans were never matured, tlie board having failed to obtain the 
patronage or the sanction of either the city or the State. 

At the meeting of the Executive Committee, November 26, 
a resolution was adopted appointing a committee, consisting of 
Joseph B. Collins, Samuel R. Childs, and William L. Stone, to 
inquire into the expediency of introducing into the schools suit- 
able books setting forth " the principles of the Christian religion, 
free from all sectarian bias." A report was submitted, and an 
amendment of the by-laws was proposed, defining the position 
of the Society ; but the agitation of the school question, wliich 
was then threatening the public mind, and which followed soon 
afterward, arrested any furtiier action. The agent was directed 
to ascertain, by a new census of the schools, what proportion of 
the pupils attended Sunday schools. 

A committee was appointed, in the early part of the year 
(1839), to examine and report upon the comparative advantages 
of the primary schools and primaiy departments. The first 
were the schools established in various localities, in order to place 



176 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

scliool privileges M'itliin. the reach of the youngest children, tnany 
of whom would have been unprovided for, in consequence of the 
distance of the larger schools from their abodes. The resujt was 
much in fiivor of the departments of the large schools, but the dis- 
crepancy was easily understood and recognized, and the commit- 
tee recommended such a revision of the manual as would not 
only develop the ])rimary schools and make them more efficient, 
but would also remove the difficulties which apparently existed 
in regard to their cost and attendance. The committee were 
decided in their conviction that moral and physical education 
are far more important for children under six years of age than 
instruction in letters, and that freqiient intermissions and varied 
exercises for children of that age are necessary, while the con- 
finement of the scholars to a bench for hours in succession is 
injurious and improper. The recommendations of the commit- 
tee were adopted. 

The experiment of a school for the special instruction of Ger- 
man children had now been fairly tried, and the Primary School 
Committed was requested to submit a report thereon. They 
ascertained that, during the first yeai", 380 pupils had been ad- 
mitted, of whom 328 entered the first class. Of these, 57 had 
learned to read, and, out of this number, 15 had removed to the 
country, and 27 had entered upon some business occupation. 
The object of the school — which was, to make it introductory to 
the public schools — had been lost sight of by the teacher, as no 
transfers had been made, in consequence of the reluctance of the 
scholars to leave the teacher and the school to which they had 
become attached, and the ap[)reliension, which was strengthened 
by the declaration of many, that they would pbandon school 
altogether if so transferred. The teacher desired that certain 
privileges in regard to advanced lessons might l^e granted, but 
the committee were unwilling to concur with the plan, except in 
a modified form. They recommended a school ft r German girls 
in the eastern section of the city, and two other schools, one for 
each sex, in any locality where they appeared to be required. 
The schools were to be strictly conducted as primary schools, 
except that the boys' schools might be under the care of a male 
teacher, and that minors of any age over four years might be 
admitted. 

The committee, on olitaining a suitable ]>Iace for the use of 




ROBERT 



trustees' hall. 177 

the Society for its business departments, reported, in June, in 
favor of purcliasing the property on the northwest corner of 
Grand and Elm streets, at a cost of $19,500, and the erection 
thereon of a suitable building. The recommendation was adopt- 
ed, the appropriate committees were directed to prosecute tlie 
work with all the promjDtitude the case demanded, the plans 
were procured, and the bnilding speedily put \inder contract. 
Thus closed the year 1839. 



178 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE KOMAX CATHOLIC SCHOOL QUESTION.— 1840. 

Annual Message of Governor Seward — Petition of itoinan Catholics to the Common 
Council — Remonstrance of the Trustees of the Public School Society— rRemon- 
strance of the Executive Committee — Commissioners of School Money — Commu- 
nication from Rev. Felix Varela — School Books — Roman Catholic Association — 
llie Frceman^s Journul Established — Public Meetings of Roman Catholics — Bishop 
Hughes — Resolutions — Address to the Public — Rev. Dr. Pise — Catholic Memorial 
to the Common Council — Board of Aldermen — Committee Appointed — Remon- 
strance of Public School Society — Remonstrance of Methodists — Special Meeting 
of Common Council to Hear the Petitioners and Remonstrants — Speech of Bishop 
Hughes — Speech of Theodore Sedgivick — Speech of Hiram Ketchum — Rev. Dr. 
Bond — Bishop Hughes — Samuel F. Mott — Second Session — Speech of Rev. Dr. 
Bond — Speech of David M. Reese, M. D. — Speech of Rev. John Knox — Speech 
of Rev. Dr. Bangs — Speech of Rev. Dr. Spring — Closing Speech of Bishop 
Hughes — Rejoinder of Mr. Ketchum — Report of the Committee — Application of 
Roman Catholics for School Fund Distribution Negatived. 

The repeated controversies in which tlie Society had been 
engaged relative to tlie distribution of moneys raised for the pur- 
poses of common school education, and the legislation thereon, 
had not yet put to rest the desire of a portion of the citizens for 
a specific approjtriation for the support of schools under a de- 
nominational control. The efforts of the several parties making 
these apj)eals to the Common Council, tlic Legislature of the 
State, and their fellow-citizens, were now renewed hy a more 
fully organized effort than had yet been made. This controversy 
eventually influenced the action of the political parties in tlie 
cit}', and threatened, were it not terminated, to override the 
broader issues at large throughout the State, and become the 
battle-ground for contending partisan interests. Tlie beginning 
of the year ISiO was the period chosen for the movement. 

The Governor of the State, Hon. "William II. Seward, in re- 
viewing the condition of the common schools in his annual mes- 
sage, made the following recommendations, which, as they were 



GOV. sewaed's message. 170 

deemed by many to Lave been submitted with a reference to the 
pending controversy, are worthy of a ])lace in this connection : 

Although our system of puVjlic education is well endowed, and has been 
eminently successful, there is yet occasion for the benevolent and enlight- 
ened action of the Legislature. The advantages of education ought to be 
secured to many, especially in our large cities, whom orphanage, the de- 
pravity of parents, or some form of accident or misfortune seems to have 
doomed to hopeless poverty and ignorance. Their intellects are as suscepti- 
ble of expansion, of improvement, of refinement, of elevation, and of direc- 
tion, as those minds -which, through the favor of Providence, are permitted 
to develop themselves under the influence of better fortunes. They inherit 
the common lot to struggle against temptations, necessities, and vices ; they 
are to assume the same domestic, social, and political relations, and they are 
bom to the same ultimate destiny. 

The children of foreigners, found in great numbers in our populous cities 
and towns, and in the vicinity of our public works, are too often deprived 
of the advantages of our system of public education, in consequence of 
prejudices arising from difference of language or religion. It ought never 
to be forgotten that the public welfare is as deeply concerned in their educa- 
tion as in that of our own children. I do not hesitate, therefore, to recom- 
mend the establishment of schools, in which they may be instructed by 
teachers speaking the same language with themselves, and professing the 
same faith. There would be no inequality in such a measure, since it hap- 
pens from the force of circumstances, if not from choice, that the responsi- 
bUities of education are in most instances confided by as to native citizens ; 
and occasions seldom offer for a trial of our magnanimity by committing 
that trust to persons differing from ourselves in language or religion. 

Since we have opened our country, and all its fulness, to the oppressed 
of every nation, we should evince wisdom equal to such generosity, by 
qualifying their children for the high responsibilities of citizenship. 

The truitees of the Catliolic schools prepared and submitted 
to the Common Council an application for a ])ortion of the .school 
moneys, which was transmitted to tliat body during the month 
of February, and printed on the 2d of March. 

At a meeting of the E.xecutive Committee of the Society, 
lield on the 20th of the same month, for the purpose of consider- 
ing what measures should be taken with reference to this appli- 
cation, it was deemed expedient to call a meeting of the Board 
of Trustees, to be convened on the 2ith, that a careftdly-advised 
course might be recommended. A committee, consisting of 
Samuel F. ilott, George T. Trimble. A. P. Halsey, Robert C. 
Cornell, Lindley Murray, Stephen Allen, and Peter Cooper, was 
appointed, to i)rc'parc a remonstrance against granting the appli- 



180 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

cation, and to adopt siich other measures as tliej might deem 
necessary. The committee were also antliorized to employ coun- 
sel, if the case demanded legal services. 

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees held pursuant to 
the call of the Executive Committee, the following remonstrance 
was adopted, as a declaration from the trustees, to be followed 
by a more carefully prepared examination of the question by the 
Executive Committee. 

To the Common Council : 

The undersigueil, in their associate capacity as Trustees of the Public 
School Society, and in their individual character as citizens, hereby respect- 
fully but urgently remonstrate against the granting of a request presented 
by tlie trustees of the Catholic schools for a participation in the common 
school moneys. 

Your remonstrants are opposed to this proposition, as being unconstitu- 
tional and inexpedient. 

Unconstitutional — because in our State charter, and in our statute-hook, 
the common School fund is appropriated to and for the benefit and sujjport 
of common, schools only and exclusively ; and we deem it self-evident that 
I no school can be so called, unless opened to all classes and descriptions of 
citizens, and conducted on a system to which none can reasonably object. 
Such is not tbe case with the Catholic schools. The peculiar sectarian 
tenets of that faith are part, and by them thought to be an essential part of 
the course of instruction ; and hence all unbelievers in Catholic doctrines 
arc unwilling, and may with good reason object, to send their children to 
such schools. 

Unconstitutional — because it is utterly at variance with the letter and 
spirit of our chartered rights, and with the genius of our political institu- 
tions, that the community should be taxed to support an establishment in 
which sectarian dogmas are inculcated, whether that establishment be a 
' school or a church. 

Inexpedient — because the public schools, open to all without discrimina- 
tion, and so conducted that no reasonable objection can be made by any to 
sending their children to them, are now in a very flourishing and satisfactory 
condition, and are annually increasing in numbers and usefulness ; and 
which schools would, by the admission of church schools to participate in 
the school fund, be crippled, and probably destroyed. 

Inexijcdient — because the question was fully examined by the Common 
Council in 1822,. and all the church schools, including the Catholic, which 
had previously drawn from the school fund, were cut off; and the great 
principle of non-sectarianism adopted as the basis for subsequent approi:)ria- 
tions from this fund. 

Inexpedient — because, by the concentration of the fund in one channel, 
a much greater amount of good is produced, than could be the case were it 
divided and subdivided among many; fur in the public schools the same 



REMONSTKANCE OF THE SOCreTY. 181 

expense for teachers, &c., would be incurred in a scliool of 100 or 150, as in 
one of double the number. 

Induced by these leading jjositions, -which they consider fully tenable, 
and by others which brevity induces the omission of, your remonstrants 
urgently protest against the admission of the Catholic, or any other sectarian 
school, to a participation in the public moneys. And of such great import- 
ance do they consider the subject, that, unless the Common Council are pre- 
pared, on a mere statement of these objections, to deny the apijlication, 
your remonstrants respectfully request that they may be heard, iu defence 
of their positions, before a joint meeting of your two boards. 

Our Executive Committee will prepare and present a remonstrance more 
in detail. 

The coniinittee appointed, as ulready stated, to act on behalf 
of the Society, prepared a remonstrance, which was promptly 
printed for general distribution, as well as for the use of the 
members of the Common Council. This paper was adopted by 
the Executive Committee, as follows : 

To the Honorahle the Common Council of the City of New Torh, tlie Semon- 
strance of the PuUic. School Society, hy their Executive Committee, respect- 
fully SHEWETH : 

Tliat your remonstrants learn with regret and surprise, that the Trustees 
of the Catholic Schools, have petitioned for a portion of the school fund, to 
support the schools under their care. Nearl2__t5^!y?-ty _years have elapsed 
since sectarian schools were excluded from a participation in this fund, and 
your remonstrants had indulged a hojje, that the question was forever at 
rest. 

The injustice of taxing tlie whole conmiuuity for the support ot sectarian 
schools is so manifest, and it is so glaringly incom])atible with the genius of 
our political institutions, that the naked proposition would seem to carry 
with it its own refutation. The Constitution of this State declares, " that 
the proceeds of certain lands belonging to the State, together with the fund, 
denominated the common school fund, shall be, and remain a perj)etual fund, 
the interest of which shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of 
common schools throughout the State." 

So far as your memorialists are aware, there is not iu any law regulating 
the (leneral distribution of this fund, nor in either of the numerous circulars 
issued by the Secretary of State, iu his capacity as Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools, is there the most remote allusion to sectarian instruction in 
religion, except that on one occasion, after citing some ten or twelve class- 
books of a strictly literary and moral character, he refers to Sampson's 
" Beauties of the Bible," as a compilation well adapted to common schools ; 
but as if aware of the delicate ground on which he was treading, the secre- 
tary immediately remarks, " that the selection has been made without 
reference to any disputed points of doctrine ; and it is entirely free from all 



182 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ftj/r sectarian spirit ; " thus evincing bis own view of the necessity of excluding 

r sectarian instruction from the common school system of education. 

it' Owing to the impracticability of apportioning the school moneys among 

the citizens of this city in the manner adopted for the districts, the Legis- 

■ , hitiire was induced in 1813, to pass a law authorizing " such incorporated 

religious societies in the city of New York, as supported, or should establish 

charity schools," to participate in the income of the school fund. That 

^ income was then very small, and there was no direct tax on the city for 
school purposes, independent of the school fund tax. The amount thus 
drawn was so inconsiderable, that the subject did not attract much attention, 
until 1822, when it was discovered that one congregation, or rather its pastor, 
had embarked in the business of school-keeping as matter of speculation, 
and had established three charity schools. 

By deceptive returns he managed to draw from the fund a greater sum 
than was required for the payment of teachers (to which its application was 
restricted by law). He then procured an enactment, authorizing him to 
apply the surplus to tlie erection of school-houses and all other purposes of 
education. Under a liberal construction of this clause, he ventured to build 
a church, with miserable accommodations for a school on the basement floor. 
These proceedings alarmed not only your memorialists, but the citizens 
generally, as well as several of the churches who had received and applied 
the public money in good faith, and they united in asking of the Legislature 
a remedy for these abuses. So important was the subject deemed, that the 
Corporation of the city, without a negative vote, joined in the application, 
whicli finally brought the whole question before the State government. 

The committee charged with its consideration, after a patient investiga- 
tion, during which, gross fraud and peculation were proved to have been 
practiced by the clergyman referred to, made a report in which the following 
language occurs : 

There is, however, one general principle, of no ordinary magnitude, to 
which the committee would beg leave to call the attention of the house. 

It appears that the city of New York is the only part of the State, where 
the school fund is at all subject to the control of religious societies. This 
fund is considered by your committee purely of a civil character, and there- 
fore it never ought, in their opinion, to pass into the hands of any corpora- 
tion, or set of men, who are not directly amenable to the constituted civil 
authorities of the government, and bound to report their proceedings to the 
pulilic. Your committee forbear, in this place, to enter fully into this branch 
i>f the subject, but they respectfully submit whether it is not a violation of a 
fundamental principle of our legislation to allow the funds of the State, 
raised by a tax on the citizens, and designed for civil purposes, to be subject 
to the control of any religious corporation. [See page 70.] 

The report was approved, and the only law of this State which ever 
authorized an ecclesiastical or religious association to use the " common 
school fund," was stricken from the statute book, and the right conferred on 
the corporation of this city, of designating the " societies and schools " to 
which the money should be given. 

The conflict was thus transferred from Albany to New York, and the 



EEMONSTRANCE OF THE SOCIETY. 183 

whole question was brought by the parties interested, before the municipal 
Government, and by thera referred to a committee, whose report, after a 
jiatient and laborious investigation, is, perhaps, among the most impartial, 
able, and conclusive documents that ever was presented to your honorable 
body. 

After a merited compliment to the respectable churches, and religious 
societies, who participated in the fund, and whose delegates had been fully 
heard, the committee concluded their report as follows : * — ^" but the weight 
of the argument, as urged before them, and which they have endeavored to 
condense in this report, and the established constitutional and political doc- 
trines, which have a bearing on this question, and the habits and modes of 
thinking of the constituents at large of this board, require, in the opinion 
of your committee, that the common school fund should be distributed for 
civil purposes only, as contra-distinguished from those of a religious or 
sectarian description." The recommendation of the committee was approved 
by the Common Council, and all church schools were, and continue to be, 
excluded from participating in the fund. 

Your memorialists were thus induced to prosecute the cause of general 
education with renewed vigor, but finding the sum derived from the school 
fund, and its equivalent local tax, very inadequate to the pressing wants of 
a rapidly increasing population, they procured the signatures of several thomi- 
sands of our largest tax-paying dtizc>i»^ to a petition to the Common Council, 
requesting that an application might be made to the Legislature, for author- 
ity to lay " an annual tax of not less than half a mill on the dollar, upon 
the amount of assessed property in the city, for the purpose of free and 
convnon education ; the funds thus to be raised, to be kept separate from all 
others, and sacred to the purposes for which it is designated."^ 

The whole tenor of this petition clearly shews, that it was in aid o£ " the 
common schools of the city," and of " free and common education," that the 
petitioners asked to be taxed. They declare that their object is "■ ta provide 
for the security and permanency of our republican institutions by the gen- 
eral difl'usion of knowledge." 

Does any person believe that a sectarian education is necessary to the 
attainment of these objects ? Or, that a diversion o'f the fund to ecclesias- 
tical uses would not be a violation of the " purposes fur which it was 
designed ? " ' 

Your memorialists dwell with stress on this petition,, because from it 
arose the present tax of four eightieths of one per cent, which is something 
more than three fifths of the entire sum devoted to the coinonon school 
education in this city. 

It is perhaps the only petition that ever was presented tO' a Legislative 
Body soliciting t\e 2yrivilege of being taxed. It was signed understandingly 
and on mature reflection, by thousands whose immediate pecuniary interest 
was adverse to the prayer : and hence, your memorialists respectfully urge, 

•See Document, dated April 11, 1825, signed S. Cowdrey (Cliairiciiu), Tuo.mas 
EoLTos, E. W. King. [See Appendix A.] 



184 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

that a strict and sacred regard, in the distribution of its avails, should be 
had to the motives which influenced the petitioners. 

Witli the greatly augmented means afforded by the proceeds of this tax, 
your memorialists were enabled not only largely to increase the number, but 
greatly to imijrove the quality of the public schools. At this time there are 
ninety-seven schools of the various grades, in the benefits of which, upward 
of twenty thousand children participated during the past year. The quality 
of these schools, it is believed, may safely challenge a comparison with those 
of the same grade, in this or any other country. The question is now sub- 
mitted to the guardians of the city whether these schools shall be sustained 
or abandoned ; and the funds created for their support, diverted to the sup- 
port of ecclesiastical establishments. 

Your memorialists feel warranted in presenting this issue, because the 
income of the " Public School Society " is scarcely sufficient to sustain the 
present public schools ; and it cannot be doubted, that if the petition of the 
" Trustees of the Catholic Schools," is successful, similar applications will 
immediately be made by the numerous sects into which the Christian church 
is divided. And it is not perceived upon what ground they could under 
such circumstances be denied, nor why associations of unbelievers (of which 
there are a number in this city,) may not with equal, and in some respects 
greater propriety, demand and receive a portion of the fund. 

The amount annually paid to teachers in the " public schools," is about 
$00,000. And it is a well-known feature of the system of education prac- 
tised in the public schools, that a reduction of one half the number of 
pupils in each school (which is a probable consequence of the contingency 
referred to,) would not materially lessen the expense of tuition, without 
serious detriment to those remaining. 

Should the school money be divided and subdivided among church 
schools, some of which would necessarily be very small, your memorialists 
entertain a confident belief, that the important cause of general education 
would receive a fatal check ; for, besides the loss sustained in frittering away 
the fund among small schoole, too numerous and diversified to undergo the 
healthy supervision of the commissioners, the managers of those schools, 
having what they might deem higher and more important objects in view, 
in the inculcation of religious creeds or dogmas, could scarcely fail to neg- 
lect the literary for the religious culture of the children's minds. 

If it be urged that the Catholic schools are open to all without distinc- 
tion, as to religious sect ; your remonstrants reply, that this fact only en- 
hances the objection to granting the prayer of their petition ; which then 
virtually is, that they may be enabled to gain proselytes at the public ex- 
jjcnse ; and that, too, in the most effectual way, by an influence exerted on 
the tender and susceptible minds of youth. Such an applicaton of public 
money is not, perhajis, inconsistent with purity of motive ; but can it bo 
done with justice to those who, with at least equal sincerity, entertain 
directly opposite views ? 

It is not understood that the Cathoiic clergy object to the public schools, 
on account of any religious doctrines taught in them, but because the pecu- 



EEMONSTEANCE OF THE SOCIETY. I, '''' L' 185 



'V/^'' 



liar doctrines of the Church of Rome are not taught therein : and they now 
ask for a portion of the public money in order that these doctrines may be 
taught, in connection -with the kind of instruction for which alone these 
moneys were raised. And here it may be proper to state, that several inter- 
views were formerly had with the Catholic bishop, for the purpose of remov- 
ing any reasonable objections he might have to the system of instruction in 
the public schools, or to the books used in them ; and it was projjosed to 
submit the books to his inspection, in order that they might, if found objec- 
tionable, undergo expurgation. 

In selecting teachers for the public schools, no regard is had to the sec- 
tarian views of the candidates ; and since the application now under con- 
sideration, it has been ascertained that at least six of the teachers belong to 
the Roman Catholic Church. 

Your memorialists disclaim all feeling of hostility to the respectable 
body against whose petition they remonstrate. Nor are they conscious of 
a want of sympathy for the oppressed of other lands, who seek an asylum in ■ 

this ; on the contrary, they act under a firm conviction that the sooner such J gi»A^ 

persons abandon any unfavorable prejudices with which they may arrive / j^ A 
among us, and become familiar with our language, and reconciled to our ' .fV, \)/^" 
institutions and habits, the better it will be for them, and for the country \ Ir'^ . 
of their adoption. If this be true, the best interests of all will be alike i ^' 

promoted by having their children mingle with ours in the public seminaries 
of learning. 

The theory and practice of our happy and equal form of government is, 
to protect every religious persuasion, and support none. It was supposed 
for ages, that religion could not flourish without aid from the strong arm of 
secular power ; and even now this delusion prevails extensively in the old > 
world. The political compact by which these United States are governed, 
divorced the unholy alliance between Church and State. Yet, until within 
a recent period, the lingering remains of prejudice derived from pious but 
bigoted ancestors, retained one feature of the exploded system, in the code 
of a neighboring State ; but even there, those laws which taxed the people 
at large for the support of sectarian schools, have been abrogated ; and it 
remains to be seen whether the city of New York will take the first step in 
a retrograde course. 

Your memorialists have no interest in the pending question, other than 
is common to the great mass of their fellow-citizens. But having devoted 
much time and gratuitous labor, in building up the present unrivalled pub- 
lic-school system, their feelings are more ardently embarked in the cause ; 
and they have greatly erred in estimating the tone of the pulilic mind, if the 
views here expressed are not fully sustained by public opinion. 

Powerful and pei-vading as the influence of party politics is known to be, 
it is believed that there are principles so dear, and so deeply rooted, that 
honest men, of every party, will lose sight of inferior objects, and unite in 
their support. 

In conclusion, your remonstrants refer to the annexed communication and 
resolutions, of the " Commissioners of School money," who derive their ap- , 



186 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

pointment from your honorable body, and whose duty it is to visit all schools 
that participate in the school fund, and report their condition to the Cor- 
poration of this city, and to the Superintendent of Common Schools at 
Albany. This document, it will be seen, fully sustains the reasoning and 
conclusions of your remonstrants. 

All which is respectfully submtitted. 

R. C. CoBNELL, President. 
A. P. Hajlsey, Secretary. 

Nbw York, Feb. 29, 1840. 

The trustees of the Society liaving sent communications rela- 
tive to the application of the trustees of the Catholic schools to 
the Board of Commissioners of School Money, the subject came 
up before the board at their meeting on the 29th of February. 
The following extract from the minutes of that day was pub- 
lished by authority : 

At a meeting of the Commissioners of School Money, held at the City 
Hall of New York, on the 29th day of February, 1840, 

A communication having been received, at a former meetiug, from the 
Trustees of the Public School Society of New York, referring to an applica- 
tion now pending before the Conmion Co\incil, which prays that the schools 
in this city establislied and governed by one of the denominations of Chris- 
tians, be admitted to a participation of the common school moneys ; and 
this board, deeming it their duty to consider and answer any communica- 
tion connected with the interests of the schools subject to their visitation : 

It is therefore unanimously Resolved, As the opinion of this board, that 
schools created and directed by any particular religious society should 
derive no aid from a fund designed for the common benefit of all the youth 
of this city, without religious distinction or preference. 

That an appropriation of the school moneys to establishments controlled 
by any individual sect, would be uujust to all other denominations not simi- 
larly favored, and constitute a partiality irreconcilable with the spirit of our 
political institutions ; would narrow the liberal and expanded scheme of 
public education, for which the community at large, without religious dis 
crimination, is taxed ; would make the common school money a source of 
intrigue, cupidity, and contention among the various portions of our citizens 
who are divided in tenets of faith ; and wouki, in its progressive results, 
render useless many of the commodious structures erected in this city at the 
general expense, which are now the thronged seats of public instruction ; 
and injure, perhaps fatally, the noble system of common school education 
that distinguishes our city and State. 

Hesohed, That a copy of these proceedings, signed by the Chairman and 
Secretary, in behalf of the Commissioners of School Money, be forwarded 
to the Trustees of the Public School Society of New York, with permission 
+0 make such use of it, in sustaining the common school system unfettered 



ROMAN CATHOLIC I'EOCEEDINGS. 187 

by sectarian connections, as, in their opinion, may best promote that ob- 
ject. Samuel Gilfokd, Jr., 

Chairman of Common School Money. 
M. B. Edgak, Secretary. 

The usual animal exairiinations of the several schools com- 
menced on the 17th of March following, and on the 2'lth the 
examination of Public School Ko. 5, in Mott street, was held. 
After the exercises, the trustees retired to tlie recitation-room, 
and held a meeting for the consideration of important business. 
The Vice-President announced that Eev. Felix Yarela, of the 
Eoman Catholic Church, had sent a request to be fui'nished with 
a set of the reading-books used in the public schools. A com- 
mittee was subseqtiently appointed, whose action gave rise to 
the expunging proceedings whicii became so prominent a topic 
of discussion ; and forming, as it dues, an event of a peculiar 
character, the facts are presented in a succeeding chapter, em- 
bodying the report of the committee, in wliich a full statement 
of the case is detailed. 

During the early part of the j-ear 1840, the Eoman Catholics 
organized an association to take such measures as might appear 
to be politic or necessary for the furtherance of their claims. 
The Freeman's Journal, a weekly newspaper, was also pub- 
lished, the first number aj)pearing on the 4th of July, a promi- 
nent object of which was to press the claims of the school ques- 
tion with uninterrupted diligence upon the minds of the people. 

The meetings of the Roman Catholics were held in the 
school-house attached to St. Patrick's Cathedral. On the 20th 
of July, a meeting was held, at which Rev. Dr. Power presided, 
■when addresses were made by the Chairman, Dr. Sweeney, and 
Bishop Hughes. A committee was appointed to procure a more 
commodious place. The next meeting was held in the basement 
of St. James' Ciuirch, in James street, on the 27th of July, 
when Thomas O'Connor, Esq., was called to the chair, and the 
bishop again addressed the assembly. At the close of his speech 
he submitted the following preamble and resolutions : 

Wherem, The wisdom and liberality of the Legislature of this State did 
provide, at the public expense, for the education of the poor children of the 
State, without injury or detriment to the civil and religious rights veatcd in 
their parents or guardians by the laws of nature and of the land ; and, 
tchcrefis. the administration of that svstem, as now conducted, is such that 



188 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the parents or guardians of CatUolic cliildren cannot allow them to frequent 
such schools without doing violence to these rights of conscience which the 
Constitution secures equal and inviolable to all citizens, viz. : They cannot 
allow their children to be brought ujj under a system which proposes to 
shut the door against Christianity, under the pretext of excluding sectarian- 
ism, and which yet has not the merit of being true to its bad promise ; 

And, whereas, Catholics who are the least wealthy, and most in need of 
the education intended by the bounty of the State, are those cut off- from 
the benefit of funds to which they are obliged to contribute, and constrained 
either to contribute new funds for the purposes of education among them- 
selves, or else to see their children brought up under a system of free-think- 
ing and practical irreligion, or else to see them left in that ignorance which 
they dread, and which it was the benevolent and wise intention of the 
Legislature to remove ; therefore, 

1. Resolved, That the operation of the common school system, as the 
same is now administered, is a violation of our civil and religious rights. 

3. lii'solvcd, That we should not be worthy of our proud distinction as 
Americans and American citizens, if we did not resist such invasion by 
every lawful means in our power. 

3. Jiesoleed, That in seeking the redress of our grievances, we have con- 
fidence in our rulers, more especially, as by granting that r.edress they will 
but carry out the principles of the Constitution, which secures equal civil 
and religious rights to all. 

4. Besohed, That a committee of eight be appointed to prepare and 
report an address to the Catholic community and the public at large, on the 
injustice which is done to the Catholics, in their civil and religious right, 
by the present operation of the common school system. 

5. liesohcd, That a committee of three be appointed to prepare a report 
on the public moneys which have been expended by the bounty of this 
State for education, both in colleges and in common schools, to which Cath- 
olics have contributed their proportion of taxes, like other citizens, but 
from which they have never received any benefit. 

James W. MeKeon, Esq., seconded the resolutions, and tlie 
following committees were appointed : 

On the Address — Right Eev. Bishop Hughes, James W. 
McKeon, Thomas O'Connor, Dr. Sweeney, James W. White, 
James Kelley, Gregory Dillon, H. O'Connor, and John Mc- 
Loughlin. 

On the School Moneys— C. F. Grim, James W. McKeon, and 
James W. Wliite. 

At the meeting held in the same place on the 10th of Au- 
gust, the committee to prepare the address presented their report, 
which was read by Bishop Hughes. After the reverend speak- 
er had concluded, on motion of Mr. Shorthill, the address was 



EOMAN CATHOLIC MEMORIAL. 189 

adopted ; and, on motion of Mr. Gallagher, it was ordered tliat 
five thousand C02iies be i^rinted for distribution. The address 
will be found in the chapter which treats of tlie " Expui-gation 
of the School Books." 

The meeting was further addressed bj Kev. Constantine D. 
Pise, one of the Roman Catholic clergymen of the city, an 
accomplished scholar and an eai'nest and elocjucnt preacher, and 
James W. White, Esq. 

On the 24th of August and the 7th of September, adjonined 
meetings were held, at which Bishop Hughes continued his re- 
marks upon the exciting qnestion of the time. On the 21st, the 
committee appointed to prepare the memorial to the Common 
Council submitted their report, whicli was read by Bishoji 
Hughes, the Chairman, after which a committee of four gentle- 
men — Messrs. Thomas O'Connor, Dr. Hugh Sweeney, James W 
McKeon, and J. Kelley — was appointed, to proceed with the 
same to the Board of Aldermen, then in session, and present it 
to that body. Rev. Dr. Power rose to address the meeting, when 
tile committee retired from the hall, and presented the memorial 
to the Board of Aldermen, as follows : 

PETITION 

To the HonoraUe tJie Board of Aldermen of ilic City of Neio Torlc : 

The petition of the Catholics of New York respectfully HEpnESENTS : 
That your petitioners yield to no class in their performance of, and dis- 
position to perform, all the duties of citizens. They bear, and are willing 
to bear their portion of every common burden ; and feel themselves entitled 
to a ijarticipation in every common benefit. 

Tliis participation, they regret to say, lias been denied them for years 
back, in reference to common school education in the city of New York, 
except on conditions with which their conscience, and, as they believe, their 
duty to God, did not, and does not, leave them at liberty to comply. 

The rights of conscience in this country are held by both the Constitu- 
tion and univers.al consent, to be sacred and inviolable. No stronger evi- 
dence of this need be adduced than the fact, that one clas.s of citizens are 
exempted from the duty or obligation of defending their country against 
any invading foe, out of delicacy and deference to the rights of conscience 
which forbids them to take up arms for any purpose. 

Your petitioners only claim the benefit of this principle, in regard to the 
public education of their children. They regard the public education, 
■which the State has provided as a common benefit, in which they are most 
desirous, and feel that they are entitled, to participate ; and therefore they 
pray your honorable body that they may be permitted to do so, without 
violating their conscience. 



'W 



?> 



190 TUE PUBLIC SCUOOL SOCIETY. 

But your petitioners do not ask that tliis prayer be granted, without 
assigning their reasons for preferring it. 

In ordinary cases, men are not required to assign the motives of conscien- 
tious scrujiles in matters of this kind. But your petitioners are aware that 
a hirgc, wealthy, and concentrated influence is directed against their claim 
by the corjjoration called the Public School Society. And that this influ- 
ence, acting on a public opinion already but too much predisposed to judge 
unfavorably of the claims of your petitioners, requires to be met by facts 
which justify them in thus appealing to your honorable body, and which 
may, at the same time, convey a more correct impression to the public mind. 
Your petitioners adopt this course the more willingly, because the justice 
and impartiality which distinguish the decisions of public men in this coun- 
try, inspire them with the confidence that your honorable body will main- 
tain, in their regard, the principle of the rights of conscience, if it can be 
done without violating the rights of others ; and on no other condition is 
the claim solicited. 

It is not deemed necessaiy to trouV)le your honorable body with a detail 
of the circumstances by which the monojjoly of the public education of 
children in the city of New York, and of the funds provided for that pur- 
pose, at the expense of the State, have passed into the hands of a private 
corporation, styled, in its act of charter, " The Public School Society of the 
City of New York." It is composed of men of ditferent sects or denomina- 
I tions. But that denomination of Friends, which is believed to have the 
I controlling influence, both by its numbers and otherwise, holds as a S''ctnrian 
I principle, that any formal or official teaching of religion is, at best, unprofit- 
' able. And your petitioners have discovered that such of their children as 
have attended the public schools are generally, and at an early age, imbued 
with the same principle — tliat they become untractable, disobedient, and 
even contemptuous toward their parents — unwilling to learn any thing of 
religion — as if they had become illuminated, and could receive all the 
knowledge of religion necessary for them liy instinct or inspiration. Your 
petitioners do not pretend to assign the cause of this change in their chil- 
dren ; they only attest the fact as resulting from their attendace at the pub- 
lic schools of the Public School Society. 

This Society, however, is composed of gentlemen of various sects, in- 
cluding even one or two Catholics. But they profess to exclude all secta- 
rianism from their schools. If they do not exclude sectarianism, they are 
avowedly no more entitled to the school funds than your petitioners, or any 
other denomination of professing Christians. If they do as they profess, 
exclude sectarianism, then your petitioners contend that they exclude Chris- 
tianity, and leave to the advantage of infidelity the tendencies which are 
given to the minds of youth by the influence of this feature and pretension 
of their system. If they could accomplish what they profess, other denomi- 
nations would join your petitioners in remonstrating against their schools. 
But they do not accomplish it. Your petitioners will show your honorable 
body that they do admit what Catholics call sectarianism (although others 
may call it only religion), in a groat variety of ways. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC MEMORIAL. 191 

In their twenty-second report, as far back as the year 1827, they tell us, 
p. 14, that they " are aware of the importance of early religious instruction," 
and that none but what is " exclusively general and scriptural in its char- 
acter, should be introduced into the schools under their charge." Here, 
then, is their own testimony that they did introduce and authorize " reli- 
gious instruction " in their schools. And that they solved, with the utmost 
composure, the difficult question on which the sects disagree by determining 
what kind of " religious instruction " is " exclusively general and scriptural 
in its character." 

Keither could they impart this " early religious instruction " themselves. 
They must have left it to their teachers ; and these, armed with official in- 
fluence, could impress those " early religious instructions " on the susceptible 
minds of the children, with the authority of dictators. 

The Public School Society, in their report for the year 1832, p. 10, de- 
scribe the effects of these " early religious instructions," without, perhaps, 
intending to do so, but yet precisely as your petitioners have witnessed it in 
such of their children as attended those schools. " The age at which chil- 
dren are usually sent to school affords a much better ojjportnnity to mould 
their minds to peculiar and exclusive forms of faith, than any subsequent 
period of life." In p. 11 of the same report, they protest against the in- 
justice of supporting " religion in any shape " by public money — as if the 
early religious instruction, which they themselves authorized in their schools 
five years before, was not '"religion in some shape," and was not supported 
by public taxation. They tell us again, in more guarded language, "The 
trustees are deeply impressed with the impoitance of imbuing the youthful 
mind with religious impressions ; and they have endeavored to attain this 
object, as far as the nature of the institution will admit." Report of 1837, 
p. 7. 

In their thirty-third annual re])ort, they tell us that " they would not be 
understood as regarding religious impressions in early youth as unimport- 
ant. On the contrary, they dcsho. to do all which may with proj^riety be 
done to give a right direction to the minds of the children entrusted to 
their care. Their schools arc uniformly ojjened with the reading of the 
Scriptures, and the class-books are such as recognize and enforce the great 
and generally acknowledged principles of Christianity." Page 7. 

In their thirty-fourth annual report, for the year 1839, they pay a high 
compliment to a deceased teacher for the " moral and religious influence 
exerted by her over the three hundred girls daily attending her school," and 
tell us that " it could not but have a lasting eflect on many of their suscepti- 
ble minds." Page 7. And yet in all these " early religious instructions — 
religious impressions, and religious influence," essentially anti-Catholic — 
yoiu" petitioners are to see nothing sectarian. But if, in giving the educa- 
tion which the State requires, they were to bring the same influences to bear 
on the " susceptible minds of their oicn children, in favor, and not against 
their omi religion, then this Society contends that it would be sectarian ! " 

Your petitioners regret there is no means of ascertaining to what extent 
the teachers in the schools of the Society carried out the views of their prin- 



192 . THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

cipals, on the importance of conveying " earlj' religious instructions" to the 
susceptible minds of the children. But they believe it is in their power to 
prove that, in some instances, the Scriptures liave been explained, as well as 
read, to the pupils. 

Even the reading of the Scriptures in those schools, your petitioners can- 
not regard otherwise than as sectarian ; because Protestants would certainly 
consider as such the intention of the Catholic Scriptures, which are different 
from theirs : and the Catholics have the same ground to objection when the 
Protestant version is made use of. Your petitioners have to state furtlier, as 
grounds of their conscientious objections to those schools, that many of the 
selections in their elementary reading-lessons contain matter prejudicial to 
the Catholic name and character. The term " popery " is repeatedly found 
in them. This term is known and employed as one of insult and contempt 
toward the Catholic religion, and it passes into the minds of children with 
the feelings of which it is the outward expression. Both the historical and 
religious portions of the reading-lessons are selected from Protestant writers, 
whose prejudices against the Catholic religion render them unworthy of 
confidence in the mind of your petitioners, at least so far as their own chil- 
den are concerned. 

The Public School Society liave lieretofore denied that their books con- 
tained any thing reasonably objectionable to Catholics. Proofs of the con- 
trary could be multiplied, but it is unnecessary, as they have recently re- 
tracted their denial, and discovered, after fifteen years' enjoyment of their 
monopoly, that their books do contain objectionable passages. But 'they 
allege that they liave proflered repeatedly to make such corrections as the 
Catholic clergy might require. Your petitioners conceive that such a pro- 
posal could not be carried into effect by the Public School Society, without 
giving just grounds for exceptions to other denominations. Neither can 
they see with what consistency that Society can insist, as it has done, on the 
perpetuation of its monopoly, when the trustees thus avow their incompe- 
tency to present unexceptionable books, without the aid of the Catholic or 
any other clergy. They allege, indeed, that with the best intentions they 
have been unable to ascertain the passages which might be offensive to 
Catholics. With their intcntion.s, your, petitioners cannot enter into any 
question. Nevertheless, they submit to your honorable body that this Soci- 
ety is eminently incompetent for the superintendence of public education, if 
they could not see that the following passage was unfit for the public 
schools, and especially unfit to be placed in the hands of Catholic children. 

They will quote the passage as one instance, taken from " Putnam's 
Sequel," p. 296. 

Huss, John, a zealous reformer from popery, who lived in Bohemia 
toward the close of the fourteenth, and the beginning of the fifteenth centu- 
ries. He was bold and persevering ; but at length, trusting to the dfceitful 
Catholics, he was by them brought to trial, condemned as heretic, and burnt 
at the stake. 

The Public School Society may be excused for not knowing the historical 
inaccuracies of this passage ; but surely assistance ot the Catholic clergy 



EOMAN CATHOLIC MEMORIAL. 193 

could not have been necessary to an understanding of the word " deceitful," 
as applied to all who profess the religion of your petitioners. 

For these reasons, and others of the same kind, your petitioners cannot 
in conscience, and conscientiously with their sense of duty to God and to 
their oflspring, intrust the Public School Society with the office of giving 
" a right direction to the minds of their children." And yet this Society 
claims that office, and claims for the discharge of it the common school 
funds to which your petitioners, in common with other citizens, are con- 
tributors. In so far as they are contributors, they are not only deprived of 
any benefit in return, but their money is employed to the damage and detri- 
ment of their religion, on the minds of their own children, and of the rising 
generation of the community at large. The contest is between the guaranteed 
rights, civil and religious, of the citizen on the one hand, and the preten- 
sions of the Public School Society on the other ; and whilst it has been 
silently going on for years, your petitioners would call the attention of your 
honorable body to its consequences on the class for whom the benefits of 
public education are most essential — the children of the poor. 

This class (your petitioners speak only so far as relates to their own 
denomination), after a brief experience of the schools of the Public School 
Society, naturally and deservedly withdraw all confidence from it. Hence 
the estalilishment by your petitioners of schools for the education of the 
poor. 

The expense necessary for this was a second taxation, required not by 
the laws of the land, but the no less imjierious demands of their conscience. 

They were reduced to the alternative of seeing their children growing up 
in entire ignorance, or else taxing themselves anew for private schools, whilst 
the funds provided for education, and contributed in part by themselves, 
were given over to the Public School Society, and by them employed as has 
been stated above. 

Kow your petitioners respectfully submit, that without this confidence, 
no body of men can discharge the duties of education as intended by the 
State and required by the people. The Public School Society are, and have 
been at all times, conscious that they had not the confidence -of the poor. 
In their twenty-eighth report, they appeal to the ladies of New York to cre- 
ate or procure it by the " persuasive eloquence of female kindness," p. 5 ; 
and from this they pass on to the next page, to the m.ore efficient eloquence' 
of coercion under penalities and privations, to be visited on alL-persons, 
" whether emigrant or otherwise," who, being in the circumstances of pov- 
erty referred to, should not send their chiklren to some "public or other 
daily school." 

In their twenty-seventh report, pp. 15 and 16, they plead for the doctrine, 
and recommend it to public favor, by the circumstance that it will affect but 
" few natives." But why should it be neccss.iry at all, if they possessed 
that confidence of the poor, without which they need never hope to succeed ? 
So well are they convinced of this, that no longer ago than last year, they 
gave up all hope of inspiring it, and loudly called for coercion by " the 
strong ai-m, of the civil power " to supply its dcfieitncy. Your petitioners will 



I 



194 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIKTY. 

close this part of their statement with the expression of their surprise, and 
regret that gentlemen, who are themselves indebted much to the resjiect 
which is properly cherished for the rights of conscience, should be so un- 
mindful of the same rights in the case of your petitioners. ]\Iuuy of them 
arc by religious principle so pacific, that they would not take up arms in 
the defence of the liberties of their country, thougli she should call them to 
her aid : and yet they do not hesitate to invoke the " strong arm of thei 
civil power " for the purpose of abridging the private liberties of their fel- 
low-citizens, who may feel equally conscientious. 

Tour petitioners have to tleplore, as a consequence of this state of 
things, the ignorance and vice to which hundreds, nay thousands of their 
chikken are exposed. They have to regret, also, that the education which 
they can provide, under the disadvantages to which they have been subject- 
ed, is not as efficient as it should be. But should your honorable body be 
pleased to designate their schools as entitled to realize a just proportion of 
the public funds which belong to your petitioners in common with other 
citizens, their schools could be improved for those who attend, others now 
growing up in ignorance could be received, and the ends of the Legislature 
could be accomplished — a result which is manifestly hopeless under the ( 
present system. 

Tour petitioners will now invite the attention of your honorable body to 
the objections and misrepresentations that have been urged by the Public 
School Society, to granting the claim of your petitioners. It is urged by 
them that it would be appropriatmg money raised by general taxation to 
the support of the Catholic religion. Tour petitioners join issue with them, 
and declare unhesitatingly, that if this objection can be established, the 
claim shall be forthwith uliandoned. It is objected that though we are 

(faxed as citizens, we apply for the Ijenefits of education as " Catholics." 
Vour petitioners, to remove this difficulty, beg to bo considered in their 
ai:)25lication in the identical capacity in which they are taxed, viz., as citizens 
of the commonwealth. It has been contended by the Public School Society 
that the law disqualified schools which admit any profession of religion, 
from receiving any encouragement from the school fund. Tour petitioners 
have two solutions for this pretended difficulty. 1. Tour petitioners are 
unable to discover any such disqualification in the law, which merely dele- 
gates to your honorable body the authority and discretion of determining 
what schools or societies shall be entitled to its bounty. 3. Tour petitioners 
are willing to fulfill the conditions of the law as far as religious teaching is 
prescribed, during seliool hours. In fine, your petitioners, to remove all ob- 
jections, are willing that the material organization of their schools, and the 
disbursements of the funds allowed for them, should be conducted and 
made by persons unconnected with the religion of your petitioners, even the 
Public School Society, if it should please your honorable body to appoint 
them for that purpose. The public may then be assured that the money 
will not be applied to the support of the Catholic religion. 

It is deemed necessary by your petitioners, to save the Public School 
Society the necessity of future misconception, thus to state the things which 



BOAED OF ALDERMEN. 195 

are not petitioned for. The members of that Society who have shown them- 
selves so impressed Tvith the importance of conveying their notions of " early 
religious instruction " to the " susceptible minds " of Catholic children, can 
have no objection that the parents of the children, and teachers in whom 
the parents have confidence, should do the same, provided no law is violated 
thereby, and no disposition evinced to bring the chiliJren of other denomina- 
tions within its influence. 

Tour petitioners, therefore, i)ray that your honorable body will be pleased 
to designate as among tlie schools entitled to participate in the common 
school fund, upon complying with the requirements of the law and the 
ordinances of the Corporation of the city, or for such other relief as to your 
honorable body, shall seem meet — St. Patrick's school, St. Peter's school, 
St. Mary's school, St. Joseph's school, St. James' school, St. Nicholas' school, 
Transfiguration Church school, and St. John's school. 

And your petitioners further request, in the event of your honorable 
body's determining to hear your petitioners on the subject of their petition 
that such time may be appointed as may be most agreeable to your honor 
able body ; and that a full session of your honorable board be convened for 
that purpose. 

And your petitioners, &c. 

Thomas O'Connok, Chairman. 

Gkegohy Dillow, \ 

Andrew Carrigan, > Vice- Chairmen, 

Peter Duffy, ) 

Of a qeneral meeting of the Catholics of the city of JVew Tori; convened in the 

school-room of St. James' Church, 31«S of Septemler, 1840. 
B. O'CoNKOR, J. Kelly, J. McLaughlist, Secretaries. 

When the petition was presented to the board, Alderman 
Chamberlain offered the following resolution : 

Eesolted, That it be refeiTed to a special committee to inquire into the 
exiiediency of granting the prayer of the petitioners, to be heard before the 
board, and that they report to this board with all convenient dispatch, and 
that the petition be i^riuted. 

Aldeni'.an Graham rose, and moved a substitute for the reso- 
lution of Alderman Chamberlain, as follows: 

Hcsohed, That the jjetitioners be heard before the full board on the sub- 
ject of the jjetition, and that the next regular meeting of the board be 
assigned for that purpose. 

A division being called for by Alderman Graham, the ques- 
tion was decided in the negative, as follows : 
Ayes — Aldermen Balis and Graham — 2. 



196 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Nays— The President (Elijah F. Purely), Aldermen Eich, 
Chamberlain, Campbell, Hatfield, Jarvis, Smith, Nichols, Coop- 
er, and Nash — 10. 

The question was then put, on the motion of Alderman 
Chamberlain, and it was unanimously adopted. The President 
then appointed Messrs. Chamberlain, Graham, and Jarvis, as 
the committee. 

On the 5th and 19th of October, adjourned meetings of the 
Catholics were held, at which Bishop Hughes, and others, made 
vigorous appeals on behalf of their movement. 

Remonstrances were prepared on the part of the Public 
School Society and the Methodist Episcopal Church, which are 
as follows : 

To the Honorahh the Board of Aldermen of the City of New Torh : 

The memorial and remonstrance of the Trustees of the Public School 
Society of New York, respectfully represents : 

That your memorialists learn that a petition from the Roman Catholics 
of this city is now before your honorable body, in which they again ask for 
a portion of the school money in aid of the schools under their charge. 
After the late unanimous decision of one branch of the municipal govern- 
ment, in which the other was supposed tacitly to unite, adverse to several 
petitions of the same kind from religious societies, it is unexpected to your 
remonstrants to be so soon placed in a position which, in their opinion, ren- 
ders it necessary to oppose the apijlication of a large and influential body 
of their fellow-citizens. But until the confidence which has been so long 
reposed in them by the city government, and the public generally, is with- 
drawn, they feel it to be an imperious though an unpleasant duty to remon- 
strate against what they deem a dangerous application of funds raised for 
the promotion of common and general education. 

The subject has, however, been so fully elucidated and ably argued, in 
documents now among the public records, that your remonstrants cannot 
hope to shed any additional light upon it. They therefore beg leave to refer 
your honorable body to Document No. 80 of the late Board of Assistant 
Aldermen, as containing the reasons on which your remonstrants would rely, 
in opposing the applications of religious societies for a portion of the school 
fund. It is believed that no decision of the city government ever met -with 
a more general and cordial response in the public mind. And as the Roman 
Catholics very recently issued an address to tlie people of this city and 
State, urging at large their reasons for a separate appropriation of school 
money, to which your remonstrants have replied, they now present copies 
of said documents, which they respectfully submit to your honorable body, 
as containing matter relevant to the question under consideration. 

The petition of the Roman Catholics now pending presents, nevertheless, 
bome points which your remonstrants feel called upon to notice. 



REMONSTRANCE OF THE SOCIETY. 197 

By a misapprebension of the law in relation to persons who are conscien- 
tiously opposed to bearing arms, which is applicable to persons of every 
religious persuasion, they attempt to adduce an argument in favor of the 
prayer of their petition, and say, that they only claim the benefit of the 
same principle in regard to the education of their children. Now the facts 
are, that the law imposes a fine, or tax, as an equivalent for personal military 
service, and, in the event of there being no property on which to levy, sub- 
jects such persons to imprisonment, and numbers are every year actually 
confined in the jails of this State. 

With the religious opinions of the denomination of Christians referred - - ■ 
to, your remonstrants have nothing to do. In opposing the claims of the --> a^kKt"''''"''^ 
Roman Catholic, and several other churches, to the school money, they have 
confined their remarks to the broad general grounds alike applicable to all ; 
but the petitioners have seen fit to single out a religious society by name, 
and intimate, or indirectly assert, not only that their peculiar religious views 
lead to insubordination and contempt of parental authoritj', but that the 
trustees of the public schools who are of this denomination, by reason of 
their numbers, or the " controlling influence " they exert, have introduced 
the "same principle" into the public schools, and that their effects are mani- 
fested in the conduct of the Catholic children who have attended them. 
Tour remonstrants feel bound, therefore, in reply, to state that, of the one 
hundred citizens who compose the Board of Trustees, there are only twelve 
of the denomination thus traduced ; and of these, six or seven accepted the 
situation by solicitation of the board, for the purpose of superintending the 
management of the colored schools, to which object they have almost exchi- 
.sively confined themselves. Of the motive that induced this extraordinary 
portion of the petition, your remonstrants will not trust themselves to 
speak ; of so much of it as conveys an idea that the trustees who are of this 
religious persuasion introduce, or attempt to introduce, into the public 
schools their own peculiar opinions, they can only say, that no one of the 
numerous and serious charges brought against your remonstrants by the 
petitioners is more entirely destitute of foundation in fact. If a disposition 
existed in any quarter to give a sectarian bias to the minds of the children, 
it will readily be seen that the most successful method would be through 
the selection of teachers. 

In one of the. documents now submitted to your honorable body, it is 
stated that, in appointing teachers, no regard is had by the trustees to the 
religious profession of the candidates, and that six or seven of the present 
number are Roman Catholics. From an inquiry now made, it is found that t 
only two of the teachers belong to the " Society of Friends." 

It will thus be seen that the charge made in the petition of the Roman 
Catholics, that such of their children as have attended the public schools 
are generally, and at an early age, imbued with a principle which they 
impute to a portion of the trustees, falls to the gi'ound, and is proved to be 
as unfounded as it is illiberal and ungenerous. 

It is with regret that your remonstrants find themselves under the pain- 
ful necessity of saying, that the petition of the Catholics contains garbled 



198 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

extracts and detached portions of some parts of their annual reports in rela- 
tion to religious instruction, and so arranged and commented iijion as to 
convey a meaning directly opposite to the one intended and clearly ex- 
pressed in the original documents. 

The same means are resorted to in quoting the language of the trustees, 
when urging the importance of using measures for inducing the poor to 
have theii' children educated. On different occasions, your remonstrants 
have suggested to the Common Council the expediency of requiring, by 
legal enactment, the attendance at some " public or other daily school " of the 
numerous " vagrant children who roam about our streets and wharves, beg- 
ging and pilfering;" and this is tortured, in the Catholic petition, into a 
desire of " abridging the private liberties of their fellow-citizens," and an 
acknowledgment on the part of the trustees " that they had not the confi- 
dence of the poor." 

The records of the schools will demonstrate that the industrious and 
respectable portions of the laboring classes repose entire confidence in the 
public school system and its managers. 

The subject of objectionable matter in the books used in tlie public 
schools is so fully discussed in the papers now submitted to your honorable 
body, that little more would seem to be called for under this head. Find- 
ing their strenuous and long continued efforts to induce the Catholic clergy 
to unite in an exijurgation of the books unavailing, the trustees commenced 
the work without them, and it is now nearly completed. If any thing 
remains to whicli the petitioners can take exception, no censure can by pos- 
sibility attach to your remonstrants ; and the trustees assert with confidence, 
that, if any has escaped them, there is now less matter objectionable to the 
Roman Catholics to be found in the books used in the public schools than 
in those of any other seminary of learning, either public or jjrivate, within 
this State. 

In conclusion, your remonstrants would remark that they have not 
thought it expedient, on this occasion, to enter into a detailed defence of 
their conduct as regards all of the charges preferred by the Roman Catho- 
lics. Those charges are before your honorable body, and the trustees will 
cheerfully submit to any inquiry that you may see lit to institute in relation 
to them ; and, even if it can be shown that your remonstrants are as " emi- 
nently incompetent to the superintendence of public education " as the peti- 
tion of the Roman Catholics intimates, it would not, they respectfully sug- 
gest, furnish any apology for breaking down one of the most important 
bulwarks of the civil and religious liberties of the American ijeoijle. 

Should your honorable body decide to hear the petitioners before the 
collected board, your remonstrants respectfully ask to be heard on the same 
occasion, in reply. 

Robert C. Coknell, President. 
A. P. H.VLSET, Secretary. 

New Yoek, Ocloher Srf, IMO. 

To the Honorable the Common Council of the City of New Toi'l : 

The undersigned committee, ajjpointed by the pastors of the iletliodist 



EEMONSTEANCE OF THE METHODISTS. 199 

Episcopal Church iu this city, on the part of said pastors and cliurches, do 

MOST EESPECTFULLY REPRESENT : 

That they have heard with surprise and aUvrni that the Roman Catholics 
have renewed their application to the Common Council for an appropriation 
from the common school fund, for the supjiort of the schools under their 
own direction, in which they teach, and pro230se still to teach, their own 
sectarian dogmas, not only to their own children, but to such Protestant| 
children as they may iiud means to get into these schools. ' 

Your memorialists had hoped that the clear, cogent, and unanswerable 
arguments by which the former application for this purj)ose was resisted, 
would have saved the Common Council from further importunity. 

It was clearly shown, that the Council could not legally make any secta- 
rian ajjpropriation of the public funds ; and it was as clearly shown that it 
would be utterly destructive of the whole scheme of public school instruction 
to do so, even if it could be legally done. But it seems that neither the Con- 
stitution of the State nor the puljlic welfare are to be regarded, when they 
stand in the way of Roman Catholic sectarianism and exclusivcness. 

It must be manife.st to tlie Common Council, that, if the Roman Catholic 
claims aie granted, all the other Christian denominations will urge their 
claims for a similar appropriation, and that the money raised for education 
by a general tax will be solely applied to the purposes of proselytism, 
through the medium of sectarian schools. But if this were done, would it 
be the price of peace ? or would it not throw the apple of discord into the 
whole Christian community, should we agree in the division of the sjjoils ? 
Would each sect be satisfied with the portion allotted to it 1 We venture 
to say that the sturdy claimants who now beset the Council would not be 
satisfied with much less than the lion's share ; and we are sure that there are 
other Protestant denominations beside ourselves who would not iiatiently 
submit to the ex.action. But, when all the Christian sects shall be satisfied 
with their individual share of the public fund, what is to become of those 
children whose i^arents belong to none of these sects, and who cannot con- 
scientiously allow them to be educated in the jseculiar dogmas of any one 
of them 2 The different committees who, on a former occasion, approached 
your honorable body, have show^l that, to provide schools for these only, 
would require little less than is now expended ; and it requires little arith- 
metic to show that, when the religious sects have taken all, nothing will 
remain for those who have not yet been able to decide which of the Chris- 
tian denominations to prefer. It must be plain to every impartial observer, 
that the apijlicants are opposed to the whole system of public school in- 
struction ; and it will be found that the uncharitable exclusiveness of their 
creed must ever be ojjposed to all public instruction which is not under the 
direction of their own priesthood. They may he conscientious in all this ; 
bnt, though it be no new Qlaim on their part, we cannot yet allow them to 
guide and control the consciences of all the rest of the community. We are 
sorry that the reading of the Bible in the public schools, without note or 
commentary, is offensive to them ; but we cannot allow the Holy Scriptures 
to be accompanied with their notes and commentaries, and to be put into the 



j4v-«^ 



200 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIKTT. 

bands of the cliildren who may hereafter be the rulers and legishxtors of our 
beloved couiitrj' ; because, among other bad things taught in these commen- 
taries, is to be found the lawfulness of murdering heretics, and the unquali- 
fied submission, in all matters of conscience, to the Roman Catholic Church. 

But if the principle on which this application is based should be admit- 
ted, it must be carried far beyond the present purpose. 

If all are to be released from taxation when they cannot conscientiously 
derive any benefit from the disbursement of the money collected, what mil 
be done for the Society of Friends, and other sects wlio are opposed to war 
under all circumstances ? ' Many of these, besides the tax paid on all foreign 
goods thus consumed, pay direct duties at the Custom House, which go to 
the payment of the army and to purchase the munitions of war. And even 
when the Government finds it necessary to lay dii'ect war taxes, these con- 
scientious sects are compelled to pay their proportion, on the ground that 
the public defence requires it. So, it is believed, the public interest requires 
the education of the whole rising generation ; because it would be unsafe to 
commit the public liberty, and the perpetuation of our republican institu- 
tions, to those whose ignorance of their nature and value would render them 
careless of their preservation, or the easy dupes of artful innovators ; and 
hence every citizen is required to contribute in proportion to his means to 
the public purpose of universal education. 

The Roman Catholics complain that books have been introduced into 
the public schools which are injurious to them as a body. It is allowed, 
however, that the passages in these books to which such reference is made 
are chiefly, if not entirely, historical ; and we put it to the candor of the 
Common Council to say, whether any history of Europe for the last ten cen- 
turies could be written which could cither omit to mention the Roman 
Catholic Church, or mention it without recording historical facts unfavor- 
able to that Church ? "We assert, that if all the historical facts in which the 
Church of Rome has taken a prominent part could be taken from writers 
of her own communion only, the incidents might be made more objection- 
able to the complainants than any book to which tlicy now object. 

Histoi-y itself, then, must be falsified for their accommodation ; and yet 
they complain that the system of education adopted in the public schools 
does not teach the sinfulness of lying ! They complain that no religion is 
taught in these schools, and declare that any, even the worst form of Chris- 
tianity, would be better than none : and yet they object to the reading of 
the Holy Scriptures, which are the only foundation of all true religion. Is 
it not plain, then, that they will not be satisfied with any thing short of the 
total abandonment of public school instruction, or the appropriation of such 
portion of the public fund as they may claim to their own sectarian pur- 
poses. 

But this is not all. They have been most complaisantly offered the cen- 
sorship of the books to be used in the public schools. The committee to 
whom has been confided the management of these schools in this city offered 
to allow the Roman Catholic bishop to expurgate from these books any 
thing offensive to him. 



REMONSTRANCE OF THE METHODISTS. 201 

But the offer was not accepted ; — perhaps for the same reason that he 
declined to decide on the admissibilitj' of a book of extracts from the Bilile, 
■which had been sanctioned by certain bishops in Ireland. An appeal, it 
seems, had gone to the pope on the subject, and nothing could be said or 
done in the matter until His Holiness had decided. The Common Council 
of New York will therefore find that, when they shall have conceded to the 
Roman Catholics of this city the selection of books for the use of the pub- 
lic schools, that tlicse books must undergo the censorship of a foreign po- 
tentate. We hope the time is far distant when the citizens of this country 
will allow any foreign power to dictate to them in matters relating to either 
general or municipal faw. 

We cannot conclude this memorial without noticing one other ground on 
which- the Roman Catholics, in their late ajjpeal to their fellow-citizens, 
urged their sectarian claims, and excused their conscientious objections to 
the public schools. Their creed ii dear to them, it seems, because some of 
their ancestors have been martyrs to their faith. This was an unfortunate 
allusion. Did not the Roman Catholics know that they addressed many of 
their fellow-citizens who could not recur to the memories of their own an- 
cestors without being reminded of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, the fires of Smithfield, or the cru- 
sade against the Waldeuses 1 We would willingly cover these scenes with 
the mantle of charity, and hope that our Roman Catliolic fellow-citizens 
will, in future, avoid whatever has a tendency to revive the j^inful remem- 
brance. 

Your memorialists had hoped that the intolerance and exclusiveness 
which had characterized the Roman Catholic Church in Europe had been 
greatly softened under the benign influences of our civil institutions. The 
pertinacity with which their sectarian interests are now urged has dissi- 
pated the illusion. We were content with their having excluded us, ej: 
cathedra, from all claim to heaven, for we were sure they did not possess the 
keys, notwithstanding their confident pretension ; nor did we comijlain that 
they would not allow us any participation in the benefits of purgatory, for 
it is a i^lace they have made for themselves, and of which they may claim 
the exclusive property ; but we do protest against any appropriation of the 
public school fund for their exclusive benefit, or for any other jmrposes 
whatever. _ 

Assured that the Common Council will do what it is right to do in the 
premises, we are, gentlemen, with great respect. 

Your most obedient servants, 

N. Bangs, 
Tho.mas E. Bond, 
George Peck. 

On the 19th of October, the remonstrance of the Public 
School Society, and of the Methodists, were presented to the 
Board of Aldermen, and laid on tlie table until the report of tlie 



1 



202 THE PTJELIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

committee to whom the petition of tiie Catholics had been re- 
ferred sliould be submitted to the board. When tlie reports of 
committees came up in the regular order of business, the special 
committee made a brisf report, in which they recommended the 
foUowinio; rciolution : 

Resolved, That the Board of Aldermen ehcerfully grant the praj-er of our 
Catholic fellow-citizens, to be allowed the privilege of being heard in sup- 
port of their petition to have St. Patrick's school, St. Peter's school, St. 
Malay's school, St. Joseph's school, Si. James' school, St. Nicholas' school, 
Transfiguration Church school, and St. John's school, designated as amoilg 
the schools entitled to participate in the common school fund ; and that the 
President of the Board of Aldermen be requested to call a special meeting 
of the board on Friday evening next, at 4 o'clock p. m., and that he be 
requested to invite the members of the Board of Assistant Aldermen to hoar 
the discussion, and that the privilege of discussing the same subject, in the 
same manner, be also extended to all other parties interested in it, either by 
counsel or otherwise. 

The resolution was adopted, and the memorials and remon- 
strances were taken from the table, and referred to the com- 
mittee. 

The meeting was not held until Thursday, the 29th, when 
the Common Council assembled for the pui-pose of hearing the 
arguments by the petitioners and remonstrants, and a protracted 
deb.ite ensued, the report of which was made for the Freeman''8 
Journal. After the organization of the meeting and the read- 
ing of the preceding papers, the Right Eev. Bishop Hughes 
rose to address the board in behalf of the Catholics, and spoke 
as follows : 

Oentlemen of tlie Board of Aldermen : 

Unaccustomed as I am to address a body of gentlemen such as I see here 
before me, I may not always bo correct in the manner of my address ; I 
hope, therefore, that any mistakes of mine may be imputed by this honor- 
able board to my inexperience. I would also, on tlie threshold of the sub- 
ject, observe, that in no part of the discussion on this question, so far as it 
has gone, am I conscious of having imputed to any gentleman who is 
opposed to the claim in which I have so deep an interest, an}' motive or 
design of a sinister character; I am sorry, therefore, that the Public School 
Society should have been pleased to refer to the language of our document 
as though imputation had thereby been cast upon their motives. I am sure, 
if they again review our documents, they will not lind one solitary instance 
of any imputation dishonorable to them personally as gentlemen. We speak 
of their system apart from themselves ; and we speak of it with that free- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGUES. 203 

dom which it is the right of American citizens to speak of the public 
actions and public proceedings of public men ; but again will I repeat, that 
in no instance to my knowledge has there been imputed to tliose gentlemen 
one solitary motive, one single purpose, unworthy of their high standing 
and their respectable character. They have alleged, in some of their docu- 
ments, that we charge them with teaching infidelity ; but we have not done 
so. We charge it as the result of their system — not that they are actively 
engaged in teaching infidelity ; and not only do we not say this, but we i 
interpose the declaration, that we do not believe such to be their intention, 
but that the system has gone beyond their intention. Yet, after this, they 
ascribe to themselves these imputations, and they cap their salvo by saying, 
that even the authors of the address shrink from a picture of their own 
coloring — a picture which they not only charge that we have drawn of 
them, but also of all other classes and denominations of our fellow-citizens. 
Now, I venture to rej^eat, that in no instance have we imputed to them 
motives which can reflect on them as honorable men. I make these oliser- 
vations in the commencement, simply to show how much has been writteii 
of the petitioners on assumptions which have no foundation on any thing 
that has been written or said by us. I know well the Puljlic School Society 
is an institution highly popula r in the city of New York ; but I should be 
sorry to suppose that those gentlemen would permit themselves to interpose 
that popularity between them and the justice which we contend for when 
we seek that to which we believe we have a legal right. At the same time 
it is proper for me, at the commencement, to clear away another objection 
which an attempt has been made, in both the remonstrances that have been 
read, to oppose to the exceedingly simple principle for which we conteiid. 
The attempt has been made (and you will perceive the whole document, 
which issued as a report from the Board of Assistant Aldermen, as well as 
the remonstrances of the Public School Society aud the Methodist Episco- 
pal Church, is based on the same false assumption) to assume false premises 
in this matter ; which are, that we want this money for the promotion of 
the ecclesiastical interests of our Church. Now, if tliese societies wish to 
enter their remonstrances against our petition, they should first read the lan- 
guage in which we have urged our claim ; and if they liad, they would 
have saved themselves the trouble, in my opinion, of reasoning on argu- 
ments which are but figments of their own creation, and no proposition of 
ours. Have not we distinctly stated not only what we want, but, to guard 
them against accusing us of what we do not want, have we not said that we 
do not want the public money to promote ecclesiastical interests ?— for, to this 
money, for such a purpose, we have no right. And, also, have we not fur- 
ther stated, that, if it can be shown that we want the money for this pur- 
pose, that we will abandon our claim — that, if it can be shown that we 
want it for sectarian interests, we v.'ill relinquish it altogether ? We have 
said, in the first place : 

Your petitioners will now invite the attenticm of your honorable body to 
the objections and misrepresentations that have been urged by the Public 
School Society to granting the claim of your petitioners. It is urged by 



Ka<- 



20i THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

them that it would be appropriating money raised by general taxation to 
the support of the Catholic religion. Your petitioners join issue with them, 
and declara unhesitatingly that, if this objection can be established, the 
claim shall be forthwith abandoned. It is objected that, though we are 
taxed as citizens, we apply for the benefits of education as " Catholics." 
Your petitioners, to remove this difficulty, beg to lie considered in their 
application in the identical capacity in which they are taxed — viz., as citi- 
zens of the commonwealth. It has been contended by the Public School 
Society, that the law disqualifies schools which admit any profession of 
religion from receiviug any encouragements from the school fund. Your 
petitioners have two solutions for this pretended difficulty. First, your 
petitioners are unable to discover any such disqualification in law, which 
merely delegates to your honoraljle body the authority and discretion of , 
determining what scliools or societies shall be entitled to its l)0unty. Sec- 
ondly, your petitioners are willing to fulfil the conditions of the law so far 
as religious teaching is proscribed during school hours. In fine, your peti- 
tioners, to remove all objections, are willing that the material organization 
of their schools, and the disbursements of the funds allowed for them, shall 
be conducted and made by persons unconnected with the religion of your 
petitioners, even the Public School Society, if it should please your honor- 
able body to appoint them for that purpose. Th(! public may then be 
assured that the money will not be applied to the support of the Catholic 
religion. 

It is deemed necessary l)y your petitioners — to save the Public School 
Society the necessity of future misconception — thus to state the things which 
are not petitioned for. 

Yet, notwithstanding this clear and simple language, you jierceive both 
the remonstrances of the School Society and the Episcopal Methodists go 
on this false issue, that we want this money for sectarian and illegal pur- 
poses ! Our language could not be plainer than it was on this point, and 
yet there has been uncharitableness enough in these societies to assert the 
contrary. I have deemed it necessary to make this explanation at the com- 
mencement, to impress your minds, gentlemen, with what it is we seek and 
what it is we seek not, because I know a deal may be done toward a proper 
elucidation of this subject Ijy preserving its simplicity. The remonstrants 
warn you, gentlemen, against giving money for sectarian purposes. We join 
them in that admonition. We contend that we look in honesty and sim- 
plicity alone for the benefits of education ; and, as members of the common- 
wealth, and as Catholics, we seek but that which we believe to be just, and 
legal, and right. 

I shall now, gentlemen, review very briefly both the documents, because 
they submit to your honorable body the grounds on which that claim, which 
we believe to be just, is opposed. After the introduction of that from the 
Public School Society, we find, in the second paragraph, the following pas- 
Bages . 

The subject has, however, been so fully elucidated and ably argued, in 
documents now among the public records, that your remonstrants cannot 
hope to shed any additional light upon it. They therefore beg le.ave to 
refer your honorable body to Document No. 80 of the Board of Assistant 
Aldermen, as containing the reasons on which your remonstrants would rely 
in opposing the applications of religious societies for a portion of the school 
fund. It is believed that no decision of the city government ever met with I 
a more general and cordial response in the public mind. ' 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 205 

Yes, it may well be so believed, for the reason that that whole document 
went on a false issue, and therefore it was thus believed. But if I prove — 
as I shall — that the premises had no foundation in reality, then the argu- 
ments founded thereon must fall to the ground, for they were but castles in 
the air. It proceeds : 

As the Roman Catholics very recently issued an address to the people of 
this city and State, urging at large their reasons for a sejaarate appropriation 
of school money, to which your remonstrants have replied, they now present 
copies of said documents, which they respectfully submit to your honorable 
body, as containing matter relevant to the question under consideration. 

The petition of the Roman Catholics now pending presents, nevertheless, 
some points which ycjur remonstrants feel called upon to notice. 

By a misapprehension of the law in relation to persons who are conscien- 
tiously opposed to bearing arms, which is applicable to persons of evevj 
religious persuasion, they attempt to adduce an argument in favor of the 
prayer of their petition, and say tliat they only claim the benefit of the 
same principle in regard to the education of their children. Now, the facts 
are, that the law imposes a fine, or tax, as an equivalent for personal mili- 
taiy services, and, in the event of there being no property on which to levy, 
subjects such persons to imprisonment, and numbers are every year actually 
confined in the jails of this State. 

Now I conceive the illustration there referred to was a strong one. The 
parents and guardians of tender offspring have a right connected with their 
nature by God himself in His wise providence, and they should be shown a 
strong reason for transferring it to others. And I adduced it as an illustra- 
tion, and as a strong one — why ? Because the defence of the country is a 
thing connected with self-existence and preservation ; and yet, so tender is 
the genius of this happy countiy of the rights of conscience, it dispensed 
with all those who had religious scruples from a compliance with the law, 
and changed it into a small fine, whereby the right was shown, and also the 
disposition, to waive it. 

With the religious opinions of the denomination of Christians referred 
to, your remonstrants have nothing to do. In opposing the claims of the 
Roman Catholic, and several other churches, to the school money, they have 
confined their remarks to broad general grounds alike applicable to all ; but 
the petitioners have seen fit to single out a religious society by name, and 
intimate, or indirectly assert, not only that their peculiar religious views 
lead to insubordination and contempt of parental authority, but that the 
trustees of the public soliools who arc of this denomination, by their num- 
bers, or the " controlling influence " they e.xert, have introduced the " same 
principle " into the public schools, and that their effects are manifested in 
the conduct of the Catholic children who have attended them. 

Now, I am exceedingly surprised that those gentlemen should go so far 
from the text to draw reproach upon themselves. We said nothing to 
authorize this language. We simply stated the fact ; we mentioned the cir- 
cumstance of the controlling influence of those holding peculiar sectarian 
views ; but we did not draw the conclusion whether the insubordination of 
the children of our poor people was the result of the principles taught in 
the schools, or of a want of domestic influence. And yet these gentlemen 
have gone on to draw upon themselves an imputation of which we respect- 
fully disclaim tlie authorship. They proceed : 



206 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Your remonstrants feel bound, tliercfore, in reply, to state that of the 
one liuudred citizens who compose tlie Board of Trustees, there are only 
twelve of the denomination thus traduced, 

Ni.w, to this charge of traducing we beg to denuir. 

and of these, six or seven accepted tlie situation by solicitation of the 

uoard, for the purpose of superintending the management of the colored 
schools, to which object they have almost exclusively contiued themselves. 

Now I should be one of the last to detract from the merits of this de- 
nomination. Some of them I have known personally, and others by their 
History, and uiy opinion has always been of them that they are among the 
foremost in every benevolent act and social virtue, and to lend their arm to 
strengthen the weak and the oppressed ; and therefore it is no reproach to 
them that they take the lead in this work of benevolence, for which I give 
them credit. 

They go on to say : 

Of the motive that induced this extraordinary portion of tlic j:)etition, 
your remonstrants will not trust themselves to speak, 

It might be recollected, gentlemen, if there were a leaning that way, it 
was after the publication of the " Reply " to our " Address," which, though 
it has the name, is no re^ily to our arguments. It is not an answer ; but in 
it they take tiie occasion to sneer at us, as I shall soon have occasion to 
show ; yet I may here obsei-ve that it would have been better if they had 
addressed themselves to the principles of eternal justice on which we rest. 

Of so much of it (they add) as conveys an idea, that the trustees who 
are of this religious persuasion, introduce, or attempt to introduce into the 
public schools, their own peculiar opinions 

We never charged that they did. 

they can only say that no one of the numerous and serious charges 

brought against your remonstrants by the petitioners, is more entirely desti- 
tute of foundation in fact. If a disposition existed in any quarter to give a 
sectarian bias to the minds of the children, it will readily be seen that the 
most successful method would bo through the selection of teachers. 

Why there was no necessity for this vindication at all. 

In one of the documents now submitted to your honorable body, it is 
stated, that in appointing teachers, no regard is had by the trustees to the 
religious profession of the candidates, and that six or seven of the present 
number are Roman Catholics. 

I have seen this statement figure iu almost every document of that Soci- 
ety, and yet I Inive not been able to find " six or seven of the present num- 
ber who are Roman Catholics ; " and I doubt if they can bo found, except 
they are such Roman Catholics as we see our children become after they 
have been in these public schools — that is. Catholics who have no feelings in 
common with their Church — Catholics who are ashamed of the name, be- 
cause in the school-books and from the teachers they hear of its professors 
only as " papists," and of the religion itself only as " popery." It is such as 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HCGHES. 207 

these, I fear, that pass as Catholics. I only know of one who is worthy of 
the name. 

From an inquiry now made it is foimd that only two of the teachers be- 
long to the " Society of Friends." 

And I don't suppose that better teachers could be obtained anywhere, 
when confined within the limits prescribed ; excei^t they have the privilege 
to introduce religious instruction. And without that it matters but little 
whether they are of the Society of Friends, or not. They continue : 

It is with regret that your remonstrants find themselves under the painful 
necessity of saying that the petition of the Catholics contains garbled 
extracts and detached portions of some parts of their annual reports in rela- 
tion to religious instruction, and so arranged and commented uiJon, as to 
convey a meaning directly opposite to the one intended and clearly ex- 
pressed in the original documents. 

Now I will allow the reading of it, and if there are any garbled extracts 
there, I will be the first to correct it. But I am surprised when we quote 
the words of their documents, that they should urge this charge. Let the 
documents be read. I have no dread on this subject. 

The same means are resorted to in quoting the language of the trustees 
when urging the imjjortance of using measures for inducing the poor to 
have their children educated. On difTerent occasions your remonstrants 
have suggested to the Common Council, the expediency of requiring, by 
legal enactment, the attendance at some " public or other daily school," of 
the numerous " vagrant children who roam about our streets and wharves, 
begging and pilfi'ring," and this is tortured in the Catholic petition into a 
desire of " abridging the private liberties of their fellow-citizens," and an 
acknowledgment, on the part of the trustees, " that they had not the confi- 
dence of the poor." 

Yet I should think, gentlemen, such a reluctance to attend their schools 
as to make it necessary to ajjply for a legal enactment to procure first the 
money, and then to compel an attendance, would show that they did want 
that confidence. I know they have not the confidence of our body. Yes, • 
they hate obtained two enactments from the Common Council, depriving 
the parents, in time of need — even when cold and starvation have set in 
upon them — of publi c relief , unless the children were sent to these or some 
other schools. And I have seen them urging ladies in their public docu- 
ments, to obtain their confidence by soothing words ; and I have seen them 
urging emjjloyers to make it the condition of emplflyoQcnt. Yet, after all 
this, they jDretend that they have had the confidence of the poor. I do not 
say that they have not merited it according to' their views ; but I do not 
think they should expect all mankind to submit to their views of the mat- 
ter, to the sacrifice of their own. 

They say : 

The records of the schools will demonstrate that the industrious and 
respectable portions of the laboring classes repose entire confidence in the 
public school system and its managers. 

Then that portion in behalf of whom I stand here is not to be classed 
with " the iiiihistrious and resjjectable I " 



1^ 



208 THE ruBMc school society. 

They then proceed to another point : 

The subject of objectionable matter in the books used in the jjublic 
schools, is so fully discussed in the papers now submitted to your honorable 
body, that little more would seem to be called for under this head. Find- 
ing their strenuous and long-continued efforts to induce the Catholic clergy 
to unite in an expurgation of the books unavailing, the trustees commenced 
the work without them, and it is now nearly completed. If any thing re- 
mains, to which the petitioners can take exception, no censure can, by possi- 
bility, attach to your remonstrants ; and the trustees assert with confidence, 
that if any has escaped them, there is now less matter objectionable to the 
Roman Catholics, to be found in the books used in the public schools, than 
in those of any other seminary of learning, either public or private, within 
this State. 

Now they could not adopt a worse test, for I defy you to find a reading- 
book in either public or private seminary, that in respect to Catholics is not 
full of ignorance. Not a book. For if it were clear of this, it would not 
be popular ; and if they refer to this then, they refer to a standard which 
we repudiate. But it must be remembered those people can send their chil- 
dren to those schools or keep them, at home. They are not taxed for their 
support. But here we are. It is the public money which is here used to 
preserve the black blots which have been attempted to be fixed on the Cath- 
olic name. They say again (and it is an idea that will go exceedingly well 
with the public at large, for it will show how amiable and conciliating are 
these gentlemen) — that they have submitted the books to us as though we 
have nothing to do but to mark out a passage, and it will disappear. But 
are we to take the odium of erasing passages which they hold to be true ? 
Have they the right to make such an offer 2 And if we spend the necessary 
time in reviewing the books to discover passages to be expurgated, have 
they given us a pledge that they will do it, or that they will not even then 
L^ keep them in ? Have they given us a pledge that they will do it as far as 
-■ their denomination is concerned ? And, then, after all the loss of time 
which it would require to review these books, they can either remove the 
objectionable passages, or preserve them, as they see fit. An individual can- 
not answer for a whole body. They may make a fine offer which may be 
calculated to impose on the public, but if we put the question if they are 
able and if they are willing, I should like to know whether they can, and 
will, pass a law to show us that they are sincere, and that the object can be 
carried out ? That would alter the case ; for we may correct one passage 
to-day, and another next week ; and then another body may come into 
power, and we may have to petition again and again. Could they, then, do 
it if they would ? And should they, if they could ? 

They add : 

In conclusion, your remonstrants would remark, that they have not 
thought it expedient, on this occasion, to enter into a detailed defence of 
their conduct as regards all of the- charges preferred by the Roman Catho- 
lics. Those charges are before your honorable body, and the trustees will 
cheerfully submit to any inquiry that you may see lit to institute in relation 
to them ; and even if it can be shown that your remonstrants are as " emi- 
nently incompetent to the superintendence of public education " as the peti- 
tion of the Roman Catholics intimates, it would not, they respectfully sug- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 209 

gest, furnish any apology for breaking down one of tlie most important bul- 
warks of tlae civil and religious liberties of the American people. /\/^j<'j^^ 

This much, then, as regards this document, which, it will be perceived, ' ,. p i 
goes on the false assumption that we want this money for a sectarian pur- tw;^ V^^""^ 
pose, because it was so referred to in the report of the committee of the 
Board of Assistant Aldermen, which denied our claim ; for, when I come to 
that, it will be found that every proposition in it goes on the assumption 
that we wish this money for religious purposes. If we did, it would be just 
to deny it to us. But I wiU now talse up another document, and I regret 
that I cannot treat it with the respect I would otherwise wish to do. The 
document from the Public School Society, however it might have been led 
aside, and however feeble in its reasoning, contained nothing, I trust and 
believe, which was intended to be disrespectful to us. It was couched in 
language at which I cannot take offence. Though it was weak in its prin- 
ciples, its reasoning was decent. I cannot say as much for this, which is 
from 

The undersigned committee, appointed by the pastors of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church in this city. 

They commence by observing. 

That they have heard with surprise and alarm 

They should have seen our petition, instead of taking " hearsay " for 
their authority. 

that the Roman Catholics have renewed their application to the Com- 
mon Council for an appropriation from the common school fund, for the 
support of the schools under their own direction, in which they teach, and 
propose still to teach, their own sectarian dogmas. 

Where did they find that ? Where did they find that statement ? I 
should like to know, from the gentlemen who signed this remonstrance, 
where they have their authority for such an assertion ? We disclaim it in 
the petition against which they remonstrate. It shows, then, how much 
trust can be placed in " hearsay," when they should and might have exam- 
ined the petition against which they remonstrate, in which they can find no 
such thing. 

In which they teach, and propose still to teach, their own sectarian dog- 
mas : not only to their own children, but to such Protestant children as 
they may find means to get into these schools. 

I ask these gentlemen again, what authority they have for such an asser- 
tion ? I should like to see the argument which gives them their authority 
to use language and to make a statement so palpably false as this is. 

Your memorialists had hoped that the clear, cogent, and unanswerable 
arguments by which the former application for this purpose was resisted, 
would have saved the Common Council from further importunity. 

We shall see whether the arguments were so clear, cogent, and unanswer- 
able, by and by. 
14 



210 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

It was clearly shown that the Council could not legally make any secta- 
rian appropriation of the public funds ; and it was clearly shown that it 
would be utterly destructive of the whole scheme of public school instruc- 
tion to do so, even if it could be legally done. But it seems that neither 
the Constitution of the State nor the puMic welfare are to be regarded, 
when they stand in the way of Roman Catholic sectarianism and e.xchisive- 
ness. 

There is an inference for you ! — and a very unfounded one it is, too. 

It must be manifest to the Common Council, that, if the Roman Catho- 
lic claims are granted, all the other Christian denominations will urge their 
claims for a similar appropriation 

And, I say, they have the right to do it. I wish they would do it, for I 
believe it would be better for the future character of the city, and for its 
fame, when this generation shall have passed away. If they did claim it, 
and the claim was granted, then an effort would be made to raise good and 
pious and honest men. 

and that the money raised for education by a general tax will be solely 

applied to the purposes of proselytism, through the medium of sectarian 
schools. But if this were done, would it be the price of peace ? or would 
it not throw the apple of discord into the whole Christian community ? 
Should we agree in the division of the spoils ? 

I am exceedingly sorry that the gentlemen who drew up the remon- 
strance had not more confidence in the power of their own religious princi- 
ple, than to supijose that it would be necessary to contend x j^Ien tly for what \ - "- 
they call the " spoils." We have submitted to be deprived of them for ,t |^, 

years, and we have not manifested such a disposition ; and I am surprised ^'' ^ D / 
Hhat they, who understand so much of the power of religion, should attach ■ u H ""^ 
so much value to the little money which is to be distributed, as to suppose / 

that it would set Christians — professing Christians — together by the ears in '^ 
its distribution. 

Should we agree in the division of the spoils ? Would each sect be 
satisfied with the portion allotted to it ? We venture to say, that the sturdy 
claimants who now beset the Council would not be satisfied with much less 
than the lion's share ; and we are sure that there are other Protestant de- 
nominations besides ourselves who would not patiently submit to the exac- 
tion. 

After what they have said by authority as the grounds of their oppo- 
sition, where, instead, they should have had history for their guide, I am 
not surprised that they should prophesy in the matter. I, too, may pi-ophc- 
sy, and I will say that the " sturdy claimants " are as respectable as they 
are, and I trust it will never be attriljutable to us that we claim more than 
is our common right ; and if that should be violated with respect to the 
Methodist Episcopal denomination, we shall be far from the ranks of those 
who may be the violators. 

But, when all the Christian sects shall be satisfied with their individual 
share of the public fund, what is to become of those children whose parents 
belong to none of these sects, and who cannot conscientiously allow them 
io be educated in the peculiar dogmas of any one of them ? The different 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 211 

committees who, on a former occasion, approached your honorable body, 
have shown that, to provide schools for these only, would require little less 
than is now expended ; and it requires little arithmetic to show that, when 
the religious sects have taken all, nothing will remain for those who have 
not yet been able to decide which of the Christian denominations to prefer. 
It must be plain to every impartial observer, that the applicants are opposed 
to the whole system of public school instruction. 

Have vfe said so ? And on what authority have these gentlemen the 
right to say it, if we have not ? Where are their data ? And yet they come 
before this honorable body and make such assertions, with the sanction of 
their whole Church ! 

And it will be found that tlie imcharitable exelusiveness of their creed 
must ever be opposed to all public instruction which is not under the direc- 
tion of their own priesthood. They may be conscientious in all this ; but, 
though it be no new claim on their part, we cannot yet allow them to guide 
and control the consciences of all the rest of the community. 

Why, it would be a silly and absurd thing, on our part, to look for it. 
But we never thought of it. It is a fiction of these gentlemen's own crear 
tiou. I contend, we ask nothing for the community, but for ourselves, and 
I trust it will be granted if it is right ; and if we can be shown that it is 
not rfght, we will abandon it cheerfully. But their assertion is wholly des- 
titute of foundation. 

We are sorry that the reading of the Bible in the public schools, with- 
out note or commentary, is ofiensive to them; but we cannot allow the Holy 
Scriptures to be accompanied with their notes and commentaries 

Have we asked such a thing ? — or in any way solicited it ? 

and to be put into the hands of the children, who may hereafter be the 

rulers and legislators of our beloved country ; because, among other bad 
things taught in these commentaries, is to be found the lawfulness of mur- 
dering heretics, and the unqualified submission, in all matters of conscience, 
to the Roman Catholic Church. 

I have a feeling of respect for many of their denomination, but not for 
the head or the heart of those who drew this document up. Here it states 
an unqualified falsehood. Here it puts forth a false proposition, and that 
proposition has been introduced here as a slander. I can prove that it is 
so. And, depending on the confidence here reposed in me, I propose and 
pledge myself to forfeit a thousand dollars, to be ajjpropriated in charities 
.■xs this Council may direct, if those gentlemen can prove the truth of this 
allegation ; provided they agree to the same forfeiture, to be appropriated 
in a similar manner, if they fail to establish its truth. If they can prove 
that the Catholic Church sanctions, or has made it lawful, to murder here- 
tics, I will forfeit that sum. I feel indignant that we should be met, when 
we come with a plain and reasonable and honest request to submit to the 
proper authorities, with slanders such as that, and that in the name of 
religion, which is holy. I wish them to hear what I say. I know very well 
their books tell them so ; but they should look at the original, and not at 
secondary authorities, when they assail our reputation and our rights. 



212 THE PUBLIC SCnOOL SOCIETY. 

But if the principle on which this application is based should be admit- 
ted, it must be carried far beyond the present purpose. If all are to be 
released from taxation when they cannot conscientiously derive any benefit 
from the disbursement of the money collected, what will be done for the 
Society of Friends, and other sects who are opposed to war under all cir- 
cumstances ? • 

With that I have nothing to do, and therefore I will pass on to another 
point. 

The Roman Catholics complain that books have been introduced into 
the public schools which are injurious to them as a body. It is allowed, 
however, that the passages in these books, to which such reference is made, 
arc chiefly, if not entirely, historical ; and we put it to the candor of the 
Common Council to say whether any history of Europe, for the last ten cen- 
turies, could be written which could either *omit to mention the Roman 
Catholic Church, or mention it without recording historical facts unfavor- 
able to that Church. 

And this is what the remonstrants call a strong issue. They assert that 
no history could be written which could either omit to mention the Roman 
Catholic Church, or mention it without recording historical facts unfavor- 
able to the Catholic Church. If this be the case, I ask you whether, as citi- 
zens entitled to the rights of citizens, we are to be compelled to send our 
children to schools which cannot teach our children history without blacken- 
ing us ? But again they say : 

We assert that, if all the historical facts in which the Church of Rome 
has taken a prominent part, could be taken from writers of her own com- 
munion only, the incidents might be made more objectionable to the com- 
plainants than any book to which they now object. 

Ko doubt of it ; and it only proves that Catholic historians have no 
Interest to conceal what is the truth. But I contend that there are pages in 
Catholic history brighter than any in the history of Methodism ; and that 
there are questions and passages enough for reading-lessons, without select- 
ing such as will lead the mind of the Catholic child to be ashamed of Ms 
ancestors. The Methodist Episcopal Church is a respectable Church, and I 
am willing to treat it with becoming respect ; but it is a young Church ; it 
is not so old as the Catholic Church, and therefore has fewer crimes ; but I 
contend, again, it has fewer virtues to boast of. And, in its career of a hun- 
dred years, it has done as little for mankind as any other denomination. 

History itself, then, must be falsified for their accommodation ; and yet 
■ they complain that the system of education adopted in the public schools 
does not teach the sinfulness of lying ! 

We shall come to that presently. 

They complain that no religion is taught in these schools, and declare 
that any, even the worst form of Christianity, would be better than none ; 
and yet they object to the reading of the Holy Scriptures, which are the 
only foundation of all true religion. Is it not plain, then, that they will not 
be satisfied with any thing short of the total abandonment of public school 
instruction, or the approjjriation of such portion of the public fund as they 
may claim to their own sectarian purposes ? 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 213 

All the time tliey go on the false issue. They charge that which we dis- 
claim, and they reason on a charge of their own invention, and which we 
never authorized. Now, as I have a word to say about the Holy Scrijitures, 
I may as well say it at this as at any other time. Their assumption is, that, 
because the Scriptures are read, sufficient precaution is taken against infidel- 
ity. But I do not agree with them in that opinion, and I will give my rea- 
son. Wliat is the reason that there is such a diversity of sects, all claiming 
the Holy Scriptures as the centre from which they draw their respective con- 
tradictory systems ? — that book which ajjpears out of school, by the use 
made of it, to be the source of all dissension, when it does not come to the 
minds of children with such authority as to fix on their minds any definite 
princijiles. As regards us, while the Protestants say theirs is the true ver- 
sion, we say it is not so. We treat the Scriptures reverently ; but the Prot- 
estant version of the Scriptures is not a complete copy, and, as it has been 
altered and changed, we do not look upon it as giving the whole writings 
which were given by the inspiration of the Holy Sjjirit. We object not to 
the Holy Scriptures, but to the Protestant version without note or comment. 
We think it too much to ask Protestants to relinquish theirs, and take ours, 
for the use of the public schools. If we could ask you — if we could pro- 
pose that you should take our book — if we should ask you to put out the 
Protestant Scriptures, and take ours, with our note and comment, do you 
think Protestants would agree to it ? Do you not think we should be 
arraigned as enemies of the word of God ? — for that is one charge made, 
when it is sought to denounce us. When we speak language of this 
kind, instead of understanding us according to our comprehension of the 
subject, they charge that we are enemies to the Holy Scrijitures. But to 
object to their version is not to object to the Holy Scriptures ; and I am 
prepared to show them that no denomination has done so much, in the true 
sense, for the Scriptures, as the Catholic Church. 

The remonstrants add : 

But this is not all. They have been most complaisantly offered the cen- 
sorship of the books to be used in the public schools. The committee to 
whom has been confided the management of these schools in this city, 
oftered to allow the Roman Catholic bishop to expurgate from these books 
any thing offensive to him. 

And now they go out of their way to sneer at us, and you wUl obserye 
the flippancy with which they do it : 

But the offer was not accepted ; — perhaps for the same reason that he 
declined to decide on the admissibility of a book of extracts from the Bible, 
which had been sanctioned by certain Roman bishops in Ireland. An 
appeal, it seems, had gone to the pope on the subject, and nothing could be 
said or done in the rnatter until His Holiness had tlecided. The Common 
Council of New York will therefore find that, when they shall have con- 
ceded to the Roman Catholics of this city the selection of books for the use 
of the public schools, that these books must undergo the censorship of a 
foreign potentate. We hope the time is far distant when the citizens 
of this country will allow any foreign power to dictate to them in matters 
relating to either general or municipal law. 



214 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Propliets again— but not propliets of charity. I, sir, say, not prrrphets 
of good-will, for there is something more in their souls than the public ■\vel- 
fare. There is something in their insinuation that is insulting, and a tone 
which does not show a mind enlightened and enlarged, and an ajipreciation 
of equal justice and equal rights. Just their way. They hear that an appeal 
has gone to the pope ; and if we desired to appeal, also, we should claim 
the right to do it without asking permission from any one. Catholics all 
over the world do it when their consciences make it a duty, but not in mat- 
ters of this kind. " These books must undergo the censorship of a foreign 
potentate!" Now, we regard him only as supreme in our C!iun-h. and 
there's an end of it. 

We cannot conclude this memorial without noticing one other ground 
on which the Roman Catholics, in their late appeal to their fellow-citizens, 
urged their sectarian claims, and e.^icused their conscientious objections to 
the public schools. Their creed is dear to them, it seems, because some of 
their ancestors have been martyrs to their faith. This was an unfortunate 
allusion. 

Some ! " Some of their ancestors have been martyrs to their faith." I 
speak of the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland ; and when you reflect 
on the bigoted and unjust laws which Great Britain founded against all that 
were Catholics, by which their churches were wrested from them, and a 
bribe was oiFered as an inducement to the double crime of murder and of 
perjury — when it authorized any man to bring the head of a Catholic to the 
commissioner, and, if he would only swear it was the head of a priest, h(; 
got the same price as for the head of a wolf, no matter whose head it was — 
and when legislation of that kind continued for centuries, this, you must 
agree with me, was being martyrs indeed. But when have the Methodists 
shown a sympathy for those contending for the rights of conscience ? 
When the dissenters of England claimed to be released from the operation 
of the " Test and Corporation " act, by which they were excluded from civil 
office, did the Methodist Episcopal Church assist them ? Not a solitary 
petition went from them for the enlargement of their freedom.. And is it a 
wonder that we look to conscience, and admire those who had the firmness 
to suffer for conscience' sake ? By the penal laws against Catholics, the 
doors of Parliament were closed against us, if we had a conscience, for it 
required us to take an oath which we did not believe to be true, and there- 
fore we could not swear it. There it is, sir ; it is because we have a con- 
science, because we respect it, that we have suffered ; and, whUe virtue is 
admired on earth, the fidelity of the people that are found standing by the 
right of conscience will command the admiration of the world. And yet, 
we arc told, it was an unfortunate allusion ! 

Did not the Roman Catholics know that they addressed many of their 
fellow-citizens who could not recur to the memoirs of their ancestors with- 
out being reminded of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes 

They had nothing to do with it. 
the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, the fires of Smithfield 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 215 

What is that to us ? Are we the people that took part in that ? 

or the crusade against tlie Waldenses ? We would willingly cover these 

scenes with the mantle of charity 

They had better not make the attempt, for their mantle is too narrow. 

and hope that our Koman Catholic fellow-citizens will in future avoid 

whatever has a tendency to revive the painful remembrance. 

Let them enter upon that chapter, and discuss the charitableness of their 
religion, and I am prepared to prove — I speak it with confidence in the pres- 
ence of this honorable assembly — that the Catholic religion is more chari- 
table to those that dejiart from her pale, than any other that ever was yoked 
in unholy alliance with civil power. 

Your memorialists had hoped that the intolerance and exclusiveness 
which had characterized the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, had been 
gi-eatly softened under the benign influences of our civU institutions. The 
pertinacity with which their sectarian interests are now urged has dissi- 
pated the illusion. 

Sectarian interests again, although we have disclaimed them ! 

We were content with their having excluded us, ex cathedra, from all 
claim to heaven, for we were sure they did not possess the keys, notwith- 
standing their confident pretensions ; 

Why, they need not be uneasy about our excluding them from heaven, 
for their oijinion is that they have no chance to enter if they have any 
thing to do with us ; and therefore our excluding them is of no avail. 

nor did we complain they would not allow us any participation in the 

benefits of purgatory 

Pray, what has that to do with common school education ? 

for it is a place they have made for themselves, and of which they may 

claim the exclusive property ;— — 

Well, it is no matter whether we believe in purgatory or not ; it is no 
matter for the Common Council to decide. But if they are not satisfied 
with our purgatory, and wish to go farther, they may prove the truth of the 
proverb, which says, " They may go farther and fare worse." 

but we do protest against any appropriation of the public school fund 

for their exclusive benefit, or for any other purposes whatever. Assured 
that the Common Council will do what it is right to do in the premises, we 
are, gentlemen, with great respect, your most obedient servants, 

N. Bangs, 
Thomas E. Bond, 
George Peck. 

And now I have gone through these two remonstrances, both of which, 
it will be seen, refer to the document of the Board of Assistant Aldermen, 
and rest their opposition on the same ground. Of that document I will 
pass over the introduction ; but I may observe that its authors, by what 
influence I am unable to say, have been made to rest their rejjort upon an 



216 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCrETT. 

issue such as I have already described, and for which our petition furnishes 
no basis. I ■wOl first call your attention to the following observations : 

The petitioners who appeared also contended that they contributed, in 
common with all other citizens who were taxed for the purpose, to the accu- 
mulation of the common school fund, and that they were therefore entitled 
to a participation in its advantages ; that now they receive no benefit from 
the fund, inasmuch as the members of the Catholic churches could not con- 
scientiously send their children to schools in which the religious doctrines 
of their fathers were exposed to ridicule or censme. The truth and justice 
of the first branch of tliis proposition 

That is, the payment of taxes. 

cannot be questioned. The correctness of the latter part of the argument, ' 

so far as the same relatts to hooks or exercises of any kind in the pvhlic schools 
reflecting on the Catholic Church, was denied h/ the School Society. 

Now, it is to be remembered that this denial of any thing objectionable 
in the books of the Public School Society was made at the period of the 
last application. I am persuaded those gentlemen, if they had known 
there was any thing objectionable to the Catholics, would not have denied 
it. I am sure they believed there was nothing, and from this circumstance 
I think I may fairly draw this inference, that they had not paid that atten- 
tion to the books which they should have done, knowing the variety of 
denominations contributing to this fund and entitled to its benefits ; or, 
knowing this, and the feelings and principles of Catholics, that they were 
incompetent for the proper discharge of their responsible duties. It is only 
on one of these two grounds that I can account for their denial. But since 
that time they have not only admitted that the objection was correct, but 
they have expunged passages from the books which, at the time of this 
denial, they said did not exist. I shall pass on, now, to the two questions 
on which the decision of the committee was made to rest. The first is : 

Have the Common Coimcil of this city, under the existing laws relative 
to common schools in the city of New York, a legal right to apjiropriate 
any portion of the school fund to religious corporations ? 

Whether they have, or not, one thing is clear and certain — that it is not 
as a " religious corporation " that we apply for it ; and it seems to me that 
this should have struck the attention of the Public School Society, and the 
other gentlemen who have remonstrated. We do not apply as a religious 
body ; we ajjply in the identical capacity in which we are taxed — as citizens 
of the commonwealth, without an encroachment on principle or the viola- 
tion of any man's conscience. But, secondly, they ask : 

Would the exercise of such power bo in accordance with the spirit of 
the Constitution and the nature of our Government ? 

Certainly not. If the Constitution and Government have determined 
that no religious denomination shall receive any civil privilege, the exercise 
of such power will not be in conformity with the spirit of the Constitution 
and the nature of our Government. But there is throughout, and in all 
these documents, a squeamishness, a false delicacy, a persuasion that every 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 217 

thing which excludes religion abroad is right and liberal. It would be 
unnecessary for me to follow this report sentence by sentence, if there had 
not been so much reliance placed on it by those who have remonstrated ; 
but as so much consequence has been attached to it, I will call your atten- 
tion to some other passages. They go on to say : 

Private associations and religious corjjorations were excluded from the 
management of the fund and the government of the schools. Private inter- 
est, under this system, could not appropriate the public treasure to private 
purposes, and religious zeal could not divert it to the purjjoses of prose- 
lytism. 

Why, there is nothing of the kind intended. We have been driven, by 
the obligation of our consciences, and at our expense — which we are poorly 
able to bear — to provide schools ; but they are not convenient, they are not 
well ventilated, and are not well calculated to give that development to 
your young citizens which they ought to have. Why argue, then, against 
religious corporations, and, in treating this question, bring prejudices into 
view which ought to have no existence in reality ? They then go on to give 
the history and origin of the present law, and of the public school fund ; 
and it seems that, for a period of time — and a long period — the Legislature 
designated the schools which might participate in this bounty. Each 
religious denomination provided for the instruction of its own poor ; they 
had provided schools, and their exertions were honorable and laudaljle. 
The Legislature granted its aid, and the respective societies were encour- 
aged to go on with the good work ; and they did go on year after year, and 
then there was never heard that disputation which appears now to be so 
much dreaded. There was not then heard dissension between neighbors, or 
strife between societies ; every thing went on peaceably — and why ? Be- 
cause the schools and the citizens were not then charged that religion was a 
f(yrbidden subject. Nor should you now make it a forbidden part of educa- 
tion, because on religious principle alone can conscience find a resting-place. 
It should be made known that here conscience is supreme— that here all 
men are free to choose the views which their judgments, with a sense of 
their responsibility to an eternal weal or woe, shall offer for their adoption. 
It should be taught that here neighbors have the right to differ, and what- 
ever is the right of one must be recognized as the right of the other ; and 
the distribution of this fund will be better calculated to benefit the commu- 
nity than it can be by these public schools, where every thing seems to be at 
par except religion, and that is below par at an immense discount. They 
tell us, then, that 

The law was imperative in its character, and the several religious socie- 
ties of the city possessed a legal right to draw their respective portions of 
the fund from the public treasury, subject only to the restriction, that the 
money so received should be appropriated to the pui"poses of free and com- 
mon education. 

But that " rigid to draw " has been taken away ; yet there is nothing in 
the act by which the right to draw is taken away which forbids their receiv- 
ing it still, if, in the judgment of this honorable body, the ciixumstances 






218 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

I of the case entitle them to it. It is not an impeachment ; the Legislature 
had no intention to reflect on religious bodies — it had no intention to black- 

' ball religion in the public schools ; and yet that view has been taken of it. 
Such -was not the case ; but because circumstances had arisen — and what 
were they ? Why, gross abuses had been practised by one of the religious 
societies, and 

The funds received by the Church were applied to other purposes than 
those contemplated by the act. 

Under some pretext, the favor to expend the school moneys had been 
conferred on that society in a way that distinguished it from all other Chris- 
tian denominations and societies ; and the other, seeing this privilege con- 
ferred on one, and not on the rest, ventured to remonstrate with the Legis- 
lature ; they intimated that the partiality to that society of Baptists was an 
injustice to others, and they remonstrated against the law conferring exclu- 
sive privileges, and against no other thing whatever. And yet, by every 
document, and by this very document, it seems to be imagined that the 
Legislature did not revoke special favors granted to that society, but with- 
drew its aid from all Christian Churches ; so that all the men who remon- 
strated against this partial legislation were found to have been themselves 
deprived of the privilege which they had enjoyed, and this on the strength ; 
of their own remonstrances for quite another thing. And the discretion ' 
which the Legislature had exercised to designate the schools which should 
receive this fund, was transferred to this honorable body, the Council of the 
city of New York. And why was it transferred ? I cannot speak positive- 
ly, but, while it seems to me that there were abuses shown to exist by the 
remonstrants, of which they made complaint, we may suppose the Legisla- 
ture conceived it difficult for them to take cognizance of the matter, not 
being on the spot, but that the Common Council, being here, and being a 
body chosen by the people, in which, consequently, the public would have 
confidence, was the best and most fitting body to designate, from time to 
time, the institutions or schools which should be entitled to receive those 
school moneys. This must have been their intention, and yet this has been 
interpreted as repealing the law, in order to deprive those denominations of 
a legal right (for right they had, and they could come and demand the 
money), and not a mere transfer of the discretion to give this money, from 
the Legislature to the Common Council of New York. Now, all this, which 
is so plain and simple, has been construed by these gentlemen of the Public 
School Society as — what ? As conferring a monopoly upon them — as a law 
disqualifying all religious denominations receiving it. So it has been inter - 
p r e ted. . But, if it were so, we ask not for the money on the ground that we 
are a religious corporation, but of public utility, for the purpose of giving 
an education to a large and destitute class which otherwise will not have 
the means to procure it. We ask it to secure a public advantage ; and if 
the objections anywhere exist to which I have directed your attention, they 
do not apply to our case. Gentlemen, I think it imnecessary to detain you 
any longer on this subject as referred to in this document, because, while the 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 219 

question is composed of one simple fact, they are arguing against dangers 
which do not threaten them. But then they go on to say : 

To prevent, in our day and country, the recurrence of scenes so ablior- 
rcnt to every principle of justice, humanity, and right, the Constitution of 
the United States, and of the several States, have declared, in some form or 
other, that there should be no establishment of religion by law ; that the 
afifairs of the State should be kept entirely distinct from, and unconnected 
with, those of the Church ; that every human being should worship God 
according to the dictates of his own conscience ; that all churches and reli- 
gions should be supported by voluntary contribution, and that no tax should 
ever be imposed for the benefit of any denomination of religion, for any 
cause, or under any pretence whatever. 

All this is doctrine to which we subscribe most heartily. And while we 
seek to be relieved from the evils under which we suffer, we do not seek 
relief to the detriment of any other sect. What ! is this country independ- 
ent of religion ? Is it a counti-y of atheism, or of an established religion ? 
Neither the one nor the other ; hut a country which makes no law for reli- 
gion, but places the right of conscience above all other authority — granting 
equality to all, protection to all, preference to none. And while all these 
documents have gone on the presumption of preference, all we want is that. 
we may be entitled to protection and not preference. We want that the 
public money shall not be employed to sap religion in the minds of our 
children — that they may have the advantages of education without the in- 
termixture of religious views with their common knowledge, which goes to 
destroy that which we believe to be the true religion. There is another 
feature connected with this subject — which is the definition given of a pub- 
lic school, such as should be entitled to this money. " If the school money," 
say these gentlemen — and I must believe they are imposed on by a statement 
which is not correct. I believe if they had known the true statement, they 
would not have published in their report such a statement as this : 

If the school money should be divided among the religious deuomina- 
tions generally, as some have proposed, there will be nothing left for the 
support of schools of a purely civil character; and if there should be, in 
such a state of things, any citizen who could not, according to his opinions 
of right and wrong, conscientiously send his child to the school of an exist- 
ing sect, there would be no public school in which he could be educated. 
This might, and probably would, be the case with hundreds of our citizens. 

Now let me feu- a moment invito your attention to that part of the sub- 
ject which I have now the honor to submit to you ; and it is that part on 
which all these documents go, that religious teaching would vitiate all claim 
to a participation in this public fund. A common education, then, as under- 
stood by the State, is a secular education ; and these documents contend 
that any religious teaching, no matter how slight, will vitiate all claim to a 
participation in this fund. Now the Public School Society, in their reports, 
have from time to time stated themselves, and, observe, with a consciousness 
that the jealous eye of the community is upon them — they state, still under 
this restriction, that they have imparted religion. Now if this doctrine be 
correct, they are no more entitled to the common school fund than others. 



220 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Or is the doctrine correct, and yet one must abide by it, and not another ? 
Again, these gentlemen charge us with accusing them of teaching infidelity, 
when taking this tax they give that education, which, they state to us when 
we apply for a portion of this money, the State contemplates to give the 
scholar — that is, an education without religion. Now if the child be 
brought up without religion, what is he, if not an infidel ? " Oh," they 
say, " we do not teach it." Is it necessary to teach infidelity ? It does not 
require the active process. To make an infidel, what is it necessary to do ? 
Cage him up in a room, give him a secular education from the age of five 
years to twenty-one, and I ask you what he will come out, if not an infidel ? 
Whether he will know any thing about God ? And yet they tell you that 
religious teaching is a disqualification. What will a child be, then, if you 
give him their education from his youth up to the age of twenty-one ? Will 
he know any thing of God, and of a Divine Redeemer ? of a Trinity, of the 
incarnation of the Saviour, and the redemption of the world by the atone- 
ment of Christ, or of any of those grand doctrines which are the basis and 
corner-stone of our Christianity ? And because we object to a system of 
teaching which leads to practical infidelity, we are accused of charging the 
Public School Society with being infidels. They furnish the basis of the 
charge ; we do not wish to do so. Now I ask you whether it was the inten- 
tion of the Legislature of New York, or of the people of the State, that the 
public schools should be made precisely such as the infidels want ? Permit 
me to say, when I use the term infidel, I mean no disrespect to those that are , 
so. I would not be one ; but I^respect their right to be what they please. I 
A few days ago, a gentleman who professes to be one of tliis class, and who 
would not allow his children to be scholars where religion is taught at all, 
said he could send them to the jsublic school, for there the education suited 
him. What, then, is the consequence ? That while the public education of 
New York is guarded in such a manner as to suit the infidel, the children 
become so. And is there any authority in this board, or of a legislative 
body at Albany, or is there any board in the Union, with power by the Con- 
stitution to exclude religion or to engraft it ? Neither the one nor the 
other. The infidel says truly that there is no religion taught, and therefore 
he can send his children ; and I should like to know why any member of a 
Christian Church should be forced to do violence to his convictions, and not 
be permitted to enjoy equal advantages ? If the infidel can send his chil- 
dren to these schools, because no religion is taught there, and who, therefore, 
has to make no sacrifices of conscience, why cannot the Christian enjoy 
equal advantages ? They say their instruction is not sectarianism ; but it is ; 
and of what kind ? The sectarianism of infidelity in its every feature. ' 
But because it is of a negative kind, and they do not admit the doctrines 
of any particular denomination — because they do not profess to teach reli- 
gion, therefore it is suited for all ! As a test, therefore, of this principle, 
give this purely secular knowledge to a young man, keep him from inter- 
course with the rest of the world, give him nothing else, and what sort of a 
man would he be ? What would be the state of his mind ? A blank — a 
perfect blank as to religious impressions. But I contend that it is infidelity, 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 221 

and I hope the public school gentlemen hear what I say. But again, I do 
not charge it on their intention, and their assertion is purely gratuitous 
when they say that such an accusation is made against them. Here is the 
observation of the report on this subject : ' 

If religious instruction is communicated, it is foreign to the intentions 
of the school system, and should be instantly abandoned. Religious,instruc- 
tion is no part of a common school education. 

Such, then, is the 'nature of that report which, I take leave to repeat, has 
been prepared by the gentlemen who drew it up as a committee, under the 
impression fixed on their minds that Catholics want this money to promote 
their religion, and that if it were granted to us, others would want it for 
their respective religions also ; and on this assumption they decided. But 
against this false issue I protest, whether set forth in this report or in the 
two remonstrances before this Council — one from the Public School Society, 
and the other from the Methodist Episcopal Church. It is not my business 
to speak in relation to the Public School Society at large. Of its history I 
have taken pains to make myself suiEciently possessed to speak ; and I find 
that in its origin, so far from disclaiming all connection with religion, so far 
from conceiving religious teaching disadvantageous, it was originally incor- 
porated for the pm-pose of supplying the wants of the destitute portion of 
the population, and their petition for a charter set forth 

The benefits which would result to society from the education of such 
children, by implanting in their minds the principles of religion and 
morality. 

At this time every denomination taught its own, and received an equal 
portion of the fund from the public authorities to aid them in their good 
work, so that their children were provided for, and this Society came to 
gather in the neglected and the outcast — they came as gleaners, after the 
reapers had gone through the field, and a most benevolent purpose theirs 
was ; and their object, I repeat, when they applied to the Legislature, was set 
forth to be (for they did not conceal the advantages of a religious education), 
to produce benefits to society by the implanting in the minds of such chil- 
dren the principles of religion and morality. There were children belonging 
to no denomination ; and this Society, seeing the benefits which would result 
to society from the education of such children by implanting in their minds 
the principles of religion and morality, undertook this Ijenevolent work, and 
covered themselves and the name of their Society with glory by that under- 
taking. But it is strange that what then was so advantageous to the com- 
munity — the implanting in the minds of children the principles of religion 
and morality — should have ceased to be so now ; and that they or their suc- 
cessors should seek to make that very thing a disqualification, and to turn it 
against all denominations of Christians, and claim themselves to monopolize 
the fund and the teaching on the principle that no religion shall be im- 
parted. Now has the Legislature seen fit to alter the charter, so as to make I 
religious teaching a disqualification of all other sects ? 1 



222 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



% 



Was it for that purpose that this Society, step by step, obtained enlarged 
privileges, by which not only the neglected children of the community, but 
those of others, came under their care — that they obtained grants from the 
public treasury and the exchequer of the city, to an amount of many thou- 
sands of dollars, until the Society claims to be the true and only Society, 
though existing as a .private corporation, electing its own body, fixing a tax 
for the privilege of membership, sometimes $10, at others $20, $35, and 
$50, any of which sums is too much for a poor man to pay ; and out of this 
organized body electing the trustees to carry on the work ? 

I mention tliis, not to blame them — for they believe they are doing good 
— but to show that even with men who are honorable in every-day life, how 
much watchfulness and vigilance, how much tact and talent, is used to grasp 
more and more, till they absorb all, and completely deprive all others of any 
particiijation in the advantages of controlling this fund. 

It is not my intention, as it is not my peculiar province, to enter into the 
legal part of the argument ; but I have to regret that the gentleman who 
did intend to treat it, and to whose deisartment it belonged, has been unfor- 
tunately prevented by the bursting of a small blood-vessel. But, though 
my experience has not qualified me to enter into legal matters, yet, as a 
citizen, I might have the right to express my opinion on the monopoly 
which this Society claims ; and that opinion is contrary to the monopoly, 
and not only contrary to their monopoly simply regarded as a monopoly, 
liiit because I believe that a monopoly of this description should be regard- 
ed with double jealousy. Why? Because this monopoly is of greater 
weight than in ordinary cases ; of great weight pecuniarily — for, last year, 
the fund amounted to $115,000 — because the distribution of that money 
gives to them a patronage which, considering the weakness of human 
nature, is in danger of being used disadvantageously — because it gives to 
tliem privileges of infinitely higher importance than any that can be esti- 
mated by dollars and cents — the privilege of stamping their peculiar charac- 
ter on the minds of thousands and tens of thousands of our children. They 
ought to be men, to discharge the trust of such a monopoly, as pure as 
angels, and almost imbued with wisdom from above ; such men they should 
Ijc, when they would venture to come and stand by the mother's side, and 
say, in effect, " Give me the darling which you have nourished at your breast 
— give it to me, a stranger, and I will direct its mind. True, you are its 
parent, but you are not fit to guide its youthful progress, and to implant 
true principles in its mind ; therefore give it to me, and give me also the 
means wherewith to instruct it." That is the position of that Society ; and 
they ought to be almost more than men for this — as doubtless they are hon- 
orable men in their proper places ; but of that we should have the most 
satisfactory evidence, that we may be well assured that they are fitted to 
discharge their duties. It is this consideration that brought me here, as the 
first pastor of a body of peo^)le large and numerous as they are known to 
be ; but, poor as many of them are, and exposed to many hardships, they 
have children with immortal souls, whose condition is involved in this ques- 
tion ; and if it is an improj)riety in the clerical character, I would rather 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 223 

undergo the reproach, than neglect to advocate their rights, as far as I have 
the power, with my feeble ability. 

The Catholics of the city of New York may be estimated as one fifth of 
the jiopulation ; and when you take account of the class of children usually 
attending the public schools, and consider how many there are in this city 
who are in affluent circumstances, which enable them to give an education 
to their children, who do not therefore participate in the teaching of the 
public schools ; and when you consider the numbers not attending any 
school at all — I say, of those people who, by their poverty, are the objects 
most usually composing the number that require the assistance of the com- 
mon school fund, Catholics are one third, if not more. And when I pee this 
one third excluded — respecting, as I do, their welfare in this life, as well as 
their welfare in a brighter world — tlien it is that I come forward thus pub- 
licly, and stand here to plead for them. I conceive we have our rights in 
question, and therefore, most respectfully, I demand them from this honor- 
able board. 

I am not surprised that there should be remonstrances against our claim ; 
but I did hope, in an age as enlightened as this is, and among gentlemen of 
known liberality of feeling, that their opposition would not have been char- 
acterized as this has been. However, it is not to me a matter of surprise ; 
for I believe if some of those gentlemen, who consider themselves now as 
eminent Christians, had lived at the period when Lazarus lay languishing at 
the gate of the rich man, petitioning for the crumbs that fell from the table, 
they would have sent their remonstrance against his petition. 

When the Methodist Episcopal Church sent its petition for a portion of 
this fund, some eight years ago, then it was not unconstitutional ! Yet, did 
the Catholics send in their remonstrance against it ? When their theologi- 
cal seminaries obtained (and they still receive) the bounty of the State, did, 
or do, the Catholics complain I Has there been a single instance of illiber- 
ality on the part of Catholics, or a want of disposition to grant rights as 
universal as the nature of man may require ? And I have been astonished 
only at this, that good men, with good intentions, should prefer to cling to 
a system, and to the money raised for its supjiort by the public liberality — 
that they would sooner see tens of thousands of poor childi-en contending 
with ignorance, and the companions of vice, than concede one iota of their 
monopoly in order that others may enjoy their rights. I say this because I j 
am authorized to say it. 

And what am I to infer, but that they prefer the means to the end ? The 
end designed is, to convey knowledge to the minds of our children ; the 
means, is the public fund ; and, by refusing to cause the slightest variation 
in their system, they cling to the means, while they leave thousands of chil- 
dren without the benefit which the State intended to confer. They may 
pursue that course, but the experience of the past should have taught them 
that, while they maintain their present character, a large portion of their 
fellow-citizens have not — cannot have — confidence in them. 

We have not liad confidence in them for years past; aud that we have 
endeavored to supply an education to our children ourselves, is sufficient 



224 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

proof that we shall endeavor to supply it for years to come, rather than suf- 
fer our children to bo taught under a system which makes them ashamed of 
the religion their fathers profess. 

But they have said, that, if a portion of this fund is given to Catholics, 
all other sects will want it. Then let them have it. But I do not see that 
that is probable ; and my reason is this : They have sent in remonstrances 
against the claim of the Catholics, as you will see by a reference to Docu- 
ment No. 80, all of which go to prove that they are satisfied with the pres- 
ent public school system. And if they are satisfied, and their children 
derive benefit from it, let them continue to frequent the schools as they do 
now. The schools are no benefit to Catholics now ; we have no confidence 
in them ; there is no harmony of feeling between them and us. "We have no 
confidence that those civil and religious rights that belong to us will be 
enjoyed while the Public School Society retains its present monopoly. We 
do not receive benefit from those schools ; do not, then, take from Catholics 
their portion of the fund, by taxation, and hand it over to those who do not 
give them an equivalent in return. Let those who can, receive the advan- 
tages of these schools ; but, as Catholics cannot, do not tie them to a system 
which is intended for the advantage of a class of society of which they 
form one third, but from which system they can receive no benefit. 

There are many other topics connected with this subject to which I 
might advert ; but I must apologize for the length of time that I have tres- 
passed on your patience. I feel, unaccustomed as I am to address such a 
body, and hurried as was my preparation, that I have not been able to pre- 
sent the subject before you in that clear and lucid manner that would make 
it interesting ; but it was not with that view that I claimed your attention 
in relation to it ; it was with far higher motives ; and I now-, with confi- 
dence, submit it to your judgment. 

Theodore Sedgwick, Esq. (with whom was Mr. Ketchum), 
as counsel for the Public School Society, then addressed the 
board, and said : 

Mr. President : I appear here, with my learned friend and associate, 
Mr. Ketchum, on behalf of the Trustees of the Public School Society ; and 
I desire in the outset, for those whom I represent, as well as for myself, to 
reciprocate all that the reverend gentleman has said of the motives of the 
parties for whom we respectively appear. The trustees are animated by no 
feeling but a desire to promote what they conceive will be for the true inter- 
ests and welfare of the city ; in which they are as deeply interested as any 
men can be. They have no other interest than to maintain that which, in 
their judgment, is right in itself, and will be beneficial to the whole body. 
Impelled by these motives themselves, they are willing to believe that those 
who are opposed to them are animated by the same feeling. It is most espe- 
cially desirable that, in a case like this, the petitioners should be heard, as 
they are being heard, in the most solemn manner the forms of the city gov- 
ernment will permit. We have no doubt they will be fairly heard ; we are 



SPEECH OF THEODOEE SEDGWICK. 225 

convinced that the decision to whicli you may come, -whether for or against 

them, will be righteously pronounced. The trustees, therefore, are most 

anxious that the case should be fully examined. "What, sir, is the precise 

question before us ? The petition, if I understand it, asks your honorable 

body for a civil ordinance — for an ordinance in regard to the application of 

money. I shall therefore waive all reply to that portion of the reverend 

gentleman's opening remarks which relates to the trustees themselves and 

the Methodist congregation. That part of his argument has nothing to do 

with the merits of the case ; however pointed and jiiquant it may have 

been, it has nothing to do with the point which you have to decide. The 

trustees here sink into nothing ; the petitioners also disappear from our -i Xt^ (>t>-tr^ 

view ; and the real question remains, How is the intellectual condition of j^ Juhj^ t* 

our childrea_tQ be best promoted ? On that "question two great bodies are <=-a 

at issue, and it is especially consonant with our form of government, that ''^->-*'^^ 

both should be fairly heard ; it is in consonance with that principle of our 

government, which bases it on harmony and compromise, with that respect 

which is due even to the opinions of the minority. The question is now 

being heard, as it only best can be heard ; and all will rest content, no 

doubt, with the decision, whatever that decision may be. 

If I understand this application correctly, it is an application to alter, to 
modify, or, at any rate, to affect the common school system of this State. 
Not only of the city, sir, for it has a more extensive bearing ; it is to affect 
the whole system of the State of New York ; and your honorable body can- 
not come to a proper decision of this matter, unless you bring your minds 
to the consideration of the origin of our system of education, its establish- 
ment, development, and extent. This system, sir, which you are this night 
called upon, in my humble judgment, not merely to modify, but to over- 
throw, had its foundation laid as far back as the year 1795. On the 9th of 
April, 1795, an act was passed "/or the encmiragement of pvHic 8c?iooh;" and 
it is well worth while to know what was the opinion of the Legislature 
which framed this act in regard to the kind of education to be communi- 
cated in the schools which were to receive its bounty. That act appropri- 
ated $30,000 annually for the support of those schools in the different coun- 
ties of the State, in which the children should be "instructed in the English 
language, or be taught English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, and such 
other branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary to complete a 
good English education." 

Such was the whole extent and aim of the sy.stem as it was originally 
founded. ' It was, to give a purely secular education. This act was the 
germ of our present system ; but the question was not fully understood, nor 
its importance sufficiently appreciated ; there was not suflBcient genial heat 
in the body politic to develop it ; it was not long acted under, and soon 
became obsolete, 

In 1801, another act was passed, "/or the encouragement of literature,^' 
by which four lotteries were established, to aid in the accomplishment of 
the object — a pure object, deriving its support from a most impure source ; 

15 



226 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

for the proceeds of these lotteries were to te applied to the support of the 
common school in such way as the Legislature might direct. 

In 1805, the first step was taken to establish the system on a firm, per- 
manent foundation, and then (3d April) the proceeds of the first 500,000 
acres of the public lands which should be sold were set apart, to be invest- 
ed as a permanent fund for the. support of common schools for the education 
of the children of New York. This fund was afterward increased, during 
the years 1808, 1810, and 1811, by the receijit of the surplus fees of the 
Clerk of the Supreme Court, by the j)roceeds of certain stock in the Mer- 
chants' Bank in this city, and the sums then flowing from lotteries, lands, 
fees, and banks, wore invested, from time to time, by the Comptroller, for 
the same object. In 1811, the fund was found to be of a considerable 
amount, and commissioners were appointed to report to the Legislature, at 
the next session, how this fund could be best appropriated, and also to pre- 
pare a system for the organization and establishment of common schools. 
They accordingly reported, and, in 1813 (10th June), the first general act 
was passed, which laid the foundation, broad and deep, of the present 
system. 

That act directed', in general terms, that, as soon as the revenue from the 
school fund should amount to $50,000, it should be appropriated among the 
different counties of the State ; commissioners and inspectors were to be 
elected by the towns, to expend the amount awarded to them ; and trustees 
of the school districts were also chosen to carry out the scheme. 

But in the first act a provision was inserted^and it is important in 
regard to the whole common school system to bear it in mind — that the 
towns and counties were not compelled to contribute to the expense of edu- 
cation at all. Such only as voluntarily accepted the system, and taxed 
tihemselves to a similar amount, were peruiitted to receive any portion of 
the fund. But if they chose to disregard the matter altogether, they were 
at liberty so to do. The next year this error— for so it seems the Legisla- 
ture deemed it — was corrected. The towns and counties were compelled to 
adopt the system, and the supervisors were directed to tax the towns to the 
amount of the proportion allotted to them from the school fund. They did 
then what they had not before dared to do — they taxed the people directly 
for the purposes of education. That act was passed in 1814. The system 
thus established was, as your honors well know, incorporated in the Revised 
Statutes, which, in 1830, were made the code of our State ; and that beau- 
tiful fabric still remains as it was then fashioned — so simple, and yet so 
beautiful, I should bo loath to see a hand laid upon it. "^ 

The functions of the original Superintendent of Common Schools have 
been merged in the Secretary of State, but in other respects no alteration 
has been made. The annual revenue of the fund is divided among the 
counties, who are compelled to raise, by taxation, a sura equal to their 
respective shares ; commissioners were elected, and by them the money is 
ajsportioned among the towns, and these again are subdivided into districts, 
and trustees elected to take charge of the school-houses, and to have the 
immediate supervision of the schools. 



SPEECn OF TUBODORE SEDGWICK. 227 

These trustees, at stated periods (once a year), make tKeir report to the 
commissioners, the commissioners to the county clerks, and they to the 
slii^erintendent, now Secretary of State ; and thus is one harmonious system 
establislied throughout the State. In the last report, of 1840, it is stated 
that but one town in the State has not reported during the last year. At 
the establishment of the system, there was great diversity of oi)inion on the 
subject— there was great languor and indifference among the people, and it 
was long before the towns generally came to take an interest in it ; it was 
long before the trustees made regular reports of the matters under their 
charge ; but, as the last report of the superintendent shows, there has been 
a great progress of opinion ; every town, except one, has made its report 
during the last year, showing the condition of its schools. In the year 
1795, $30,000 were appropriated to the common school system ; in 1845, it 
is calculated, by the report of the superintendent, that the capital of the 
common school fund will amount to Jii'e miUions of dollars. These facts 
alone, then, show the certain progress made, not only in the means for the 
accomplishment of the object of the system, but in the minds and hearts 
of the people themselves. Five millions of dollars, then, will be the capi- 
tal, and two millions will be annually expended for the education of the 
citizens of the State of New York 1 10,766 districts have reported, and 
557,339 children are actually under instruction in these schools ! Now, I 
suppose, having reference to the magnitude of the State, and to its popula- 
tion and resources, it may most safely be afBrnieO, there is no such system 
for the education of the poorer classes of any country in the universe — no 
system of this grandeur, by which the people take care that the people shall 
be educated — made competent to discharge those duties, without which the 
form and fabric of our Government are a mockery. This is the general sys- 
tem throughout the State. Now let us examine more particularly those fea- 
tures which relate to this city, with which, at this time, we are more imme- 
diately concerned. In 1813, the first act to which I have alluded extended 
its provisions to this city ; and it is somewhat remarkable that the Legisla- 
ture then drew a line between the population of this city and of the coun- 
try, and requii'cd the city to levy a tax for this object, before it required the 
country population to do so. In 1814, as I have already said, the system 
was applied to the entire State, and all counties were required to raise, by 
taxation, an amount equal to their portion of the fund. By that act, cer- 
tain schools Ti'ere specified as the recipients of this common school fund, 
and such other incorporated reUgious societies as then siipijortod charity 
schools. In 1824, this act was repealed, and the Common Council was 
authorized, once in three years, to designate the institutions and schools 
which should be entitled to receive the school moneys. After the passage 
of this act, a petition from a great portion of the property-owners of this 
city was presented to the Legislature, praying leave to raise, by taxation on 
this city and coimty, a further sum besides that already required of them, 
for the same purpose of educating the destitute poor. I claim no peculiar 
merit for them in so doing, but they are at least entitled to the credit, such 
as it is, of comprehending their own interest. They saw that tlie education 



228 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. ■ 

of the floor was essential to their own welfare. Perhaps this is the only 
instance on record of citizens soliciting the favor of being taxed. It was 
granted, and the Corporation was then authorized to impose a special tax 
on this city for the supisort of schools. And what has since been the devel- 
opment of this system in this city ? In the year 1838, $34,000 were received 
from the school fund ; $34,000, or an equal amount to that received, were 
raised under the compulsory clause of the school system acts, and $73,000 in 
addition were raised by this voluntary taxation ; so that the annual revenue 
of the fund in controversy exceeds $140,000 — no trifling sum, to be distrib- 
\ uted by this municipal bod^'. Now, if you please, what is the tendency of 

V:' this system ? — ^its practical effect — its mode of tuition — the nature of its 

W^'' \ ^^ instruction? In the first place, there is no laio on the subject. The revcr- 
jT yj , end gentleman has said that, if the prayer were granted, they would con- 

j^ y V form to the provisions of the law ; he was willing that the body which he 
V^ J" ,, represents should api^ly the fund as the law directs. But the law makes no 
f" ■' provision in the matter. If the Koran was taught in a common school, the 
law would not interfere — the law would not shut the school ; it must be got 
at in some other way. This, the very essence of the matter, was left, and 
doubtless intentionally left, to the people of the State and to this honorable 
body. Throughout the State, the jJeople elect their officers for the manage- 
ment of these schools ; here it is done through this body, who are elected 
by the people. You, then, who arc the representatives of the jjcople, decidf! 
to whom this fund shall be distributed. Now, at the outset the question 
may arise — and a groat portion of the remarks of the reverend gentleman 
compel a notice of it — whether the education of the people is a proijer sul> 
V >.' ject of governmental concern. If I understand the argument of the rever- 

l A,* . • end gentleman, it tends to the negative of this proposition. When he says 

" '' - ■ the trustees of our public schools " tcd-e the children from their mother, 
deprive the parents of their offspring" I understand him to say — and it is not 
the first time, by any means, that this question has been mooted — that the 
State has no right to interfere ; that the matter should be left to the parent ; 
%' ■'■ that the State should not interpose between the father and his child. If 
y^^ ,'' that argument is sound, then the whole system should be abolished ; if the 
' , j-'^ State ought not to interfere at all, taxation for this object must be done 
away with, and no further sums should be levied, and the school fund, 
guaranteed by the Constitution, should go back into the general coffers. 
But, right or wrong, such is not the understanding of the people of this 
State. They have said that there is a portion of every population that does 
not sufficiently ajipreciate the advantages of education voluntarily to secure 
them ; they know, or think that they know, by experience, that such 
parents, unless compelled, will not properly attend to the interests of the 
child, and therefore the people of the State say, " We will interfere ; no 
man shall come up to his majority, and claim the right of voting, without 
that education which shall prepare him, at least in part, to exercise that 
right. He shall have at least a portion of that instruction, without which 
he is a firebrand in the midst of a magazine." This matter, therefore, no 
longer admits of argument. The question to be argued here is, not whether 



SPEECH OF THEODOEE SEDGWICK. 229 

the father and the mother are the best judges of the interests of the child 
in this point of view. If so, we are cast on the sea of abstract discussion. 
We must assume something — we must take something for granted. The 
postulate in this case is, " the State requires its children to have some kind 
of education." What kind, then, shall that be ? Is the present system the 
best, or shall we have something new, and repudiate that which the expe- 
rience of thirty years has sanctioned and approved ? There are three kinds 
of education which the State might give. There is the purely secular edu- 
cation, such as the first act, to whicli I have referred, contemplates — such as 
the master gives to an apprentice. This secular education may be better or 
worse, more or less extensive. The child may be taught to read and write, 
and may be given what is called by tlie State " a pm-ely English education." 
There is another kind of instruction the infant may be imbued with — those 
fundamental principles of morals about which there is no dispute, at least 
not in this country, nor in any part of Chiistendom — about which the body 
which the reverend gentleman represents and we Protestants all equally 
agree ; as to the moral code of Christianity, there is no material difference 
of opinion among us. But, beyond that, there is still another branch of 
instruction which is properly called religious, and it is because those two 
phrases — " religious " and " moral " — have been used occasionally without 
an accurate apprehension of their signification, that the documents of the 
trustees have been misconstrued. But when the term " moral " education 
is used, it only means that education which instructs the children in those 
fundamental tenets of duty which are the basis of all religion ; it does not 
mean that sectarian or dogmatic teaching which constitutes what is more 
properly termed a " religious " education. The common schools have meant 
from the beginning to teach the children the great mor.al precepts, " Thou 
shalt not steaj, thou shalt not lie," and others ; but they have not intended 
to teach either Episcoi:)alianism or Methodism, Catholicism or Unitarianism, 
for from that controversial leaning they have intended — and if I imderstand 
the system, the Legislature intended — that the schools should keep aloof. 
It never can be imparted without involving the parents and the children in 
bitter disputes endless in their nature, whose inevitable effect would be to 
exasperate the minds of the parents toward each other, and be either use- 
less, or positively injurious to the children. A religious education, properly 
so called, no man can undervalue. If a moral education is given, the other 
invaluable instruction must be superadded ; but the State docs not intend 
to give it. The State intends to give a " secular " and moral, but not a 
religious education ; the State does not intend to give a sectarian education, 
and that is precisely what, if I apprehend correctly, the reverend gentleman 
does intend to give. Such as I have described is the character of the in- 
struction in this State ; and that of the city is in harmony with it. It is a 
system, I repeat, by which it is intended to confer a secular and moral edu- 
cation. It has been thought that, for the jiurposes of moral teaching, the 
Bible contains that in which all sects can agree — from which no sect can 
dissent. Now, what is the prayer of the petitioners ? I suppose it is hardly 
necessary, in this age and in this country, to deny any feeling of hostility to 



230 THE PITBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Catholics. It' there is one feeling that has spread more than another 
throughout this country, it is one of religious toleration — it is, that this 
country was designed and was provided as an asylum for the oppressed of 
other countries. It has been so most fortunately for the Catholics of Ireland 
and the poor i^easaut of the Rhine. There is no feeling of hostility to the 
Catholic as such ; still less to the foreigner as such. There was a time 
wlicn Catholicism and Christianity went hand ii^ hand — when their fellow- 
ship was broken by no jar nor schism — when all were Catholics. One of 
the best men who has ever adorned this country, was Bishop Cheveri's, of 
iinstou, one of the few who achieved a widespread reputation by mere acts 
iif private benevolence. And while we can turn to such men as adoniing 
the Catholic Church, it cannot be that there is any hostility to them as a 
sect ; if there be, most assuredly I am iiot its mouthpiece ; and while I 
repudiate all feeling of hostility to the isetitioners, this I will further say, I 
would not for a moment lend my feeble aid to the public school system, if it 
were actuated or marked by intolerance or hostility to Catholics — if it did 
not maintain a perfect impartiality among all sects. I conceive that this is 
not a subject to argue as counsel, from a brief. Unless I were satisfied that 
the compliance with this petition would be dangerous to the whole system, 
as a lawyer I woidd not say a syllable in the matter. I would never, on 
such a subject, argue against my deliberate conviction as a counsel, for hii-e. 
The professional man must here be merged in the citizen, and it is only as 
such that I desire to be heard. 

If this matter, however, is properly considered, there can be no pretence 
for making it hinge on Catholicism, or for awakening the violence of reli- 
gious schisms. Although a portion of the Catholics, at this moment, are 
the most prominent petitioners of the most numerous body which demand a 
change of the system, yet, in jDoiut of fact, they are not more affected by it 
than others. The other denominations say, " We are satisfied with the pres- 
ent order of things, and with the education conferred ; but, if you give a 
portion of these funds to one sect, to be administered by their hands, we 
shall claim our share also." So long as you give a secular education com- 
bined with moral instruction alone, and steer entirely clear of all doctrinal 
or sectarian principles, all are satisfied ; but the moment an apprehension 
exists that a part of this great fund goes to increase the numbers and the 
power of one particular sect, that moment the others will eagerly strive to 
check what they believe a pernicious influence, and to check it in the same 
way. At present these sects tacitly consent to the system pursued by the 
trustees, because the common school is now literally a " common school" a 
neutral institution ; but give a portion of this fund to promote the interests 
of that sect, and others will that instant press in, demanding their equal 
share. Those demands you will not be able to resist. I am not speaking 
of any speculative matter. You have, sir, petitions couched in these very 
terms ; and if you answer the Catholic in the afiirmative, you cannot give a 
negative to the other claimants. Consider, then, for a moment, the effect of 
this. After all the sects have divided the fund among themselves, what is 
to become of the children of that large class who are of no sect, or, at least, 



SPEECH OF THEODORE SEDGWICK. 231 

■who wish no sectarian education to be given ? Are they to be left utterly 
destitute ? The conclusion is irresistible, that this is a direct attempt to 
subvert the -whole coromon school system. The groimds taken by the peti- 
tioners are twofold. If I understand them correctly, they are totally at 
variance and incompatible with each other. One is, that the dogmas of 
religion, or religion properly so called, is not taught in these schools, but 
that what the reverend gentleman calls the sectarianism of infidelity is 
propagated in them. Another objection to the system is, that the children 
are made Protestants : in other words, that religion is taught to them. I 
leave it to the reverend gentleman to reconcile these propositions for the 
purposes of his argument ; for the jjurposes of mine, it is sufficient that 
neither of them is tenable. One is false in point of reasoning, and the other 
in point of fact. 

And now we approach the citadel, the centre of the discussion. Now, 
as to this matter, the petitioners ask your honors to pass a civil ordinance. 
The first question that suggests itself is, Baw your honor.s the potcer to make 
the appropriation asked for ? The committee of the Board of Assistants 
have already intimated their opinion that no such power rests here — that 
this application, if made at all, should be presented to the Legislature. 
And the Board of Assistants have intimated the further opinion, that the 
Legislature has already passed upon this very question. That the Board of 
Assistants are right, there is, I venture to affirm, no doubt. The act of 
1813, by which the Legislature undertook to direct how the school fund 
should be applied in this city, apportioned it among the Trustees of the 
Free-School Society — now the Public School Society — the Orjihan A-sylum 
Society, the Economical School, the African Free School, and svch incorpo- 
rated religious societies as now siqjport, or thereafter shall establish, charity 
schools, or may apply for the same. Tliat act, beyond any question, gave 
this body power to make the appropriation now asked for. The churches 
acted under it, and claimed their share of the school fund. On the 8th of 
February, 1823, an act was passed for the relief of the Bethel Baptist 
Church of the city of New York. That congregation went begging to 
Albany, as other congregations will go if this wretched system shall be 
introduced, and' asked leave to ajsply that part of their share which was not 
wanted for teachers, to the erection of school-houses. The act was passed, 
and its natural consequences ensued. The teachers were uuderjjaid, and 
false receipts were used in order to facilitate and conceal the increase of the 
property of the corporation. Here a gross fraud was perpetrated. That 
fraud was discovered, and it led to a change in the system. The nineteenth^ 
annual report of the School Society contains all the documents and j)roof^ 
on the subject. It is suiEcient for our present purpose that the fact of the 
deceiJtion was proved to the satisfaction of the Common Council of the 
city, and of the Legislature. The Common Council took the matter up, and 
addressed a memorial, signed by Mr. Paulding, then Mayor, to the Legisla- 
ture, for the repeal of the act under which the fund was ajipropriated to 
religious societies in the city. They say : 

The question for the detcnnination of the Legislature, at this time, is 



232 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

presumed to be, whether the Free-Scliool Society shall be suftered to con- 
tinue its operations and have the principal management of gratuitous edu- 
cation in the city of New York, or whether the religious societies shall take 
it out of its hands, and the poor be educated in sectarian schools. 

If religious societies are to be the only participators of the portion of 
the school fund for the city of New York, a spirit of rivalry will, it is 
thought, be excited between different sects, which will go to disturb the 
harmony of society, and which will early infuse strong prejudices in the 
minds of children taught in the different schools. Moreover, your memo- 
rialists would suggest to your honorable body, whether the school fund of 
the State is not purely of a civil character, designed for a civil purpose ; 
and whether, therefore, the entrusting of it to religious or ecclesiastical 
bodies is not a violation of an elementary principle in the jjolitics of the 
State and country. — Nineteentli Report of Free-School Society. 

Upon th^t memorial a committee of the Assembly reported a bill to 
repeal the act in question. That report contains the following passage : 

There is, however, one general principle connected with this subject, of 
no ordinary magnitude, to which the committee would beg leave to call the 
attention of the House. 

It appears that the city of New York is the only part of the State where 
the school fund is at all subject to the control of religious societies. This 
fund is considered by your committee purely of a civil character, and there- 
fore it never ought, in their opinion, to pass into the hands of any coi-pora- 
tion or set of men, who are not directly amenable to the constituted civil 
authorities of the government, and bound to report their proceedings to the 
public. Your committee forbear, in this place, to enter fully into this branch 
of the subject, but they respectfully submit whether it is not a violation of 
a fundamental principle of our legislation, to allow funds of the State, raised 
by a tax on the citizens, designed for civil purjjoses, to be subject to the 
control of any religious corporation. — Nineteenth Annual Rrport of Free- 
School Society, p. 51. 

Upon that memorial and report, both holding this language, the act was 
passed, under which your honors are now called upon to grant the claim of 
the petitionere, on whose behalf the reverend gentleman has just addressed 
you. On the 19th of November, 1834, this law was enacted, entitled " An 
act relating to Common Schools in the City of New York," by which it was 
provided that 

The institutions or schools which shall be entitled to receive the school 
moneys, shall, from time to time, and at least once in three years, be desig- 
nated by the Corporation of this city in Common Council convened. 

Now I ask your honor, since statutes were first formed, was ever a church 
designated in legal language as an " institution " or a " school ? " That act, 
then, coupled with that memorial and report on wliich it was based, compels 
the conviction that it was the intention of the Legislature— if my mind is 
not clouded by the views I have taken on the subject — it is as clear as the 
sun at noon-day, that the Legislature intended that this fund should be 
divided amongst " institutions aud schools," and to be appropriated to the 
jjurposes of education — of civil, secular education, not of religious, sectarian 
instruction. We are now, then, after the lapse of only fifteen years, arguing 
before this honorable body the very question which was argued and decided 
against these petitioners, and that not abstruse or complicated, but one of 



SPEECH OF TITEODOEE SEDGWICK. 233 

the simplest in the very primer book of liberty. The only question which 
can by possibility be raised ou this branch of the case is the change in the 
phraseology adopted iu the Revised Statutes, vol. i. p. 483 (3d. ed.), where, 
instead of the words " institutions or schools," the words " societies or 
scJwoIs " are substituted. That, certainly, is not the language of the act of 
1824 — it is not as clear language as that used in the original act, but it is 
very apijarent that the revisors changed the language without intending to 
changing the puiport of the i)rovision. Your honors are well aware that 
where any change of our statute law was considered necessary by the re- 
visors, where an old enactment was altered, or a new provision was intro- 
duced, it is unifomily accompanied by a note to show the reason for the 
alteration. But there is no note nor comment whatever ou this passage. 
Your honors are equally well aware that the revisors did, for the simplifica- 
tion, and, as they no doubt considered the improvement, of the law, some- 
times change the phraseology of our statutes, to make it more elegant or 
precise ; that is the reason why they here have substituted the word " socie- 
ties " for " institutions." It is not to be supposed that they could de- 
liberately revert to the exploded enactment, wliich existed prior to 1834, 
without note or comment, explanation or reason, to show why they had re- 
established a system once pronounced pernicious. As a matter of law, 
therefore, I afBrm without hesitation this question has been passed upon by 
the Legislature, and that the sovereign power has removed from this honor- 
able body the right or authority to apportion this fund among religious 
societies. If we are right in this jjart of the discussion, we might stop here. 
If this ground is well taken, the petition must unquestionably be rejected. 
Your honors cannot act for want of jurisdiction. But suppose us to be 
wrong — put out of view the act of 1834, and consider the question as it 
presents itself on general principles, as if we were to argue it before a com- 
mittee of the Legislature. Have your honors acted on this sulyect already ? 
The present disposition of the school fund is among the Public School Soci- 
ety, the Meehauics' Society, the Orphan Asylum, the Harlem School, the 
Manhattanville School, the Yorkville School, the Catholic Benevolent Soci- 
ety, the New York Institution for the Blind, the Half Orphan Asylum, the 
Association for the Benefit of Colored Orphans in Kew York. Of these the 
most prominent is the Public School Society, tbe utility and benefits of 
which it is impossible to extol too highly, but whose power the reverend 
gentleman most egregiously exaggerated. What are its powers ? In 1805, 
this Society was incorporated by the Legislature under the name of "The 
Society^for Establishing a Free School in the City of New York, for the 
education of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not i^rovided for, 
by any religious society." In relation to the original petition on which the 
charter was granted, on which the rcvcreud gentleman has commented, it is 
sufficient to observe, that at that time no school fund existed, and the peti- 
tioners might ask leave to give religious education, or any other species of 
education ; whether wise or not, that petition has no connection with the 
application of the common school fund. In 1808, the power of that Society 
was extended to all children who were proper objects of gratuitous educa- 



234: THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tion, and the name was changed to " The Free School Society of New 
York." Ou the .8th of January, 182G, it waa altered to " The Public School 
Society," by which name it is still known. The yearly income of this 
" magniiicent incorporation," so " dangerous to the liberties of the people,'' 
is limited by its charter to $10,000 per annum. This Society has been 
called by the reverend gentleman, a " monopoly." I did not expect to 
receiye to-night a lesson on the evils of monojJoHes. 

That subject we pretty thoroughly discussed some years since, as you, 
Sir. President, no doubt well recollect. That discussion was earned on here 
by one of the most upright aud boldest spirits that ever inhabited a mortal 
frame. It is foreign to this sulijcct, but I shall never forego any oi^portunity 
of commemorating, with my faint praise, the name of William Leggett. 
But this Society, sir, is not one of those huge political engines which we 
were then taught to dread — a Society incorporated under a general statute, 
the privileges of which are open to all ; the only object of which is to sup- 
ply education to the poor; the annual income of which is limited to |10,000, 
is not, I need not assure your honors, such a " dangerous monojjoly " as 
should exclude it from i)opular favor. It is just such a monopoly — just 
such a monster, if the reverend gentleman likes the phrase better — as any 
one of the churches which he represents. Some better ground of objection 
must be found than that this incorporation is a " monopoly." The argu- 
ment of the reverend gentleman has certainly the merit of flexibility, but it 
stretches too far : he sets out with the proposition that this Society incul- 
cates sectarianism, but when he found that would be turned against him, he 
goes on the other track, and charges them with infidelity. Not quite satis- 
fied with either of these, he starts the certainly novel accusation that it is a 
monopoly, and finally he insists that the Society has not the confidence of 
the people. As to this matter, like most others, facts sjjcak louder than 
words. A statement has been recently prepared in relation to the children 
taught in these schools, which shows the nature of their efiects on the jjopu- 
lation of this city. The report not only gives the number of the children 
taught, but the occupation of the parents has been carefully set down, and a 
single glance at it will show what class of society is most interested in the 
sujiport of this " dangerous monopoly." Of 16,000 children, no less than 
1,488, or about one tenth, are the children of laborers ; 1,461, or nearly 
another tenth, are the children of widows; 945 shoemakers; 502 cabinet- 
makers ; 416 masons ; 579 tailors ; 493 blacksmiths ; while of clergymen 
there are but 13 ; of doctors 44 ; lawyers 35 ; and the gmtlemen figure in the 
list to the amount of 26. This is the proportion in which the children of 
the difierent classes enjoy the benefits of education from the Pul>lic School 
Society. The reverend gentleman's assertion that the Society has not the 
confidence of the public, is somewhat answered by this statement. But if it 
v/ere othei'wise, should it be thought strange, and would it be singular if 
the same eloquent voice which we have heard this night, is constantly raised 
to deter one large and important class of the people from entering those 
common schools, arousing the prejudices of the poorer part of our popula- 
tion as to the motives of the Society and the character of its instruction ? 



SPEECH OF THEODORE SEDGWICK. 235 

But it is not true. In point of fact they have the confidence of the people 
to a most remarkable extent. 

This institution has organized 98 schools ; expends annually about 
§130,000, and is, as I have said, the principal agent of the common school 
education in our city. This institution has, in. its instruction, most sedu- 
lously confined itself to a secular and moral education, and most scrupu- 
lously eschevred every thing of a sectarian tendency. It is against this insti- 
tution that these petitions are most especially aimed. 

To come back to the other recipients of the school fund. The Harlem, 
Hamilton, Manhattanville, and Yorkville schools, as TveU as the African and 
Meciianics' Society, arc, I believe, proper free schools, some of theui devoted 
to particular classes of society, but all confining themselves to secular moral 
education— steering clear of sectarianism in every shape. The other institu- 
tions do, in some shape or other, convey religious instruction, and, as such, 
are exceptions to the general rule. 

A report was not long since (I think in 1833) made by the Board of 
Assistants against the claims of these latter establishments, on the ground — 
the same we now urge — that this fund is intended for the purjjoses of secu- 
lar education, and that those institutions, such as the Orphan Asylum, no 
matter how excellent they may be, no matter how much good they may 
effect, do not come withiu the pale of those educational establishments to 
which it was intended that this fund should be devoted. Unfortunately, 
the views of the report did not prevail. Tour honors have already gone 
beyond the intention of the Legislature and the Constitution, and have 
already erroneously granted aid to institutions w'hich do not strictly come 
within the original design of the common school system. But is this to be 
established as a precedent ? I think not. The grants to these institutions, 
of small amount and little consequence, will hardly serve as a jiretext for 
breaking up the system altogether. The application now before you is, that 
your honors will be pleased to designate, as among the schools entitled to 
participate in the common school fund, St. Patrick's school, St. Peter's 
school, St. Mary's school, St. Joseph's school, St. James' school, St. Nicho- 
las' school, Transfiguration Church school, and St. John's school. 

Now, if your honors please, what is the ground of this petition ? First, 
that the Catholics who, as represented by the reverend gentleman, pay taxes 
equally with all other citizens, cannot enjoy the benefits of the schools, be- 
cause their consciences will not permit them to send their children there. I 
am by no means disposed to underrate the force of this objection. If I 
oppose this application, it is with no desire to achieve a jialtry triumph over 
the petitioners, or the reverend gentleman himself. Our object is that which 
actuates him : it is the wish, that the children of the poor be educated — to 
sjive them that which the petitioners say they are striving to obtain. If 
there is any thing in our system which, rightly considered, prevents their 
enjoyment of its advantages, the system is in that resjiect wrong. If a large 
body of our citizens cannot (in fact and for good reasons) participate in the 
advantages of our public free education, that education is on a wrong foot- 
jug — is radically wrong. But the question is, after all, one of fact. Is the 



236 xnE PUBLIC school society. 

ground on which they prevent their children from going to these schools 
■svell taken ? What, then, is the reason which they assign ? As I have said, 
the objections resolve themselves into ttro ; and these two are totally incom- 
patible and inconsistent with each other. One branch of the objection is, 
that the instruction is purely secular. This has been urged not only in the 
argument of the reverend gentleman, but the same view of the subject is 
presented in the documents presented to this board. It is there stated, in 
various forms, that religion is excluded — that religion is not taught — that 
the instruction is jjurely secular, and that the children grow up infidels in 
consequence. That is alleged to be the tendency of the schools. Such is 
the fia'st objection. Now, what is the other, or the other head of this same 
objection ? That the Bible is used by the jiupil " icithout note or comment'''' 
— that the schools are totally Protestant in their bearing, and tend to under- 
mine the Catholic faith. One of these positions is, I suppose, with great 
respect, untenable : a child cannot well grow up a Protestant and an infidel 
at the same time. On which docs the gentleman rely for the great responsi- 
bility he assumes in dissuading his parishioners from availing themselves of 
these schools — the Bible without '■'■note or comment''' ? Is this the objec- 
tion ? Whose " notes " or " comments" I pray, does he intend to introduce 
into our common schools ? Is it possible that the Bible cannot, in this day 
and generation, be trusted in the hands of our American childi'en ? If the 
whole Bible cannot be used, cannot such extracts from it be compiled as 
will satisfy all parties ? This has been the course actually adopted by the 
trustees. They habitually use a volume composed of selections from the 
Bible. Cannot these selections be made so as to satisfy all sects ? The real 
tendency of the reverend gentleman's reasoning iA this matter cannot be 
appreciated, without recollecting the diflerence between the Catholic and 
Protestant Bible. I do not intend to draw any parallel between the tests 
of the translation which we use, and that of the Douay or the Catholic 
Bible. All om* early associations are so iutei-woven with our own version, 
that it would be no easy matter to give the Catholic translation a fair and 
impartial judgment, as far as the richness, beauty, and force of style is con- 
cerned ; but on one point surely we of the Protestant faith cannot claim any 
superiority. In the moi-cd teach in^ of the two versions there is no consider- 
able diflference ; in the doctrinal jioints there are, it is true, some important 
discrepancies. Where the word repent is used in our edition, in the Catho- 
lic it is, do penance. For the words daili/ hread, in the Catholic edition, are 
substituted, siqiersvhstantial hread. But the great moral precepts (I speak 
now of the teaching of our Saviour) are the same. How can it be other- 
wise ? We are all Christians ; either Bible is the code of Christ ; but, as 
the reverend gentleman has said, it is the "notes and comments" which dis- 
tinguish the Catholic from the Protestant edition ; it is to the edition with- 
out note or comment that the objection exists. This objection is a funda- 
mental one in principle. The Catholic Bible is filled with marginal notes 
which inculcate dogmas proving, or seeking to prove, doctrinal points — 
transubstantiation, for instance, or the necessity of the fasts and penance. 
Now, for the purposes of this argument, the truth of these doctrines is not 



SrEECII OF THEODORE SEDGWICK. 237 

of the slightest importance. I do not care whether Protestant or Catholic 
be right. The question is not one of sectarian dogmas, but of education. 
The difference is not as to the justice or correctness of the " notes and com- 
ments," but as to the projiriety of using any — -whether our children shall he 
taught to love their neighbors, and not to lie and not to steal, or whether 
their young minds shall be occupied with the pros and cons of transubstan- 
tiation, penance, and fasts. Mankind has nerer disagreed as to the propri- 
ety of robbing, or cheating, or bearing ftilse witness ; but about these dog- 
mas, these doctrines, the race has been cutting each other's throats for the 
last ten centuries. For the last four centuries these doctrines have dyed 
Europe with blood. It is these recollections, these reminiscences, which 
have dictated our legislation on this subject. It is these prodigious evils 
that American statesmen have striven to avoid. This is the evil which the 
trustees believe they see in the application now made, and in behalf of both 
Catholics and Protestants, they implore you to reject this petition. They 
have confined themselves, in the instruction given in these schools, to that 
which they believe is in conformity with the intentions of the State — a secu- 
lar education — reading and writing, and the rules of arithmetic, with such 
instruction on the precepts of the Bible as they did suppose all persons call- 
ing themselves Christians could agree in. If this is wrong, the trustees are 
wrong altogether, and something else must be substituted. If a moral edu- 
cation is not of itself sufficient — if it is not the only proper education for 
our free schools, something else must be substituted. The religious, the 
doctrinal, the sectarian education, they have hitherto left to the fireside, to 
the parents, to the Sunday school. They do not pretend to give it ; they do 
not pretend, by the use of the Bible, io teach more than that moral code 
which every class of Christians, whether Catholic or Protestant, they con- 
ceived would unite to give. In these matters it is worth while to look at 
the experience of other countries. The same controversy that has arisen 
here, has arisen also in Ireland ; but there, in a country torn by religious 
schisms— and I state a fact well known to the reverend gentleman — both 
Protestants and Catholics have united in a selection of extracts to be used, 
some from our version, some from the Douay Bible. I do not say that this 
could be adopted here ; but I do say, there is some neutral ground on which 
both parties can meet. I do not pretend that the scheme of the trustees is 
wholly unexceptionable ; but I do say, that vastly greater defects must be 
discovered in it than have yet been pointed out, to justify its abandonment ; 
and that vpith all its imperfections on its head, it is a thousandfold better 
than what is now proposed as its substitute. As to the other branch of this 
double-headed objection, that the books used in the schools are hostile to 
Catholics, and promote the Protestant interest : if they are so, they ought 
to be expurgated ; and if they cannot be satisfactorily expurgated, the 
books themselves ought to be abandoned, and their places supplied by oth- 
ers. The trustees have viewed this matter in the same light; they have 
done all in their power to remove the Catholic objection, so far as it exists. 
I regret that the books are not here, that I might convince your honors how 
far they have gone to meet what they considered the well-founded remon- 



238 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

strances of tlie Catliolics. They have expurgated whole passages of text 
from some books, and, in other instances, have pasted two leaves together, 
so as to annihilate completely the objectionable passages, until a new edition 
can be procured. This has been done, too, notwithstanding the refusal of 
the Catholic authorities to give the least aid ; and surely it is not fair, when 
this has been done, to insist that these gentlemen were blapiable for hot 
discovering these passages sooner. I repeat, it is not common fairness. 

They have oifered to make the books unobjectionable to Catholics ; they 
have asked the gentlemen who now complain, to lay their fingers on those 
passages which are objectionable, and they have promised that they should 
be struck out. But all cooperation and assistance has been refused. 

There is one other branch of the question, as regards the conduct of the 
School Society, of no little importance. The schools, during the week, are 
under the control of the School Society, but on Sundays they have been 
used as Sunday schools by such religious societies as would pay for the fuel 
and take charge of the building. This privilege has been tendered to the 
Catholics. They have been told, " If you will avail yourselves, during the 
week-days, of the public schools, you may have the use of the buildings on 
Sundays, to give such religious eelucation as you see fit, and you may use 
the Douay Bible or the Missal."' Nothing, surely, can be fairer or more 
impartial than to place all the sects on an equality during the week, and, on 
Sundays, to use them as they choose for religious purposes. There is but 
<nic other branch of the reverend gentleman's remarks to which it will be 
necessary to refer ; that is, as to the character of the schools foT which a 
^hare of the fund is now demanded. The reverend gentleman insists that 
they will not be sectarian scliools. But this must be so ; they can be nothing 
else, from the nature of the case. The schools are attached to their church- 
es ; they are within the sound of the chant, almost within reach of the 
altar ; and if sectarian schools are not to be established, what is the object 
of their establishment at all ? If the objection to .the existing schools is, 
that they convey no religious instruction, and these schools are intended to 
obviate such objections, what kind of education, I beg, will be given ? 
What, to be sure, but the teaching of the Catholic faith ? The very ground 
— the whole foundation — of their petition is, that the schools ought to con- 
vey religious education ; and do they not, in the schools which they mean 
to establish, intend to convey I'eligious instruction ? And you need not be 
told by me that it will be a Catholic education — a purely Catholic, a secta- 
rian education. If you, gentlemen, are prepared to lend your funds and 
your authority to such a scheme, you have only to say the word. The trus- 
tees of the public schools, and the gentlemen who compose the Public 
School Society, hojjc the result of this application will be such as will bring 
the children into the schools. Their object is, that the children shall be 
educated. If there is any thing in the objection made as to the character 
of the schools or the lessons taught therein, let a committee be appointed 
by your honors, from you own body, to investigate the subject. If any well- 
founded cause of complaint exists, it will doubtless be removed. But until 
it is established by better prpof than we have here, that these schools arc 



SPEECH OF HIRAM KETCHUM. 239 

objectionable, and, by better argument than we have this night heard, that 
the public funds should be devoted to feed the iires of religious fanaticism, 
surely your honors will not abandon these long-established and excellent 
institutions. 

•fliRAM Ketcuum, Esq., spoke as follows : 

Mii. Chairmak : This is an ajiplication on the part of the Roman Catho- 
lic Church, or of the schools under the direction of the Roman Catholic 
Church, to be j)ennitted to participate in the school fund. I desire to say, 
this is not a controversy of Catholics "with Methodists, or of the Catholics 
with the Society of Friends; the question here is, whether the petitioners 
can, upon principles of public policy, be permitted to participate in the 
school fund. I may say, in advance, that I don't opjjose the petition ou 
behalf of the Public School Society because the petitioners are Catholics. 
Within the last eighteen years it has been my duty, on behalf of the School 
Society, to oppose many petitions for participation in this fund. Petitions 
have come from Episcopalian schools ; and those schools have been repre- 
sented by a gentleman who is now one of the highest dignitaries in that 
Church in this State, and also by able counsel. Petitions have come from 
the Dutch Reformed, Church, and they have been advocated with great abil- 
ity. Petitions have come from the Methodist Church, and have likewise 
been advocated with great ability ; and from the Baptist Church, and they 
have been advocated with equal ability ; and from the Roman Catholic 
Church time and again ; and the prayers of these petitioners, when united 
as when separate, have, upon what were deemed sound' ijublic principles, 
been rejected by your predecessors. Now the petition comes from one soci- 
ety alone, and the question is, whether the same principle which excluded 
the Episcoi^alians, which exclutled the Methodists, which excluded the 
Dutch-Reformed Church, which excluded the Baptists, shall not now, as it 
has heretofore done, exclude the Roman Catholics also. 

Mr. President, I regret that some things have been said on behalf of 
these ijetitioners that have been said. I regret that an attempt should have 
been made here to enlist prejudices against the Public School Society, be- 
cause it is a corporation. The public schools of this city are managed upon 
the same principles on which the common schools throughout the State aro 
conducted ; and if the jDublic schools are wrong, the principles of the com- 
mon schools tliroughout the whole State are equally erroneous ; and it seems 
to me that the question is not, whether the public schools are managed by a 
coi-poration or not, but whether, u2)on jjrinciiiles which, have heretofore been 
discussed, there can be conceded to Catholics, or any other religious denomi- 
nation, that which is now sought. If they be so fortunate as to prove tliat 
the public schools are ou a wrong basis, still they have not gained their 
point — still they have not shown that Catholics, or any other religions 
denomination, are entitled to the fund. I may be permitted also to say, I 
regret that popular appeals have been made on this subject. I do not object 
to the trustees of that association coming here to petition ; but when I read 
accounts of popular appeals being made by a high dignitary vi (liat Church 



240 TUE POBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

to the people, to enlist the popular prejudice on this subject, I may be per- 
mitted to say that, at least, the course is a novel one. When I read accounts 
of the fii-st pastor of that Church — when I read of a mitred gentleman being 
received by the people with " cheers " — when I read that he addressed them, 
and was " cheered " on, as we arc accustomed to be in our public meetings, 
I must say there is something novel in the proceeding. The gentlemen com- 
posing this body, I conceive, are capable of reasoning on this subject ; and 
it is hardly necessary that a mitred gentleman should descend into the arena, 
and appeal to the popular prejudice or passion to iniJuence the judgment of 
this board. I am sure, sir, if I — and I speak it with all respect — if I, or 
any other man, had been passing St. James', at the times these meetings 
were held, we should have supjjoscd that they were political meetings, and 
that possession of the hall was taken by either the " Wliigs " or the " Demo- 
crats." It seems to me not becoming ; it seems to me that it is not treating 
the question in a proper manner, to make these popular appeals, and then 
to come here en masse to ask your honors to grant the prayer of this peti- 
tion, at the same time telling you that the Catholics are one fifth of our 
population. I care not how numerous they are. I know the Catholics, 
when joined 1-iy others on a former day, had their petition rejected ; and I 
trust, when they como here alone, attended by the pojjulace which they have 
excited, they will have no more nor any less conceded to them than is right, 
on sound princi2Jlcs of public policy. 

There are two principles, or propositions, about which we shall not dis- 
agree. The first is, that the Legislature has power to direct that a public 
fund shall be provided for the education of every child in the State. There 
is no contradiction here of any sound principle. It is no violation of any 
sound public principle in the Legislature to enact that out of the public 
money raised by tax on all our citizens, every child in the State may be per- 
mitted to receive the rudiments of an education. There is one other princi- 
ple which is equally in accordance with the well-established public policy 
in this State, namely, that not one cent, raised by public taxation, can go to 
support a religious institution — can go in payment for an education purely 
religious in its character. Now let us inquire, for a moment, the reasons on 
which these propositions rest. Why is it that the State can tax all the peo- 
ple for the education of our children ? Because it is admitted that intelli- 
gence is necessary to enable every citizen to discharge his duty to the com- 
munity — because our institutions rest upon the intelligence and virtue of 
the people ; therefore it is right that the State should furnish that intelli- 
gence to every member ; and it is no answer for any man, who is called to 
pay a tax for that legitimate purpose, to say, " I send my children to schools 
where I pay for their education. I do not wish to avail myself of the pub- 
lic fund. My children are educated at this or that classical school. I don't 
wish to participate, and therefore I won't pay the tax." This is an answer 
that the State would not admit for a moment. And it mi^ ht be that the 
State adopted some system of education which might not suit all — the Lan- 
casterian, for instance, as in this city. Now, some may say, " I dfslike the 
Lancasterian system ; I think it is calculated to impart a superficial educa- 



SPEECH OF IIIRAM KETCHUM. 24:1 

tion. I dislike it. I have a deep-rooted objection to that system." But 
will the State permit him to say, " I will withhold my tax. 1 cannot pay 
my t;i.\', because I have an objection to the system which prevents my chil- 
dren jiarticiijating in the fund ; and therefore I ask the privilege of retain- 
ing my jjortion of the tax" ? Would the State listen to such a plea? What, 
then, is the conclusion ? Why, the State, having the right to educate the 
children, and having the right to tax the peojile for that purpose, must 
necessarily adopt some general system — it must follow some general rule ; 
and whatever my scruples may be, whatever may be the scruples of any 
other individual here, or throughout the community, and however oppres- 
sive it may be to me. or to others, who cannot avail themselves of the sys- 
tem, they must submit. The great end which the State has in view — to 
impart intelligence to every citizen — must be accomplished, and on some 
principle adopted and established by the State itself. Well, what is the 
next principle and reason ? We see that no tax can be laid for the support 
of religion. Why ? Religion is the foundation of sound morals. That, no 
man will deny ; we do not live in an age when any man denies it. Sound 
morals are essential to the preservation of the community ; why, therefore, 
shall not the city be taxed for that which is essential to her preservation ? 
Why shall she not be taxed for laying the foundation on which sound mor- 
als and sound political institutions rest ? I will tc!l you why. We are 
divided into diiFerent sects, and, if v/e were taxed for the support of reli- 
gion, it would happen — it could not be prevented — that a man would b.^ 
taxed for the support of a religion in which he did not believe, and which 
he regarded as injurious. I should be taxed to support the Jewish religion ; 
Dr. Brownlee would be taxed to support the Catholic religion, and the rev- 
erend gentleman who has addressed you here to-night would be taxed to 
support Dr. Brownlee's religion. And would they pay the tax ? No ; for 
it would be a violation of conscience. And you would then see the time 
arrive, if an attempt we;e made to collect such a tax, when men would 
march to the stake, as in years gone by. Right or wrong, you would see 
many Protestants go to the stake, before they would let a single dollar of 
their money go to teach the right reverend gentleman's religion. So, on the 
other hand, you would see thousands of Catholics suffer martyrdom, before 
they would contribute to a fund whereby they might, by chance, be contrib- 
uting to the teaching of heresy. This is the reason why we cannot haye a 
general tax for the support of religion. But again, we believe that religion 
is essential to sound morals. There is no gentleman here who will deny that 
the Christian religion is the great conservative principle of the community. 
And how is that best promoted and advanced ? By being let alone ; by 
giving every denomination a fair chance ; by leaving religion to voluntary 
support. It is best for religion itself that it should be let alone to extend 
its own boundaries. Now, then, Mr. Chairman, to me it is most manifest 
that tbis community is bound to furnish the rudiments of a common educa- 
tion. The State is bound to do this, and to do it by some public system — 
by some ordinance, or by some law ; the State is bound to make provision 
for furnishing this education. I do not say — I will not pretend to say— that 
IG 



:i4:2 THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the state lias a right to take the children from the arms of their mothers. I 
do not mean to say that the State has a right to force education on any 
body. That is not the prineiple. But I mean to say that the State ought 
to furnish a system which shall be open and acceptable to all. It ought to 
furnish bread, and say, Come and eat. I do not mean to inflict pains and 
penalties ; I should think they ■would be hardly necessary. Let us go forth 
with persuasion. I am for using no force but the force of strong argument. 
Well, now, sir, if it is the duty of the State to furnish an education for the 
poor, and for all the children in the community, or for all that will avail 
themselves of it, the State must establish some system ; and there is a sys- 
tem established in the city of New York upon -what we supposed to be pub- 
lic principles — common schools in the common acceptation of that term. 

Mr. Chairman, the idea that we are bound in our common schools to 
teach religion is a perfectly novel idea to an American mind. Who ever 
went to a common school to be taught religion ? I am in the midst of 
Americans who have received theu- education in the common schools of this 
country, and I ask who ever went to a common school to receive religious 
instruction ? I venture to say that the idea is perfectly novel. But do we 
mean to say that because no religion is taught in these schools, that they are 
irreligious 2 Far otherwise. Now the reverend gentleman has said — with 
Jill his professions of kindness he has said, that religion is below par in the 
public schools ; at an immense discoimt. Now, is it so ? He argues inge- 
niously, that if they are not taught the doctrines of some known sect, there 
is no religion. Why, sir, we have been taught sound morals in all our 
schools. I do not know any school in which they have not been taught. I 
do not know a mechanics' shop where the young Ameiican or Irishman goes 
to be instructed in the trade of a cabinet-maker or blacksmith, where he is 
not bound to be of sound morals. This obligation prevails everywhere — it 
is a thing which every body acknowledges. We are bound to teach it. 
" Thou shalt not lie ; thou shalt not steal ; thou shalt not bear false witness," 
are precepts which we teach in our schools. Who ever heard to the con- 
trary ? And if we are bound to teach them, we are at liberty to teach those 
general religious truths which give them sanction. I should like to know 
where there is a school in which the master is not at liberty to say, God's 
eye sees all you do ; and if you steal, or lie, the retribution of eternal judg- 
ment will follow you. This is not teaching religion. This is morality, and 
an invoking of the common sanctions of that morality. Sir, it has been 
said of these schools that they do not teach ^his. Why, if the gentlemen 
had visited the schools — and I am afraid they have not — they would have 
seen, if their eyes had been properly directed, mottoes of thi? kind : " God 
sees and knows all our thoughts, words, and actions." " God sees all we 
do ; He hears all we say ; He knows all we do." " Son, reverence thy 
parent." And yet, gentlemen, we don't teach religion ; we don't teach pur- 
gatory ; we don't teach baptism or no Ijaptism ; we don't teach any thing 
that is disputed among Christians. We have no right to do so : but we 
have the right to declare moral truths, and this community gives us that 
right — not the law, but, as my friend says, public sentiment. 



SPEECH OF niRAil KETCnUM. 243 

And is there no common principle in wbicli all agree ? Is there not a 
principle to which all religious men refer ? And have not we the right, 
thus far, to teach the sanctions of morality in these schools ? And because 
we teach the principles which every body acknowledges, and no man dis- 
putes — which give offence to nobody, and ought not — are we to be told that 
these are religious schools ? Why, in our common schools we have all been 
taught the common truths of religion, and yet no one ever went there to re- 
ceive religious education. 

Mr. Chairman, while in these common, established schools, wc give the 
rudiments of an ordinary education — while we teach there to write and 
cypher, and read the newspaper, and discharge the duties of citizen? — while 
this is done, there is another department in which religion is taught. "We 
all know it — we all feel it ; and while the Legislature can go to any extent 
to advance man in one department, that of common elementary learning, 
there is another, which is left to religion, where the pastor takes the chil- 
dren, where the Christian parent takes the children, where the benevolent 
Christian takes the children to his Sunday-school, or elsewhere, and brings 
them under the influence of religion. This department is supplied by vol- 
untary contribution, and not one dollar can be paid by public tax. Now I 
do maintain, sir, that I speak of a line so clear, so broad, that every man 
who hears me, who has had the good fortune to receive an education in this 
countrj', will understand it ; a broad, clear, and distinct line between secular 
and religious education. One is received under the influence of a religious 
teacher ; that religious teacher gets his pay by the voluntary contribution of 
willing hearts ; he dares not get it anywhere else ; he does not want to get 
it in any other way. The other can draw on the State for any amount that 
the people, in their sovereign capacity, may determine. 

We thus undertake in these public schools to furnish this secular educa- 
tion, embracing, as it docs, not solely and e.\clusively the common rudiments 
of learning, but also a knowle.dge of good morals, and those common sanc- 
tions of religion which are acknowledged by every body. We have estab- 
lished such a system, and the question is, whether that system shall be de- 
stroyed and a new one established. That is the question. This system is 
known and understood ; it has spread its schools all over our city ; it is 
under one government ; children removing from one ward to another lind in 
each the same schools, are accommodated with the same books, meet with, 
and are instructed under the same uniform system. Now shall it be con- 
tinued or not ? Mr. Chaiiman, if the prayer of this petition be granted, it 
must be abandoned. I can show you this in a few minutes. Does the rever- 
end gentleman suppose that he alone would be permitted to take this fund ? 
Does he imagine that the various Protestant denominations will stand by. 
and look on, and see him draw ten, twelve, or fourteen dollars a child, for 
its education, and the making it — for it would be so ; that would be the 
result after all — not only a fair scholar, but a good Catholic ? Does he sup- 
pose he is going to have that business to himself, and that other reverend 
gentlemen are going to stand b^, and build up no schools ? It will not be 
as in former years, as the reverend gentleman conjectures ; for then the 



•244 THE PinSLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

bounty of tlie State was small, then ouly two dollars a head, or something 
of that sort, could be drawn, and the Lancasterian system was not intro- 
duced ; then there was no inducement offered to the religious bodies ; but 
with this large bounty the Presbyterians, the Episcopalians, the Baptists, 
and our friends, the Methodists, who are, it seems, such naughty people, 
will have their schools ; and they will have them well filled, too ; and not 
only filled with the children of their own disciples, but they will have an 
inducement to bring in others, because the more they draw in, the more 
money they will draw, and the consequence will be that the system of pub- 
lic schools will be broken up. Now, the consideration which I wish to 
Ijring to your mind is, whether the new system will be as good or better 
than the old. It is the common-sense way of acting, not to desert thai 
which has done well, that which has done good service, unless we see that 
we are going to improve by the change. What is the charge brought 
against this system of public school instruction? What is the charge? 
What is the objection ? What is the system established for ? It is to fur- 
nish a good, common, ordinary literary education — a good literary and sci- 
entific education — to instruct our children in the rudiments of literature and 
science. Now there is no charge — and I want this body to look at this paper 
in reference to that — there is no charge against the School Society that it 
has not performed that duty — that it has not given what it was bound to 
give — the rudiments of a good literary education — that it has not enabled 
the children to read, and write, and cypher, and furnished them with the 
elements of geography, so as to fit them to go forth and discharge their 
duties as intelligent citizens. There is no charge against the Society that it 
has not performed this. What, then, is it ? Why, it is this : that the 
Catholics, from conscientious scruples, cannot come in and participate in the 
advantages of the system. Their consciences forbid them to have their chil- 
dren educated in these schools. Now, Mr. Chairman, there is no man, I 
apprehend, tliat can have a higher respect for the rights of conscience, than 
he who now addresses you ; but let us examine this matter, and with all 
respect for those whose claim we now discuss, I fairly and candidly ask, Can 
a Eoman Catholic have conscientious scruples against my learning his son to 
read, to write, to cypher, and the common elements of geography ? Can it 
be ? Is it possible ? Take a fair intelligent Protestant, and is it possible 
that any Roman Catholic could object to that man instructing his children 
to read, write, and cypher ? Why, no ; you might just as well say he has 
conscientious scruples against such a man learning his son " the art, trade, 
and mystery " of cabinet-making in a Protestant shop. You may just as 
well say that he has conscientious scruples against placing his son in the 
oflace of a Protestant lawyer to .study law. Why, is it so in fact ? Go into 
your fashionable schools, and I ask you if there are not there as many Cath- 
olics, as of other sects ? I think I have in my eye those, among the peti- 
tioners themselves, who send their children to Madame this or that, who is 
a Protestant ; and there are many Protestants here who send their children 
to the schools of Catholics ; and in doing this, they consider themselves as 
compromising nothing, for there is no religion taught there. These con- 



SPEECH OF HTEAM KETCHDM. 245 

siderations, which so press on the minds of these conscientious petitioners 
for the hardship endured by the parents who send their children to public 
schools now, are not apjjreciated in their own case when they send their 
sons to Columbia College, or to the schools of Protestant Mrs. Smith, or 
some other lady. Well, now, BIr. Chairman, if there be no conscientious 
scruples at all against employing Protestants to teach their children to road 
and write and cypher, on what can their conscientious scruples rest ? It 
has been said (but I will not read the passage, because the commonly under- 
stood meaning of it has been disavowed) that the children that go to these 
schools do not reverence their parents, and that they feel a contempt for 
them, as though a special influence had been used by which they were led to 
do this. Now I supposed, until it was disclaimed so explicitly, that this 
had an application to the gentlemen of the Society of Friends. But the 
reverend gentleman has disavowed it; and he ought to do so, for I can tell 
that gentleman that the Friends never, perhaps in a single instance, sent or 
permitted children of theirs to go to these schools. They educate their own 
poor, and they ask the State for no participation. They do not send their 
children there, and I venture to affirm that, of the numerous children that 
go to those schools, not one attends the public ordinances of religion ac- 
cording to the mode established by the Society of Friends. And I will go 
farther and say, of those who are educated there, none are converted to 
their faith. Whatever may be intended here or elsewhere, it may be assert- 
ed, with perfect confidence, that those individuals make no proselytes ; and 
also it may be said, that they have kept their people from being teachers, 
tearing such accusations as are made against them by the reverend gentle- 
man. 

And, Mr. President, if it is alleged— and I understand it now to be dis- 
claimed — that the course of education begets irreverence to parents, I can 
only say they who afiirm it speak of that which they do not understand. 

If they had gone to these schools, they would have seen what care is 
taken, what sound moral principles are inculcated, and they would then 
never have made this charge. But it is now disclaimed, and it is not for 
that reason, then, that they have conscientious scruples. But what else is 
there ? It is atfirmed that some of these books contain passages reflecting 
on Catholics. Now I submit to the candor of the gentleman, and of every 
one that hears me — because the books, containing numerous extracts from 
numerous authors, collected together for the use of these schools, contain a 
few passages which I may conceive reflect on me, or ou my religion, or on 
my politics ; is that a good reason why I should have conscientious scruples 
and objections against the entire system ? Let us see where it would lead. 
Here is the Catholic, in turning over perhaps a thousand pages, finds some 
fifty lines that reflect on his religion. I venture to say the Calvinists, on 
turning over those pages, would find something reflecting on them. I have 
not made the experiment, but I have no doubt that would be the result. 
Then comes the high churchman, and if he does not find something there 
bearing on his peculiarities, I am mistaken. Then there are the Methodists, 
and if they do not find something there bearing on what people call their 



246 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

fauaticism, it is extraordinary. Then there is the politician, and there may 
be something extracted from Jeiferson used in these schools, and to this a 
certain class of politicians may say, I cannot have my children taught Jeffer- 
sonianism. Well, then, there is my particular, ivorthy friend, Daniel "Web- 
ster, who may have contributed something to the pages of these books, and 
a Democrat, who takes up the books, may say, I cannot go Webster any 
liow ; I must have that expurgated. Now if all men must go on in this 
way, and conscientiously object to the system because in the reading-lessons 
they find some passages against their religious or political opinions, the 
v/holc of the books wiU be expunged. I do not mean to reflect on the con- 
scientious scruples of any man, but I ask if we are not bound to take hold 
of this system in a fair and candid manner. We must have a public system ; 
and it is impossible to have a public system to which some man may not 
have scruples and objections. Well, sir, but what next ? Why, the Bible. 
I believe a chapter from the Bible, the Protestant translation, without note 
or comment, is read in some of these schools at their opening every day. 
Shall we give up this Bible, Mr. President ? It would be a very hard thing. 
I have no authority to say how far the trustees can go, or will go, in a spirit 
of compromise, with an earnest desire to get in these children, but I am 
here to say that it will be a great sacrifice to give up the Bible — to give up 
that translated Bible — containing, as we believe, and as I doubt not, a great 
part of Christendom believes, not only a fair translation, but a vast fund of 
pure English. It will be hard to give up that Bible, sir. It has furnished 
consolation in life, and hope in death, to many. The institutions of liberty 
and the altars of piety have sprung up in the path of that translated Bible ; 
and wherever that translated Bible has gone, popular institutions have risen. 
All those glorious principles, which here in this country are so conspicuous, 
have come from that Bible ; and wherever that translated Bible has been 
kept from the hands of the laity, there has been darkness and despotism. 

We, sir, have a Declaration of Independence of which we are proud, 
because it contains those great principles of liberty which are found in the 
Bible. Yes, sir, there lies beyond that Declaration of Independence a book 
whose principles are a declaration of independence to man ; and wherever 
that book is read, man finds out his rights, and is willing to assert them. 

Mr. President and gentlemen of the board, it is in your hands. It is at 
present in the hands of these trustees, but it is a very delicate trust. Wo 
are called upon to give up that Bible. I am not the man to say that it can 
bo done, and I believe, if this is necessary to a compromise, we shall have to 
say, " No compromise." We cannot give up that Bible from our own hands, 
and the hands of the children of this republic. Mr. Chairman, we must go 
a little farther. Suppose we did now give up the Bible, and make a com- 
mon selection from the two translations — the Catholic and our own ; sup- 
pose we made a common selection about which we all agree. Why, gentle- 
men, such a compromise was made across the water ; that compromise was 
agreed to by a majority of the Irish Catholic bishops, but the minority 
appealed to the pope. Now the gentleman is mistaken if he supposes I am 
capable of appealing to any prejudices improperly, but he has not denied 



SPEECH OF niRAM KETCHDM. 247 

this fact; and I expected it would have been denied, or somehow exphxined, 
how such an appeal was made from that country. Sir, sucli an appeal might 
be made in this country ; and if so, in all candor I ask, whether it does not 
belong to a foreign potentate to say whether the Bible shall be read in our 
common schools ? I ask if they can escape from that jjosition ? I want an 
answer to that question. And if there be a foreign power, spiritual or other- 
wise, to say that the Bible shall not be read, I ask if that power may not 
say that the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence shall not be 
read ? I mean no reflection. This matter has come out in evidence here, 
and I draw from it what may be supposed to be legitimate conclusions. 
The gentlemen opposite may smile, but I ask if they can escape from these 
conclusions ? I know there are many of the Catholic laity who are Ameri- 
cans by birth, and many by adoption, -nho would settle that question very 
soon. Though the mitre may be placed by a foreign power on the head of 
him that w-ears it, I know there is a feeling in the American bosom — be it 
Catholic or Protestant — that will not allow a foi'cign potentate, either direct- 
ly or indirectly, to interfere. Now, Mr. President, I have got through all 1 
propose to say on this subject, and again I put it to you. Shall we not have 
the privilege to learn our little fellow-citizens to read and write and cipher, 
and to teach them the common elements of geography and history ? Shall 
we be prevented by a conscientious scruple 2 Mr. Chairman, I feel a strong 
desire that both Protestants and Catholics should be brought into the same 
schools, and I see in such a circumstance, great and wholesome and bene- 
ficial political results. When a stranger comes here from a foreign land, 
where he has been oppressed, I am willing to grant him an asylum, and to 
say that he shall have all the benefits of this land, and of our Constitution ; 
and that if he has been oppressed, that he has come to a country where he 
shall be oppressed no more. All I ask is, that he shall give America his 
heart. If he comes with an Irish heart, let it become an American heart ; 
let him stand by America, and by her children, enjoying the same rights as 
they enjoy, and growing up with them, amalgamate with them, and inter- 
changing the same kind and benevolent feelings together. That is what I 
want. I want to see the country from which he came second in his regard 
to the land of his adoption, to the land of his children ; and I want those 
children so brought up, that, when they become men, they shall have pure 
American feelings. I hope, sir, they will not be taught that we entertain 
the same feeling here that Orangemen and Protestants entertain in Ireland. 
We are not unfriendly to them ; our children are not their enemies ; let us, 
then, grow up and amalgamate together. I dislike any system that would 
cast ofl^ from American ground these children of foreign countries; and 1 
ask the gentlemen if they cannot come in and place their children side by 
side with ours, and let them feel that in the schools there are no partialities, 
and that out of them they may go to their own Church and bow before theii 
own altar ? But for civil purposes, let all be brought up together. 

Mr. Chairman, there is another very plausible argument presented here. 
They tell you, in their memorial, that they will engage to give as good an 
ordinary secular education as the public schools can give for the same 



24S THE PUBLIC SCHOOL sociicn'. 

money. They propose to allow tlieii- schools to be visited by the j)ublic 
authorities, or by the trustees themselves, and to place them under some 
general supervision. Now, there are two ways of insuring the fidelity of 
trustees, in directing the object of a public trust toward the end designed; 
one is, by supervision, and the other is, by so creating the trust as to insure, 
by its organization, the requisite fidelity. The latter I prefer. Here is a 
religious society whose paramount purpose is religious instruction ; if to 
that be superadded a literary education, it will be subordinate to Ihe other, 
as it ought ; its constant tendency will be, to neglect the literary education 
for the purpose of promoting the other, and therefore the object of the 
Legislature will most likely be neglected. 

But here is the Public School Society, created for one single purpose, and 
that is, education. For that it is organized, and to that end all its opera- 
tions tend. But if it had two objects in view, the paramount one would be 
that which would receive its chief attention ; the other and subordinate one 
would receive less. If you entrust this business of education to a religious 
society, religion will bo paramount, and literature will be subordinate. Let 
that subordinate one be paid for by the State, and it would be in their case 
if they had no other object. But, gentlemen, the question is. Will you 
desert tlie Public School Society, and take up this new society ? It has 
l)eeu said that the Public School Society is a monopoly. In the country, 
the trustees are chosen by the people ; but in this city, owing to its peculiar 
organization, the matter is left to the superintendence of benevolent individ- 
uals, who are voluntary agents. They receive no compensation for their 
services, and experience has shown that the duties have been better dis- 
charged by that system than by any other. You may go to the schools in 
the State and examine the most favorable ones ; then visit the schools in 
this city, and the education in our schools will be found superior to that in 
the common schools elsewhere. 

This Society is called a corporation ; but it is a corporation which is 
bound by law to report all its proceedings every year to this Council, and, at 
stated times, to the Legislature. It is a corporation of which the members 
of this board are ex-qfficio members. It is a corporation which has control 
of a great fund, and it has for its end the good of the State ; but it is will- 
ing that its real estate shall be transferred to this Corjjoration whenever the 
public good requires it, and to this end an offer has long since been made, 
and is now repeated. But if we are to have this common school system of 
education, I ask, if it is not better to have it under the supervision of men 
of business and of high character, who are willing to devote their leisure to 
its interests ? I wish to call your attention to another subject. This fund is 
a large one ; $73,000 is from the State and compulsory taxation. In the 
country, as explained by my associate, a certain sura is granted by the State, 
on condition that au equal sum is added to the school fund, by a tax laid 
on the people themselves who receive it. But, Independent of that, our 
citizens came and asked to be taxed something more, and that amount is 
more than the other two. But it must be recollected, when this request to 
be permitted to tax themselves still farther was made, it was settled and 



SPEECn OF IIIEAII KETCUUSr. 249 

iietermined that the churches should be excluded. When that Tvas settled, 
and the schools were mainly under the supervision of the Common School 
Society, that Society got up petitions for this additional taxation ; and 
because confidence was placed in that Society, the taxation -was not opposed. 
Now, if we revert back to the common school system, this must come back 
too ; for I affirm, that the chief consideration which induced the petitioners 
— and they were men of great property among them — to sign the petition 
asking to be taxed for the purposes of education, was, that the School Soci- 
ety was to have the superintendence. The sum of §73,000 was thus raised, 
because confidence was reposed in the School Society, as antagonistic of 
those church societies. 

Now, perhaps, the gentleman may ask, if the system is to be changed, 
that we should resort to the same course as is pursued in the country, where 
the people elect their own commissioners and trustees. But if we do, the 
schools must be governed on the same principles as these, and the only dif- 
ference will be in the managers. And if it is to come to that, I am sure 
these trustees will be very willing ; for it is to them a source of great vexa- 
tion to be compelled to carry on this controversy for such a period. 

They are very unwilling to come here to meet their fellow-citizens in a 
somewhat hostile manner. They have nothing to gain, for the Society is 
no benefit to them ; and they give days and weeks of their time, without 
recompense, to the dischaige of the duties of their trust. They have noth- 
ing to gain, but they have arduous duties to discharge. Nor have they any 
thing to conceal. They report every thing to this Common Council, and 
therefore the public know all they do ; and if they are not found faithful to 
the trust — if, in the solemn judgment of this corporation, they do not answer 
the end proposed, elect others in their place ; and if the prayer of this jieti- 
tion be granted, it will be equivalent to their arraignment. I know not that 
I can add any thing more to my argument. It has been my fortune, during 
the last eighteen years, from time to time to argue this question before other 
boards, who came to a unanimous decision ; and at the veiy time when the 
question was referred to the Legislature, the petitioners were supported by a 
reverend gentleman of the highest respectability of that day, and by lay 
gentlemen of great talent. We had the discussion here until eleven and 
twelve o'clock at night, and the gentlemen of the Common Council — men 
of great respectability — denied the prayer of the petition, and the public 
sustained them in their decision. Our Roman Catholic friends come now 
with the same principle that was decided then, and I hope, sir, the prayer 
of the petitioners will not be granted. 

Tlie licv. Dr. Bond then appeared as the representative of 
the Methodist Episcopal Ciiurch, but he gave way to the Right 
Rev. Bishop Hughes, who desired to make a brief reply to the 
two legal gentlemen who, had addressed the board. He said : 

I have a few remarks that I wish to make, partly in reference to myself 
and partly to my princijiles, and the views submitted with regard to those 



250 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

principles ; but the debate has taken a range too ■wide and too legal for me 
to pretend to follow it throughout. I am not accustomed to the niceties of 
legislation, or the manner of interpreting statutes or acts of the Legislature ; 
but, to sum up the whole of the two eloquent addresses made by the gentle- 
,, men who have just spoken, they amount to this : that either the consciences 
I of Catholics must be crushed, and their objections resisted, or the Public 
' School System must be destroyed. Tliat is the isith of both their observa- 
tions. They argue that there must be either one or the other of these two 
results, and those gentlemen are inclined to the course of compelling con- 
science to give way, they being the judge of our consciences, which they 
wish to overrule ; so that the Public School Society — and I do not desire to 
detract from it as far as good intentions are concerned — shall continue to 
dispose of the public school fund, notwithstanding our objections and the 
reasoning on ivhich they are based. The gentleman who last spoke appeared 
to imagine that I wished the exclusion of the Protestant Bible, and that, for 
the benefit of Catholics, I laid myself open to the charge of enmity to the 
Word of God ; but I desired nothing of the sort. I would leave the Protes- 
tant Bible for those that reverence it ; but, for myself, it has not my confi- 
dence. Another objection which he made was of a jiersonal character to 
myself; but while that gentleman started with the beautiful rule of charity 
to others, and with a lecture on the propriety of retaining our station in life, 
and the impropriety of the public appeals of which he was pleased to 
speak, I regret that his practice was not in accordance with his precept ; and 
that, while he was lecturing me on the subject, he himself should have gone 
beyond any thing which proper discussion called for. If I attended those 
meetings, it was because I felt the evil of the present system as regards us — 
not its evil as regards others ; and we must be permitted to be the judge of 
our own duties, and to see for ourselves, while we accord to others the same 
right for themselves. I beg to disclaim any intention to overrule this com- 
munity, or to bring any thing from Rome, except to those who believe in its 
spiritual authority. Consequently, all those remarks of that gentleman have 
been out of place ; and for the rest I conceive the true point "has not been 
touched. Not one of our objections or scruples of conscience has he under- 
taken to analyze, nor the grounds on which they exist. When I gave those 
reasons for our objections, I thought some argument would have been urged 
fairly against them, but the only end-tlie gentleman appears to have in view, 
is the preservation of the School Society, and to maintain that they have a 
patent right to the ofiice. That I know is his object ; but I did not expect 
to hear any man construing the law as that its advantages cannot reach us 
unless we lay down and saciiflce our consciences at the threshold. I have 
spoken for myself, and I have disclaimed all high-handed objects ; but the 
gentleman insists, notwithstanding the pledge which we have given, that, in 
spite of all, we shall teach our religion. I disclaim such intentions, and I 
do not think it fair in that gentleman to impute intentions which we dis- 
claim. The gentleman has drawn a beautiful picture of society, if all could 
live in harmony (I would it could be reduced to practice), whether born in 
foreign parts or in this country. But if all could be brought up together — 



SPEECH OF ET. KEV. BISHOP HUGHES. 251 

if all could associate in such a state without prejudice to the public welfare, 
■while the Protestants use such books as those to which we object, it could 
ouly be by the Catholic concealing his religion ; for, if he owns it, he will 
be called a " jjapist." The gentleman says (hat one of the books to which 
we object is not a text-book used in the schools ; but, if not, it is one of the 
books placed in the library — to which I do not say ice contribute more than 
others, but it is supported at the jiublic expense, to which Catholics con- 
tribute as well as others. I will read you one passage, and leave you to 
judge for yourselves what will be its effects on the mind? of our children. 
The work is entitled " The Irish Heart," and the author, at j). 24, is describ- 
ing an Irish Catholic, and he says : " As for Phelim Maghee, he was of no 
particular religion." 

And how the gentlemen describe the jjublic schools, but as schools of 
religion and no religion. They say they give religious instruction ; but 
again they say, it is not religion, for it does not vitiate their claim. 

As for old Phelim Maghee, he was of no particular religion. 

When Phelim had laid up a good stock of sins, he now and then went 
over to Killaruey, of a Sabbath morning, and got ^^relanf by conjimng them 
out o' the way," as he used to express it, and sealed up his soul with a 
wafer. 

That is the term they apply to our doctrine of transubstantiation ; and 
they want us to associate and to enjoy every thing in harmony, when they 
assail our religious right. 

and returned quite invigorated for the jierpetration of new offence.«. 

Now, suppose Catholic children hear this in the company of their Prot- 
estant associates ! They will be subject to the ridicule of their companions, 
and the consequence will be, that their domestic and religious attachments 
will become weakened ; they will become ashamed of their religion, and 
they will grow up Nothingarians. 

But again, on p. 120, when speaking of intemperance, we find the fol- 
lowing : <J 

It is more probable, however, a part of the papal system. 

And this, notwithstanding all that Father Matthew has done. 

For when di'unkenness shall have been done away, and, with it, that just 
relative proportion of all indolence,' ignorance, crime, misery, and supersti- 
tion, of which it is the putative parent, then truly a much smaller portion 
of mankind may be expected to follow the dark lantern of the Romish 
religion. 

That religion is most likely to find professors among the frivolous and 
the wicked, which, by a species of ecclesiastical legerdemain, can persuade 
the sinner that he is going to heaven, when he is going directly to hell. By 
a refined and complicated system of Jesuitry and prelatical juggling, the 
papal sec has obtained its present extensive influence through the world. 

And, unless we send our childi-en to imbibe these lessons, we are going 
to overturn the system ! But is that the true conclusion to which the gen- 
tleman should come from our petition ? Is that reasoning from facts and 
the*evidence before their eyes? I have jn-omised not to detain the board, 



252 TUE PUDLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

and therefore I would merely say, if I have attended those meetings, it -was 
not with the views the gentleman has imputed to me, nor to distinguish 
myself, as has been insinuated, I have taken good care to banish politics 
from those meetings ; and if I have mentioned the number of Catholics, or 
of their children, it -was to show how far this system fiills short of the end 
which the Legislature had in view. I disclaim utterly and entirely the 
intention imputed to me by the gentleman. But I will no longer detain the 
board. 

Mi: MoTT, one of the Public School Trustees, with the per- 
mission of the board, explained the manner in which the book 
which the right reverend prelate had last alluded to had found 
its way into the schools. It was one of a series of tales pub- 
lished by the Temperance Society ; and when a committee was 
appointed for filling the library, their attention was called to the 
first number of the series. They read two or three of them 
which had come from the press, and, as they appeared to be 
adapted to the reading of children, the committee admitted 
them, and by some mistake it was supposed that all the other 
volumes of the same series, and under the same title, were 
ordered too, and they were sent in as they issued from the press 
after that period, and in this way the book in question had crept 
ill. But this being discovered by a Catholic trustee, it was with- 
drawn, and of this the gentlemen were fully apprised, and there- 
fore he asked if it was generous or just to quote that book, under 
these circumstances, to strengthen the cause of the Catholics. 

The Hight Rev. Bishop IIugues assured the gentleman that 
he, until that moment, had not heard of the books ha^ng been 
withdrawn. 

The Eev. Dr. Bond then again rose to address the board, as 
the representative of the Methodist Episcopal Clnn-ch ; but as 
it was now 10 o'clock, it was proposed by one of the aldermen 
to take a recess until Friday afternoon, at 4 o'clock, which was 
agreed to, and the board adjourned. 

SIX'OND DAY. 

The board reassembled at i o'clock on Friday, the SOtli of 
October, by adjournment from the previous day, but some time 
elapsed before the debate could be resumed, in consequence of 
the difficulty which the gentlemen who took part in the proceed- 
ino;s, found in irauiinir an entrance to the Council Chamber, 



SPEECH OF REV. DU. BOND. 253 

through the greatly increased crowd of persons who were anx- 
ious and struggling to be present. After the room had been 
tilled to overflowing, many hundreds were still excluded who 
desired admission ; but the room was filled to its utmost capaci- 
ty, even to standing room in the windows, and those still crowd- 
ing round the entrance-door were obliged to endure the disap- 
pointment. David Graham, Esq., Alderman of the Fifteenth 
Ward, presided on this occasion as the locum tenens of the Presi- 
dent, Mr. Alderman Purdy, who, however, was present, seated 
with the aldermen. There were also present manj^ distin- 
guished and reverend gentlemen of various denominations of 
this city, besides those who took part in the discussion. Dr. 
Brownlee was seated near Dr. Bond during that gentleman's 
speech, but he did not attempt to address the board. 

The Kev. Dr. Pise, and other reverend gentlemen of the 
Catholic Church, were seated with the Eight Eev. Bishop 
Hughes and the Very Eev. Dr. Power, and many preachers of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church were in the vicinity of the ora- 
tor by whom they were represented. 

When all the gentlemen were seated, the President called 
upon the Eev. Dr. Bond, of the Methodist Episcopal Chm-ch, to 
proceed with the debate on behalf of the remonstrants of that 
Ijody. 

The Eev. Dr. Bond spoke as follows : 

Mr. President axd Gentlemen op the CoinioN Council : It may be 
necessary here, in the outset, that I sliould, on the part of those that I rep- 
resent, disclaim all hostility to our fellow-citizens who have made their 
claim to this Council. To them we have no hostility — nay, we have no 
prejudice against them as a body ; and of any hostility that may be found 
in the memorial which we have presented to this body, the address of the 
right reverend gentleman who opened this discussion last night will furnisli 
us with a thorough explanation ; for, when he adverted to that part of his 
memorial which related to the Society of Friends, he wished it to be ex- 
pressly understood that he spoke of their creed apart from themselves. 
Now, this is the explanation we wish to make of our memorial which wc 
have presented to this Council. We speak of the creed of the Roman Cath- 
olic Church apart fi'om the Roman Catholics themselves. We are bound, 
not only by the obligations of social life, but by our common Christianity, 
to extend to them all the benevolence which we think ought to be exercised 
toward any other portion of our fellow-citizens. It may be asked why wc 
adverted to their creed at all. Because it was wholly unavoidable. We 
could not do otherwise, because it was on its peculiarities that they rested 



254 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

their claim to a portion of this fund ; it was on their peculiar creed that 
they rested their scruples against sending their children to the ijublic 
schools. We could, therefore, no otherwise resist their claim but by advert- 
ing to those peculiarities. And it is complained that we adverted to them 
with too little respect. Now, sir, wo must be allowed to say, that whatever 
there is of disrespect to our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens in this memorial, 
they must allow something for the provocation. Sir, we had esteemed the 
public schools a common benefit, and we had made sacrifices to the system. 
We, too, should have been glad if we could have educate<l our children in 
our own way, and in our sectarian tenets, or prejudices, if you will ; but 
when we found the Legislature providing an education that should be uni- 
versal, we brought all- our sectarian feelings, and placed them on tjie altar 
of the public welfare. And when we found the public schools, which we 
esteemed so great a good, about to be destroyed by the sectarian prejudices 
of another denomination, we were alarmed, and we stated in our memorial 
that we were alarmed. And was there no cause for alarm ? AVhy, the pub- 
lic gatherings which were so feelingly alluded to last night were cause of 
alarm. Was there not cause for alarm, when, at a time of general excite- 
ment and political strife, there were these gatherings of the Catholics ? 
And was there not cause to fear that their object was to wrest from the 
Common Council by intimidation, what they had failed to obtain by reason 
and argument ? Such were our fears ; but really, sir, the complaint of want 
of respect in our memorial is wholly out of place. Why, the gentleman 
reminds mo of a man who, while deliberately skinning a living eel, cursed 
the " varmint " because it would not hold still. Why, sir, this skinning is 
a serious matter. I hope, however, that we shall be allowed the apology 
which the right reverend gentleman made for himself and for those asso- 
ciated with him, when speaking of the Society of Friends and their 
creed 

The Eight Ecv. Bishop Hughes interposed, and said he had 
not spoken of the creed of eitlier tlie Society of Friends or of 
tlie Methodists. He did not suppose this body was sitting in 
judgment on creeds. 

The Kev. Dr. Bond continued : 

I admit that, when the reverend gentleman spoke of the Society of 
Friends, he did not speak of them by name. Well, but the right reverend 
gentleman says — and. he contends it has an important bearing on this mat- 
ter — that we have made a false issue ; that we charge tliat the applicants 
require a portion of this public money for sectarian pui-poses ; and this, he 
says, is " a false issue." If this be true, it will have an important bearing 
on the question. But we affirm that it is not a false issue : it is the true 
issue ; there can be no other issue. It will be remembered, sir, that we have 
only now to justify what we have alleged in our memorial. We are not 
going into the merits of the legal part of the question, for we are not of the 
legal profession ; and, after what we have heard from the legal gentlemen in 



SPEECH OF EEV. DE. BOND. 255 

tliis discussion, it cannot be expected. But we do aflirm that the issue we, 
in common with the Trustees of the Public School Society, plead— that this 
money is applied for for sectai'ian purposes — is the true issue. How do we 
prove it ? It has been one leading objection to the public schools, that no 
religion is taught in them. Well, it is also alleged that no religion can be 
taught there, unless we teach sectarianism. Now, if it be complained, on 
the part of our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens, that no religion is taught in 
these schools, surely they don't mean to keep schools in which they will 
teach no religion. We take them to be honest in what they say, and I hope 
that is not " a false issue." Tliey allege that no religion is taught, and 
that none can be taught without teaching sectarianism. Now we take it for 
granted that they will not keei) schools in which no religion is taught ; or 
why do they object to the public schools ? And if they teach religion, it 
must be sectarianism, for they themselves allege that no religion can be 
taught without teaching sectarianism ; and if so, then will not the public 
money be used for sectarian purposes? There is only one 'way to escape 
from this position. What claim may be set up here, I know not ; but else- 
where it is alleged that they teach tlie Roman Catholic religion, and that is 
not sectarianism, inasmuch as it is the only true religion. 

This may be a salvo for them, but it is not for us. They will not expect 
that other denominations will admit that the Roman Catholic is the only 
true religion, and that it is not sectaiianism. But if they do, and if they 
still say that theirs is the only true Church ; and if they, only a branch of 
the common stock, only one of the many sects of our common Christianity, 
teach Catholicism there, they teach sectarianism as much as Methodists 
would do if they had one of these schools m which they taught Methodism. 
And if they teach Catholic sectarianism to their children, will not the 
money they claim, if allowed, "be applied to sectarian purposes ? This is all 
we said, sir ; and is this " a false issue " ? We say it is the true issue ; 
there can be no other issue, for there can be no possible objection to this 
conclusion. So much for " the issue," sir. 

But it was complained, sir, that we have said the arguments by which 
their application on a former occasion was resisted, were " clear, cogent, and 
unanswerable." We grant that this is a matter of opinion. We say, wheu 
we read them in the memorial of the trustees of the public schools, we 
thought them clear, cogent, and conclusive ; but we accord to the gentle- 
man the right to form his own opinion ; and can he complain if we claim 
the same privilege which we accord to him ? But it was complained that 
we had alleged that " neither the Constitution of the State nor the public 
welfare are to be regarded, when they stand in the way of Roman Catholic 
sectarianism and exclusiveness." Why, is it not on the ground of sectarian 
exclusiveness that they make this claim ? I take it for granted that, if they 
cannot conscientiously send their children to the jjublic schools, their con- 
scientious olijection is founded on their creed. There is something of pecu- 
liarity in their creed, for they alone, of all the denominations, have scruples 
on this subject ; aud we did not then intend to give offence by the term 
" sectarian exclusiveness." But again, it is complained that we alleged that 



256 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETi-. 

" it must be manifest to the Common Council, that, if the Eoman Catholic 
claims are granted, all the other Christian denominations ■will urge their 
claims for a similar appropriation, and that the money raised for education 
by a general tax ■wUl be solely applied to the purposes of proselytism, 
through the medium of sectarian schools." And can any thing be clearer t 
Indeed, the gentleman does not take particular exception to this. " That 
the money raised for education by a general tax will be solely applied to the 
purposes of proselytism ! " Why, if they are honest in their prejudices for 
their form of worship, and if they believe their own religion the best, they 
will endeavor to impart their own views, and all the principles which they 
advocate, to those they take under their own care. And what is this but 
proselytism ? The word is not used offensively, for we only mean, by mak- 
ing proselytes, the making converts to their own faith. But we had said, 
" If this were done, would it be the price of peace ? or would it not throw 
the apple of discord into the whole Christian community ? Should we agree 
in the divisionof the spoils? Would each sect be satisfied with the portion 
allotted to it ? " Is there any thing oflensive in this question ? Might we 
not honestly differ respecting the amount appropriated to us severally ? 

We venture to say, that the sturdy claimants who now beset the Council 
would not be satisfied with much less than the lion's share ; and we are sure 
that there are other Protestant denominations besides ourselves who would 
not patiently submit to the exaction. 

And this has been spoken of, sir, by the right reverend gentleman, as 
though we had threatened a rebellion ! Is it necessary that we should stir 
up rebellion to carry out all we said ? We only said, " We are sure that 
there are other Protestant denominations besides ourselves who would not 
patiently submit to the exaction." Have the Catholics submitted patiently 
to what they consider a grievance ? Certainly not, for they have reiterated 
their claim again and again with a perseverance which, in a good cause, is 
praiseworthy. But we did not say we would rebel ; we said we would not 
^'■patiently submit;" nor should we be patient, until we obtained a legal 
remedy. But we have said, " When all the Christian sects shall be satisfied 
with their individual share of the public fund, what is to become of those 
children whose parents belong to none of these sects, and who cannot con- 
scientiously allow them to be educated in the peculiar dogmas of any one 
of them ? The different committees who, on a former occasion, approached 
your honorable body, have shown that, to provide schools for these only, 
would require little less than is now expended ; and it requires little arith- 
metic to show that, when the religious sects have taken all, nothing will 
remain for those who have not yet been able to decide which of the Chris- 
tian denominalions to prefer. It must be plain to every impartial observer, 
that the applicants are opposed to the whole system of public school in- 
struction." Now, the gentleman admits it ; he says it is obviously true, 
that, when all is taken, nothing would remain. And wouid not the sects 
take all ? Who else would there be to take it ? And when they had taken 
all, nothing would remain. But we have alluded to a large body who 
would remain to be educated, when we have no money left for that purpose. 



SPEECH OF REV. DK. BOND. 257 

Our Roman Catholic brethren claim to be one fifth of the population. Wc 
shall not dispute this. But when the right reverend gentleman alluded to 
the statement that si.\ Catholic teachers were cmploj-ed in the public schools, 
he disputed five out of the six, and said that there wns but one that de- 
served the name. Now, if you take these six teachers as a fair sample of 
this one fifth of the population which is nominally Catholic, how many 
would be left that are really Catholic ? and how many would, on similar 
principles of calculation, really belong to any of the other sects who profess 
to belong to them ? But again, allowing that all are Israel that are of Israel 
—that all are Christian that profess to be Christian — what portion of the 
city of New York is there that professes to belong to any sect at all 1 Not 
one half, I am sure. Well, what becomes of the children of those who 
belong to none of these sects ? When the money is distributed among the 
sects, " what is to become of those children whose parents belong to none 
of these sects, and who cannot conscientiously allow them to be educated in 
the peculiar dogmas of any one of them ? " Now, sir, the committees of 
the Public School Society expressly tell us, that it would require little less 
than the present appropriation to provide for these only. And why ? Be- 
cause the expense of tuition is not in proportion to the number taught. 
When you havp provided what is necessary for a given number, a great 
addition may be made without augmenting the expense at all ; and thus a 
great expense will be incurred for those who are of no denomination. But 
we shall advert to this hereafter. Sir, particular exception has been taken 
to our memorial, and the gentleman did us the honor to take it up seriatim, 
paragraph by paragraph ; and therefore it may be requisite that I should 
thus follow him. I now, then, pass to another of the condemned passages 
which it contains : 

We are sorry that the reading of the Bible in the public schools, without 
note or commentary, is ofi^iusive to them ; but we cannot allow the Holy 
Scriptures to be accompanied with their notes and commentaries, and to be 
put into the hands of the children who may hereafter be the rulers and 
legislators of our beloved country ; because, among other bad things taught 
in these commentaries, is to be found the lawfulness of murdering heretics, 
and the unqualified submission, in all matters of conscience, to the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

Sir, we confess, if we march to our object, it must be by a plain road. 
We are a plain people, but we compromise nothing on the subject of reli- 
gion. The right reverend gentleman denied that such are the contents of 
their books, and to confirm his opinion, he offers to bet me a thousand dol- 
lars. Sir, the right reverend gentleman must excuse me. He tells us our 
religion is a young religion. Be it so, sir ; but our Church is old enough ta 
teach us the sinfulness of betting. Sir, I have been taught, as one of the 
primai7 principles of morals, that it is sinful to take my neighbor's money 
without an equivalent. Now, should I accept the gentleman's ofler, and 
cover his thousand dollars, he, or else I, should take the money of the othei- 
without an equivalent. It may be conformable with the creed of the right 
reverend gentleman, but he must allow me to have my " conscientious scru- 
ples," and I shall accord the same to him. But if I do not take up his bet, 
17 



258 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

I will try to do better. We have said in our memorial that their commenta- 
ries teach the lawfulness of murdering heretics. That is the first step. Now 
we are bound to sustain this ; at least we are bound to show this Common 
Council on what authority we state this. We are bound to submit our au- 
thority to the Common Council, and then any gentleman will be able to 
make up liis own mind on the subject. I hold in my hand, sir, what is 
called " The Rhemish New Testament," and it is proper that I should here 
say that we have not said, in our memorial, that these Catholic commenta- 
ries have received the sanction of the proper authorities of that Church. 
We said no such thing. We said Catholic commentaries — and I know of 
no commentaries among Protestants that have received the sanction of a 
Protestant Church ; and yet do we not call them Protestant, in contradis- 
tinction to Catholic commentaries ? All we have, then, to prove, is this, 
that this Rhemish New Testament is a Catholic New Testament, written and 
published by Roman Catholics, and with such sanctions as ordinarily obtain 
among the proper ministers of the Church. It may be alleged that it is 
necessary to have the sanction of His Holiness, or the council ; but all I con- 
tend for is, that it has been circulated among Catholics, that it was trans- 
lated for that purpose, and is therefore a Catholic conmiuntary. That is all 
we contend for. We do not insist that the right reverend gentleman, or any 
Church council, or His Holiness himself countenances it. We could not 
summon His Holiness to testify on the subject ; but in order to ascertain the 
weight of the historical record of that Church, we must take it as it is re- 
ceived by the Church itself. Now this book — the Rhemish New Testa- 
ment — says : 

The Douay Bible is usually so called, because, although the New Testa- 
ment was first translated and published at Rheims, yet the Old Testament 
was printed spme years after at Douay, the English Jesuits having removed 
their monastery from Rheims to Douay before their version of the Old Tes- 
tament was completed. In the year 1816, an edition, including both the 
Douay Old and the Rhemish New Testament, was issued at Dublin, contain- 
ing a large number of comments, replete with impiety, irreligion, and the 
znost fiery persecution. 

The Right Rev. Bishop Hughes. From what do you read ? 

The Rev. Dr. Bond. I read from the second paragraph of the " Intro- 
duxJtory Address to Protestants," of an edition of the Rhemish Testament, 
published in New York. It is attested by gentlemen of the highest reputa- 
tion in this country — by men that will compare in character with any gen- 
tlemen, Protestant or Catholic, in any country ; and they insist it is a true 
republication of that New Testament which was published at Rheims in 
1583. 

That edition was published under the direction of all the dignitaries of 
■the Roman hierarchy in Ireland, and aliout three hundred others of the 
most influential subordinate priests. The notes which urged the hatred and 
■murder of Protestants, attracted the attention of the British churches; and, 
to use the words of T. Hartwell Home, that edition of the Rhemish Testa- 
ment, printed at Dublin in 1816, " corrected and revised and approved by 
Dr. Troy, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, was reviewed by the 



SPEECH OF REV. DR. BOND. 259 

British Critic, vol viii., pp. 376-308, New Series ; and its dangerous tenets, 
both civil and religious, were exposed. 

This publication, with many others of a similar character, produced so 
great an excitement in Britain, that finally several of the most prominent of 
the Irish Roman prelates were called before the English Parliament to prove 
their own work. Then, and upon oath, with all ofhcial solemnity, they 
peremptorily disclaimed the volumes published by theu- own instigation, 
and under their own supervision and auspices, as books of no authority, 
because they had not been ratified by the pope and received by the whole 
Ijapal Church. 

Now have we made any mistake in calling this a Catholic commentary ? 
It must be admitted we have some ground for it. And now for some of the 
" annotations," to show the ground we have for alleging that they do teach 
tlie lawfulness of murdering heretics. 

And the servants said to him, Wilt thou we go and gather it uji ? 
Mr. Alderman GR.\HAii (Chairman). Will the speaker give the page ? 
The Rev. Dr. Bond. The 44th page, and the 38th verse of the thirteenth 
chapter of Matthew. 

And he said, No ; lest perhaps gathering up the cockle, you may root up 
the wheat also together with it. 

Now for the commentary : 

The good must tolerate the evil, when it is so strong that it cannot bo 
redressed without danger and disturljance of the whole Church, and commit 
the matter to God's judgment in the latter day. Otherwise, where ill men, 
be they heretics or other malefactors, may be punished or suppressed without 
disturbance and hazard of the good, they may and ought by public author- 
ity, either spiritual or temporal, be chastised or executed. 

I quote from the ninth chapter of St. Luke, p. 108 : 

And when his disciples James and John had seen it, they said. Lord, 
wilt thou we say that fire come down from heaven, and consume them ? 
And turning, he rebuked them, saying, You know not of what spirit you 
are. 

Now for the " annotation : " 

Not justice nor all rigorous punishment of sinners is here forbidden, nor 
Elias' fact reprehended, nor the Church or Christian princes blamed for put- 
ting heretics to death : but that none of these should be done for desire of 
our particular revenge, or without discretion, and regard of their amend- 
ment, and example to others. Therefore Peter used his j)ower upon Ananias 
and Saphira, when he struck them both down to death for defrauding the 
Church. 

I quote from the 116th page, the 33d verse of the fourteenth chapter of 
St. Luke. 

And the Lord said to the servant. Go forth into the ways and hedges, 
and compel them to enter, that my house may be filled. 

Now for the commentary : 

The vehement persuasion that God useth, both externally by force of His 
word and miracles, and internally by His grace, to bring us unto Him, is 
called compelling : not that He forceth any to come to Him against their 
wills, but that He can alter and mollify a hard heart, and make him will- 



260 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ing that before •would not. Augustine also referreth this compelling to 
the penal laws which Catholic princes do justly use against heretics aurt 
schismatics, proving that they who are by their former profession in baptism 
subject to the Catholic Church, and are departed from the same after sects, 
may and ought to be compelled into the unity and society of the universal 
Church again : and therefore, in this sense, by the two former parts of the 
parables, the Jews first, and secondly the Gentiles, that never believed before 
in Christ, were invited by fair, sweet means only : but by the third, such are 
invited as the Church of God hath power over, because they promised in 
bajjtism, and therefore are to be revoked, not only by gentle means, but by 
just punishment also. 

I quote froui the annotations of the 33d verse of the twentieth chapter 
of St. John : 

The earthly princes, indeed, have also power to bind, but the bodies 
only : but that bond of priests which I speak of, toucheth the very soul it- 
self, and reacheth even to the heavens: insomuch, that whatsoever the 
priests shall do beneath, the self-same God doth ratify above, and the sen- 
tence of the servants of the Lord doth coniirm ; for, indeed, what else is 
this than that the power of all heavenly things is granted them of God ? 

I quote from p. 214, verso 11, chap, xxv., of the Acts : 

I appeal to Cssar. 

This is the annotation : 

If Paul, both to save himself from whipping and from death sought by 
the Jews, doubted not to cry for honor of tlie Roman laws, and to appeal to 
CiEsar, the Prince of the Romans, not yet christened, how much more may 
we call for aid of Christian princes and their laws, for the punishment of 
heretics, and for the Church's defence against them. 

I quote from annotations on the tenth chapter of Hebrews, 39th verse, 
on p. 373 : 

Heresy and apostasy from the Catholic faith, punishable by death. 

I will make but one more extract, and that is from the annotations on 
the Apocalypse, or the book of Revelations, seventeenth chapter, 6th verse, 
p. 430. It is in reference to the woman drunken with the blood of the 
saints : 

It is plain that this woman signifieth the whole corps of all the persecu- 
tors that have and shall shed so much blood of the just : of the prophets, 
apostles, and other martyrs, from the beginning of the world to the end. 
The Protestants foolishly expound it of Rome, for that there they put here- 
tics to death, and allow of their punishment in otlier countries. But their 
blood is not called the blood of the saints, no more than the blood of thieves, 
man-killers, and other malefactors — for the shedding of which, by order of 
justice, no commonwealth shall answer. 

A friend suggests to me that I may also say the Rhemish New Testament 
is not found in the Prohibitory Index ; but I do not assert that this is in 
itself conclusive, for there are, I must admit, thousands of books that are 
not forbidden, for which Catholics are not responsible. All we contend for 
is this, that this book was published at Rheims by the Jesuits ; that they 
subsequently removed to and republished it at Douay ; since that it was re- 
published in Ireland, under the sanction of the Catholic dignitaries, and of 
a large number of the priesthood of that Church. But when it was found 



SPEECH OF KEV. DE. BOND. 261 

that this work had created great alarm in England, and these very dignita- 
ries were called before the British Parliament, they did not say it had not 
their sanction, but they alleged that, because it was not sanctioned by His 
Holiness, and had not received the sanction of the Church, but was only 
cu-culated among and sanctioned by a small portion of it, the Church was 
not responsible for it, as it was not of Catholic authority. We have not 
said, in our memorial, that it had the authority or was sanctioned by the 
Church. We know of no translation into any vulgar tongue which has re- 
ceived the sanction of pope or council. The Latin vulgate only has been so 
sanctioned. We only allege, ■ then, that this is a Catholic publication, or 
that it is published by Catholics ; and that these are Catholic commentaries. 
And we again affirm all we have said. We have, moreover, alleged that, 
•'among other bad things taught in these commentaries, is to be found the 
absolute and unqualified submission, in all matters of conscience, to the 
Roman Catholic Church." But as it has been admitted that the Church has 
this authority with all who submit to that Church, it is unnecessary to 
Ijrove that the commentaries teach it. 

Sir, the nest complaint was of the following paragraph : 

The Roman Catholics complain that books have been introduced into 
the public schools which are injurious to them as a body. It is allowed, 
however, that the passages in these books to which such reference is made 
are chiefly, if not entirely, historical ; and we put it to the candor of the 
Common Council to say, whether any history of Europe, for the last ten 
centuries, could be written which could either omit to mention the Roman 
Catholic Church, or mention it without recording historical facts unfavor- 
able to that Church ? We assert that, if all the historical facts in which the 
Church of Rome has taken a prominent part could be taken from writers 
of her own communion only, the incidents might be made more objection- 
able to the complainants than any book to which they now object. 

Sir, the gentleman did not deny this, for, as I recollect, he said it was 
true ; he admitted " that, if all the historical facts in which the Church of 
Rome has taken a prominent part, could be taken from writers of her own 
communion only, the incidents might be made more objectionable," because 
they always write the truth. But then he alleges that they also record a 
great many good things. Certainly they have written " some good things," 
but it is not from these " good things " exclusively that history is to Ije 
written ; it is not these " good things " that are to constitute history for the 
public schools. What is history ? History is " philosojihy teaching by 
example ; " and could we be taught by example, if we only saw the bright 
side of the picture, and not the dark side too 2 Could any such history be 
useful ? If we see but a partial record, how can we avoid error ? History 
is a beacon and a chart ; but would it be so, would it be a proper directory 
if it contained only that which could be said in favor of any religious 
sect or denomination ? Such a record would be worthless as a history. 
The blessed Bible does not do so. Does any history contain a more particu- 
lar record than this Book does, of the lapses and tails of the most eminent 
people of God ? Does not the faithful page of the sacred historian record 
the fall of David ? Yes, sir ; it records that that man, that holy Psalmist 



262 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

himself fell, being overcome by temptation, into the crimes of murder and 
adultery. Sir, it is a faithful history, and I would desire that all our histo- 
ries should record all the good of Roman Catholics ; but they must record 
the evil also, or they are not histories at all. But we have said, ■' History, 
then, must be talsilied for their accommodation." And would it not be so, 
if only that which was good of them was recorded ? " And yet they com- 
plain that the system of education adopted in the public schools does not 
teach the sinfulness of lying ! " It may be i)ainful to them, but are we to 
have uo feeling ? But the right reverend gentleman told us that the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church is a young Church, and that this was the reason why 
there were not many very bad tilings said of us. He said our Church was 
only a hundred years old. Yet a great many bad things may be done in a 
hundred years. But we have not escaped unscathed, though, perhaps, the 
gentleman may not know it. Why, sir, Mr. O'Connell has published that 
our founder, Mr. Wesley, aided and abetted Lord George Gordon's mob ! 
Yes, that, if Wesley did not originate, he aided and abetted it; — so that we 
have not escaped unscathed. But the reverend gentleman went further. 
He said we had done less good than any other denomination in Christen- 
dom. Why, we are not asking this Council any reward for what we have 
done ; we make no pretensions. Whether we have done good, we leave oth- 
ers to decide. All we claim is, that we have stood in our lot. We believe 
the diflerent sects and denominations in Christendom are jiermitted of God 
for wise purposes. We would not swallow them up if we could. We would 
not cross the street to make all other Protestants members of our Church. 
We have our work ; we cannot do their work, they cannot do ours. We 
make no claim ; but if we have not done a great deal of good, how can the 
gentleman with propriety jjrofess so much respect for us ? If we had done 
good, we should not have escaped, any more than our brethren so signifi- 
cantly and appropriately termed '• Friends." They have done good, yet - 
they have not escaped any more than ourselves. It is to them that the 
world owes the increasing disapproval of war ; and though they have not 
been able to accomplish what they desire, and though they have been unre- 
sistingly oppressed, they have borne a patient testimony to their doctrine, 
and, with the revolutions of this world, the day will come when war will be 
no more. And have they not borne a holy testimony against slavery ? — not 
a turbulent and an abusive testimony, but such as comports with the doc- 
trines tbey teach ; and yet they have not escaped, though they have confess- 
edly done a great deal of good. It has been said that the Methodist Epis- 
copal Church in England never favored the rights of conscience, nor aided 
in the enlargement of liberty. Why, there is no Methodist Episcopal 
Cuurch in England at all. Tlie Methodist Society in England claims only 
to be a society within the pale of the Church of England, as the Jesuits are 
a society within the pale of the Catholic Church. If it be alleged that the 
Methodist Society are not acknowledged by the Church of England, it will 
not be forgotten that the order of Jesuits have been suppressed by the pope. 
It seems, however, that the latter have been restored ; and so our friends in 
Ensrland seem to be getting high in favor with the English establishment. 



SPEECH OF EEV. Dll. BOND. 263 

Yet, we owe them no allegiance ; we send tbem no books to be sanctioned 
before we venture to use them in our schools ; in short, we do not admit 
their right to dictate to us in any matter whatever. It is in this country 
only that there exists any Methodist Episcopal Church. But we are told 
that the Methodists in England have never taken any part, or given any aid, 
in the struggle for religious liberty. It is true, sir, that the Methodists in 
England, like the Methodists here, eschew all participation in jjolitical 
strife, as a society or Church. They do not think it any part of their voca- 
tion to call meetings in their churches, and address them on the political 
cpiestions of the day, as some other Churches do. Perhaps they are too 
young a Church for this, and we hope it will be a long time before they get 
old enough to do so. But individually they act in these matters as others 
do ; and it is to the honor of the Methodist denomination in England, that 
their members generally gave their vvhole weight and influence to Mr. Wil- 
berforce in all his benevolent efl'orts in favor of civil and religious liberty. 
During his long struggle against the slave trade, such was their attachment 
to him and his cause, that, in some parts of England, collections were made 
at the doors of their places of worship to aid in defraying the expenses of 
his election. 

But we have said, " This is not all. They have been most complaisantly 
ofi'ered the censorship of the books to be used in the public schools. The 
committee to whom has been confided the management of these schools in 
this city, offered to allow the Roman Catholic bishop to exjiurgate from 
these books any thing offensive to him. But the offer was not accepted ; 
perhaps for the same reason that he declined to decide on the admissibility 
of a book of extracts from the Bible, which had been sanctioned by certain 
Roman bishops in Ireland. An appeal, it seems, bad gone to the pope on 
the subject, and nothing could be said or done in the matter until His Holi- 
ness had decided. The Common Council of New York will therefore find 
that, when they shall have conceded to the Roman Catholics of this city the 
selection of books for the use of the public schools, that those books must 
undergo the censorship of a foreign potentate. We hope the time is far 
distant when the citizens of this country will allow any foreign power to 
dictate to them in matters relating to either general or municij)al law." To 
this it is objected simply that the Roman Catholics of this country acknowl- 
edge the supremacy of the pope only in spiritual things ; that they do not 
acknowledge in him either political or civil, or any other than spiritual 
authority. Well, sir, we have not said they did, in our memorial. What, 
then, is the complaint 2 We did not undertake to determine whether the 
submitting to His Holiness the question whether a book shall be used in our 
schools is a spiritual or temporal matter. But we really wish to know where 
temporal jurisdiction ends and spiritual jurisdiction begins. We should 
like to have some definite boundary, some line of demarcation drawn be- 
tween temporal and spiritual authority. We did consider the public 
schools a secular matter altogether ; we did think it a temporal matter to 
decide what books should be used in our public schools, for professedly they 
do not intend to interfere with the peculiarities of any sect. But if this is 



264 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCTETT. 

really a spiritual matter, where will it end ? What is it it cannot reach ? 
What is it it will not reach ? If it is a spiritual matter, then all that is 
necessary to carry out spiritual dominion must be granted; aud when was 
it that, to enforce spiritual dictation, temporal power was not resorted to if 
practicable ? The time was when, to enforce this spiritual authority, a 
whole country was laid under interdict. Who does not know that the time 
was when the churches in England were all hung in blaek--whcn the dead 
were uuburied — when the children were not baptized — and when nothing 
was done by the clergy which the community esteemed essential to their 
eternal interests, and subjects absolved from their allegiance because the 
king refused to submit to the pope of Rome ? This power may not exist 
here; the pretension may have been abandoned; but if it has been, I should 
like to know it. I should like to know where the boundary is between tem- 
poral and spiritual power. I should like, for the first time, to be taught 
whether they consider the common interests of education a secular or a 
spiritual matter; and, if a secular, whether it is to be interfered with by 
this spiritual power. As yet it cannot be determined what books will be 
tolerated in the public schools by the Roman Catholic bishop, while an 
appeal has gone to the Roman pontiff; nothing can be done here until his 
answer is received ! The gentleman did not deny this last night, when it 
was so alleged on the part of the Public School Society, and therefore he 
must pardon me if I believe it. 

Sir, we did, in our memorial, regret that our Roman Catholic fellow- 
citizens, in their address, should have referred to the martyrs of their Church 
who suffered for opinion's sake, and we did say it was an unfortunate allu- 
sion. It was unfortunate because it was addressed to all classes of the com- 
munity, and because, in this community, there are strangers from abroad, of 
all countries, among whom tliere are descendants of Protestants who suf- 
fered for their religion. We said it was an unfortunate allusion, and wc 
said so because it would revive in the minds of many the memories of their 
ancestors, and they would thereby be reminded of the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes, the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, the fires of Smith- 
field, or the crusade against the Waldenses. Now, we did not mean to say 
that the right reverend gentleman has power to do these things now ; we 
did not intend to insinuate that our Roman Catholic fellow-citizens would 
persecute now ; but we said it was unfortunate. And was it not unfortu- 
nate to do any thing to revive the recollection of scenes so painful ? But 
we said we were desirous to cover all these scenes with the mantle of char- 
ity, and the gentleman rebukes us. He tells us to attempt to do no such 
thing, for our mantle is too narrow. Well, I suppose he does not mean to 
practise this virtue himself, but to revive feelings in Protestants which we 
should wish not to recollect if it could be prevented. But he adverts to 
their sufferings for conscience' sake, and he went into details of the persecu- 
tions of Catholics in England. Now, sir, we are not here to justify persecu- 
tion, nor to make excuse for it ; we hate it, and we love to hate it ; but we 
are here to say, and we must be allowed to say, that, whatever may be 
alleged against Protestants about persecution, that we are at liberty to be 



SPEECH OF EEV. DE. BOND. 265 

better than our fathers ; we are at liberty to renounce both the practice and 
the tenets of our fathers, if they are found to be wrong. "We say that, 
wlien Protestants persecuted Catholics, they were not half reformed — that 
they had brought much that was unchristian out of the Church from wliich 
they had come. But we liave learned better now ; we have abandoned those 
tenets and practices. Let the right reverend gentleman say as much for 
himself; let him say tliat, with them, it is not serryxr eadem, always the 
same. Let him say that the Roman Ciiurch has erred in matters of faith, or 
that she can err, and then the difficulty between Protestants and Catholics 
will cease from that moment. If the Catholics of the United States are at 
liberty to think for themselves on these sulijects, and dissent from whatever 
they believe is not according to the Word of Gotl — either their translation 
or the original — if they are at liberty to do this, the difficulty is at an end. 
But while they are bound by the decrees of an infallible Church — while they 
are not to determine any thing for themselves as a matter of faith — while 
they are not to believe that their Church can at any time be wrong in opin- 
ion, that she can never err — we have more cause to fear that Catholics will, 
if they get the power, persecute the Protestants, than they can have of per- 
secution from Protestants. If they can say they do not believe as their 
fathers did, we may hope they will not do as their fathers have done ; but 
while their motto continues to be " Semper eadem" — while they continue to 
declare that their Church is always and everywhere the same, we think, sir, 
we may not dismiss our fears. Let them renounce their infallibility, and we 
will be cured of our apprehensions. But again : 

Your memorialists had hoped that the intolerance and e.vclusiveness 
which had characterized the Roman Catholic Church in Europe had been 
greatly softened under the benign influences of our civil institutions. The 
pertinacity with which their sectarian interests are now urged, has dissi- 
pated the illusion. We were content with their having excluded us, ex 
cathedra, from all claim to heaven, for we 'were sure they did not possess the 
keys, notwithstanding their confident pretension ; nor did we complain that 
they would not allow us any participation in the benefits of purgatory, for 
it is a place they have made for themselves, and of which they may claim 
the exclusive property ; but we do protest against any appropriation of the 
public school fund lor their exclusive .benefit, or for any other purposes 
whatever. i 

Now, the right reverend gentleman ought to have remarked here an error 
of the printer — the omission of the word " sectarian ; " and, instead of " any 
other purpose whatever," it should have read, " any other sectarian puqjose 
whatever." 

Sir, the gentleman admits we are right — they do not exclude us from 
heaven ; but then he alleges that we are as bad as we said they were, for we 
exclude Catholics. Now, if there are any that do not allow that good pious 
Roman Catholics are going to heaven, I do not know it. If there are any 
such in our denomination, it is unknown to me. I hold no such opinions, 
and I hope the gentleman himself will take it back again, when I assure 
him that the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, published the life of 
Baron De Rentz, and that he abridged and published " Kempis' Christian 
Pattern," both of which have been widely circulated amongst our people. 



266 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

We do not deny that Roman Catholics may go to heaven, nor did we com- 
plain that we were denied any participation in the benefits of their pnrga- 
tory ; but the gentleman tells us to go farther and fare worse. Sir, we will 
take our chance for that — we will take our chance of faring worse, and of 
getting to heaven, too. But if the gentleman denies us the benefit of his 
purgatory in the next world, we hope he will allow us the benefits of this 
world. If he will allow our children the l)eneflt of the public schools — of 
a place where they can learn to read God's Holy Word — if he will not per- 
sist in a measure which will destroy these schools, we will take our chance 
of going farther and faring worse. If he will allow our children a place 
■where they can learn to read that Book which, as the great Jlr. Locke says, 
has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture 
of error for its mattter, we will not complain of any other exclusion he may 
insist upon in the matter. But it is alleged that we are here to oppose Ro- 
man Catholics. Sir, we would oppose the Methodists if the same applica- 
tion was made by them. I would have stood here myself to oppose them, 
for I do not fear nor dodge any resjjonsibility. We believe that all man- 
kind are individually undergoing a moral and intellectual probation before 
God ; and that we cannot, without incurring the Divine displeasure, substi- 
tute this probationary relation by one before any man, or any number of 
men, whether pope or Council, or the Methodist General Conference. None 
of these can release us from our obligations as probationers before God. • 
" To our own master we stand or fall." If the Methodist Episcopal Church 
had issued her mandate to me not to appear before this body, and not to 
oppose this application, I would have set her authority at naught. We 
believe that these public schools are necessary to our form of government ; 
that it is not safe to commit the preservation and perpetuation of the public 
liberty and of our civil institutions, to an ignorant, untaught multitude — to 
those who will be incapable of appreciating their value, or who may be 
made the dupes of better educated but more wicked men. We say, it is 
necessary to the perpetuation of public liberty that the community be edu- 
cated — that all who exercise the elective franchise should he taught to value 
our civil institutions. But we say that no sectarian body can do this ; it 
must be done by all together. If you were to give all this money to the 
sects, it could not be done. It can only be done by a common system ; for, 
if all the sects had this money divided amongst them, there is one half of 
the community who would not sufier their children to be taught by them. 
What, then, is to become of these children ? Our public liberties demand 
a public universal system of education, and this can only be effected by 
agents appointed by the State, and answerable to the State ; it can never be 
done if the money be given to any denomination, or divided among allthe 
sects. Sir, we allege this is the broad principle on which the common 
schools are established. Take this away, and you have no right to lay a tax 
at all ; you could not lay a tax with any justice for this purpose. If the 
money is to be distributed among the different sects and denominations of 
Christians, and they are to use it as they think best, even for their own 
proselyting purposes — I .speak of no particular denomination ; all have their 



SPEECH OF KEV. DE. BOND. 26T 

preferences and peculiar tenets, and all desire to make converts to their 
belief— I say, give the money to this end, and what follows ? Why, that 
you ought to tax them severally according to what they receive. What 
right have you to tax Roman Catholics for the support of Method is.t 
schools ? or what right have you to tax Methodists for the support of Pres- 
byterian schools ? In short, what right have you to tax any sect for the sup- 
port of the schools of rival sects ? You have first to ascertain what each 
requires to support the schools under their care, and then to tax that de- 
nomination to the necessary amount. You have no right to tax me, as a 
Methodist, for the Roman Catholic schools, but only on the ground that 
education is necessary for the preservation of our public liberties, and for 
the public safety. Fall back upon the plan you formerly pursued, and you 
■will again hear of complaints among the sects, that they do not receive 
from the jaublic fund according to what they pay in. Now, the Methodists, 
perhaps, pay much less than some other denominations who are less numer- 
ous than themselves. We make it a part of our religion to pay our taxes 
if we are able ; but we have very little to be taxed at all ; and if we have 
but little to be taxed, we pay but little ; and yet we could supply more chil- 
dren than some denominations who pay ten times more. Would thev, then, 
have no right to complain if these schools were established on sectarian 
principles instead of public principles ? Would not their complaint be just 
and proper ? It is clear that you could not refute these complaints. And 
if you concede the prayer of these petitioners, if you grant their request, in 
order that you may remove their cause of complaint, you destroy the public 
school system, and you may take your leave of it from that very moment. 
The whole fabric will crimible into its original elements; it cannot stand. 

But why should this .system of public education be abandoned ? Is it 
to appease the scrupulous consciences of the Catholics ? The existence of 
public schools, or of the public school system, cannot affect their con- 
sciences, for they are not compelled to send their children to the public 
schools. Have they, then, any scruples of conscience about paying taxes for 
the support of this institution ? The right reverend gentleman tells you 
himself they have not, for he tells you they have not complained, and do 
not intend to complain, of the appropriation by the Legislature of money 
raised by taxation to Protestant colleges. If, then, sir, you yield the claims 
of the Catholics, it will not be to their conscientious objections that you 
yield, but to the alleged injustice of compelling them to contribute to a 
public benefit from which they, as a sect, derive no advantage. You must, 
then, sir, go farther ; you must release all from the payment of taxes who 
cannot conscientiously avail themselves of the advantages offered bv the 
public schools, and this will include most of the large property-holders in 
the city ; for these, being able to afford it, are bound by parental duty to 
afford their children a better education than can be given in the public 
schools. Yet these are not only willing to pay taxes for the support of pub- 
lic schools, but have petitioned the Legislature to tax them for this purpose, 
because they are aware that the education of the poor classes is necessary to 
the common welfare. 



268 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

But, sir, I adverted to a foreign potentate ; and I did say I desired to 
know where liis spiritual authority ceased. And I am the more desirous of 
knowing this, because it is alleged — and the right reverend gentleman 
ought to know if it be true — that, by the oath taken by the dignitaries of 
that Church, they are bound to support a little more than the pope's spirit- 
ual authority. I will make no assertion, but I throw it out that the right 
reverend gentleman may say whether his oath of ordination does not bind 
bim to a little more. Sir, I did say, and I emphatically repeat, that it is 
very desirable his fellow-citizens should know where that civil and spiritual 
authority terminate. I beg pardon for intruding so long upon your atten- 
tion. 1 have gone through our memorial, and that is all we ask. At pres- 
ent I have nothing more to say. 

The gentlemen wlio appeared as tlie representatives of the 
petitioners and the remonstrants having now been heard, the 
President inqnired, What is tlie pleasure of the board ? 

An alderman moved that, if there were other gentlemen 
present who desired to be heard, that they be heard on sending 
their names to the President ; wliich was agreed to. 

Dr. Sweeney said that he appeared, with several other gen- 
tlemen, as a committee from the Catliolics, but they withdrew 
theii- claim to be hcaril, as the Eight Pev. Bishop Hughes was 
entitled to a reply. 

Dr. David M. Eeese, M.D. (a local preacher in the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church), rose, and said : 

Mb. President : I avail myself of the permission granted by the board 
to add a few observations on another branch of the subject, which is inter- 
esting to us all, to which I desire for a moment only to direct your atten- 
tion. It appears to me, sir, that neither Romanism nor Protestantism is on 
trial here, and the question submitted to this honorable board is not whether 
the Roman Catholic Church shall have the exclusive control of any portion 
of the public treasure, collected, by public taxation, for the purpose of pub- 
lic education ; it is not the question whether the Roman Catholic Church 
shall have it ; but the great question in which we are interested, as a com- 
munity, is, whether any denomination — wliether any portion of this great 
community — shall have the exclusive control, though it be but of a single 
dollar, of the money raised by public taxation for the public benefit. I 
would hope, therefore, if I succeed in gaining your attention to the point — 
to the single point I submit to you — to call you for a moment from every 
consideration of a sectarian aspect. Indeed, I humbly conceive that re- 
ligious creeds, that sectarian creeds of any kind whatever, are not at issue 
in the jiresent controversy. If this application had come from Protestants 
as a body, from any political or religious sect, however nuinerous or power- 
ful or popular they might be, the same objection would lie against the ajjpli- 



SPEECH OF DE. DAVID M. EEESE. 269 

cation, from whatever source it might come. I humbly submit, therefore, 
whether the right reverend gentleman to whom we had the pleasure to lis- 
ten last night, would not have served the public more effectually by in- 
structing his people that the opposition to this claim is not an oppositio7i to 
the Roman Catholics, but to the principle of appropriating money raised by I 
taxation for public purposes to any party whatever, for their exclusive con- i 
trol. I say, the reverend gentleman would have been serving the public, 
and would have been doing nothing unworthy of his highly honorable and 
sacred office, if he had applied himself to enlightening his people on this 
point — that the present opposition is not an opposition to their creed or to 
their Church, but that the same ojjposition would be against any other de- 
nomination equally as numerous and equally as respectable. Certainly, sir, 
this would have been more worthy of his sacred office than harangiiing his 
people in their public assemblies for the purpose of exciting prejudices 
against the public schools. Before these prejudices were created, when 
these people had not yet been taught to look upon them as odious, the Ro- 
man Catholics sent their children to these schools, and availed themselves 
thankfully of their benefits. But now many of them have al)stractcd their I 
children, merely because harangues of that kind have been made which are ' 
calculated to create disaffection amongst them. Sir, the opposition made to 
this memorial is neither sectarian nor religious ; and, this being premised, 
it is impossible that it can involve a question of conscience at all. What is 
the question ? It is complained that men, having taxed themselves and 
having paid that tax for a given purpose — the public benefit — have after- 
ward voluntarily chosen, in the exercise of their freedom in this free coun- 
try, to forego the benefits provided for the pul:>lic indiscriminately. All are 
taxed for public education which is given by the public schools ; but a por- 
tion of the citizens choose to relinquish the advantages of these schools. 
The question, then, resolves itself into this : Is it sound public policy to tax 
the citizens generally for a public purpose, when any portion on whom the 
tax is imposed, choose not to avail themselves of its advantages ? You see, 
in this aspect, that it strikes at the whole public school system ; for if the 
Roman Catholics are to be excused because they choose to forego the advan- 
tages provided, every other sect, whether for the sake of party politics or 
religion, might take the same attitude and plead the same conscience, and 
the result would be that there would be no provision made for public edu- 
cation, and the rising generation in multitudes would grow up like " the 
wild asses' colt." 

Now, in this aspect, I humbly submit whether our fellow-citizens who are 
found peacefully enjoying their rights and liberties in this country, do not 
receive an equivalent for the taxes which they pay, in the proper exercise of 
the right of suffrage which is here secured ; whether they ought not thus 
to contribute to the political advantages which this happy country fur- 
nishes ; and whether they do not thus secure an ample equivalent for the 
taxes which they pay, even in cases where they voluntarily decline to avail 
themselves of the public schools ? But, sir, I know a conscience may be 
created in this community by a bishop or other dignitary. Let them but 



270 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

turn their churches iuto bear-gardens, and agitate their congl-egations by 
exciting speeches, as has been done on this subject, and others will be 
tauglit to plead their newly-excited consciences beside Roman Catholics. 
And shall this great community be deprived of this system because such a 
conscience is created ? But if there can be no conscience in the matter in 
truth, the point is narrowed down to the question, Is it a hardship to pay a 
tax for a public benefit, when we thus forego the advantages ? Or ought 
every man who does not avail himself of the advantages which the system 
furnishes, to be exempted from taxation ? We know a disposition to avoid 
taxation exists in thousands ; and if conscience is to be an excuse, con- 
science w'ill easily be started to avoid the payment, and the result will be 
that no public education could be sustained, here or elsewhere. 

As well might the petitioners ask for a separate almshouse or a separate 
hospital for their exclusive accommodation, and allege the hardship of pay- 
ing a tax for the support of these public charities, while their consciences 
would not allow them to take shelter there in time of adversity ; because, 
forsooth, a Protestant Bible is sometimes found there, and a Protestant 
chaplain sometimes reads a chapter there for the consolation of the sick and 
dying. 

Sir, it is the enlightened public policy of our city. State, and nation, to 
provide and perpetuate the facilities for educating the entire population in 
the rudiments of secular learning, and to support these and other public 
institutions liy public taxation. The provision is free for all, and all con- 
tribute to its maintenance. But if individuals among us choose to educate 
their own children, and refuse to avail themselves of the public schools, the 
act is their own, but in no' wise furnishes them a pretext to complain. 
Especially when such individuals establish sectarian schools, in which, with 
the secular knowledge imparted, their own religious tenets are to be taught, 
is it not passing strange that they should wish to impose upon all other 
religions the tax of sustaining those schools in which their own religion is 
exclusively to be inculcated ? I care not whether such individuals be Ro- 
m:in Catholics or Protestants, they cannot by possibility possess any right 
of conscience which will give them a claim to impose upon any other man's 
conscience the burden of supporting their sectarian or exclusive schools. 
Nor can the money raised by public taxation to support public schools, be 
expended in any other schools than those of strictly public character, which 
denominational schools cannot be, in the nature of things. 

The system of the New York Public School Society secures, confessedly, 
every desirable facility for secular learning, to an extent commensurate with 
the population. No religious test is required as a qualification for the oflace 
of teacher in these schools, and both trustees and teachers are promiscuous- 
ly taken from all denominations, a number of Roman Catholics being 
engaged both as trustees and teachers. Great care, however, is taken to 
have none employed in these schools as teachers but persons of good moral 
character ; and while all the peculiarities of doctrinal tenets which distin- 
guish and separate Christian churches of every name are excluded, the purest 
morals in which all agree are taught among the lessons of each day, a chap- 



SPEECH OF EEV. JOHN IOhOX, D.D. 271 

ter in the Bible being read at the opening of the school. Tlie petitioners 
themselves do not allege any defect in the secular knowledge here taught, 
nor do they complain that any religious doctrines are inculcated in these 
schools. But they insist that their consciences will not allow them to sus- 
tain such schools, because kg religion is taught in them. And surely they 
would consent to none being taught, except their own religion, and hence it 
is for this purpose alone they have their own schools. It is idle, then, for 
the right reverend bishop to repeat his disclaimer of any intention to teach 
his own religion in his own schools ; for in no other way can he make out 
his jjlea of conscience, nor can he iu any other way make out a single plea 
against the present excellent system of public school instruction. 

I do not design to prolong the discussion, but I feel impelled to say what 
I have said, for I have observed the excitement which exists, arising out of 
the false issue which the right reverend gentleman has created, and that 
hence all the publications on that side of the question in putting forth the 
claim of the Catholics, have treated it as though the ojjposition to it was an 
opposition to Roman Catholics. Sir, I disclaim it. I am not aware that 
any man in this community opposes it because it is the petition of Roman 
Catholics, but because it comes from a class of citizens, highly respectabla . a 

and numerous, I admit, who ask for this money to be placed under their oicnX i '- 
control. I am sure those with whom I am associated do not oppose it merely 
because it comes from Roman Catholics. We believe the Public School 
Society confers on us, and on this community, an advantage by the secular 
instruction of the rising generation. We see, daily, multitudes iu these 
schools of children who will soon be introduced on the stage as citizens of 
this republic, and it is vastly important that they should be educated and 
qualified for the discharge of the important duties of freemen. This public 
school system is preparing them for that purpose ; it is attracting the atten- 
tion of public men of other countries. These schools are regarded as the 
nurseries of intelligent freemen, who will hereafter have to take the guar- 
dianship of the liberties of this country. We are training up thousands of 
citizens, not only for New York, but for the West. New York contributes 
much to the population of this nation, and the power lies with this Board 
of Aldermen to direct their training so as to make them useful to their 
country; But there comes a petition, from a body highly respectable, I ad- 
mit, who ask, " Let ua have this money which is collected for a public pur- 
pose, and we will apply it to a private one." I know they disclaim sectarian 
views, if the money is obtained ; but if their views are not sectarian, they 
can find no valid objection, nor make any improvement to the existing sys- 
tem of public schools. It is immeasurably important that the present sys- 
tem should he supported. The gentlemen to whom the schools are now in- 
trusted have shown themselves amply qualified to discharge their duties, 
and I hope any attempt to destroy the present system will be frowned down, P JXiP 
whether it be made by Catholic or Protestant, Christian or infidel. 

The Kev. Dr. Knox, of the Dutch Eetbrmed Church, said : ^^""Jm,^ 

Mr. President : I should not have risen to claim your indulgence for a 



272 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIEXr. . 

single moment, were it not to say tliat the Christian denomination with 
which I am connected, in their united sentiment are adverse to the prayer 
of the memorial now before you ; and that they would unquestionably have 
been here with a counter memorial, if they had not cherished a confidence 
that, in the hands of this Corporation, the matter is perfectly safe. Sir, I 
regard the subject now before this honorable body as one of most momen- 
tous importance. The principle on which our Government is established is 
of a character to exclude all immediate connection, on the part of our Gov- 
ernment, with religious things. All religion is fully tolerated, fully pro- 
tected, and then it is left alone, and there I hope it will continue to be. It 
is not profaned by the contact of civil enactments. We have never heard 
of any '' act of uniformity," to set a whole community by the cars. Sir, 
this principle, in this State, is guarded with most peculiar jealousy : there is 
not a minister of religion that can even be appointed as the superintendent 
of a common school, or be eligible to any civil office. Whether it is an 
innovation on our natural rights, I will not undertake to inquire ; but with 
the existence of such enactments I feel perfectly satisfied. Let it so be. In- 
terrupt this state of things, and whither will it lead ? Who can foretell to 
what it may lead ? The denomination with which it is my honor and 
happiness to be connected, was the first to introduce the gospel of salvation 
to these shores. Individuals of this communion laid the foundati(ra of this 
city ; they embraced a large portion of the population of the State, and bear 
a large part of its burdens ; and I know that the feeling of this part of our 
population is unanimously in favor of leaving matters as they are. As a 
demonstration that they are disinterested, the particular Church which I 
sei-ve has sustained a charity school more than a century ; it sustains it still 
from the private charity of Cl'.ristians ; and they never received aid from 
the State, except, for a few years, a few dollars for each child, during the 
operation of the law referred to last evening. 

Now, personally, in reference to our Roman Catholic friends, my feelings 
are entirely kind. I have not any other feeling. I am not a man of strife. 
But this matter would not be quietly submitted to. Were any denomina- 
tion, existing among us, to put forth such a claim as is now before this 
board— were the Presbyterians to do it, we would not regard it as right. 
Were the Episcopalians, or the Methodists, to do it, we should not deem it 
right. In any case, we should not feel content to contribute to the general 
treasury of the State, if a portion of that treasury were to be taken hold 
upon by a particular denomination. Whilst the whole spirit of our Govern- 
ment, whether general or State, frowns upon any thing that looks like ele- 
vating one section of the Christian community in preference to another, it 
would not be kindly regarded if the prayer of this petition were comphed 
with, and a distinction were conferred on one, and not on others. But, 
while I say that I feel kindness toward our Roman Catholic friends, candor 
would require me to go a little further than many have gone who have ad- 
dressed you. 

With reference to the system of religion by which they are distinguished, 
I cannot help regarding it as differing from others. They so regard it. It 



SPEECU OF KEY. JOHN KNOX, D.D. 273 

is exclusive ; and they claim for it immutability and infallibility. Sir, can 
Protestants, believing as they do believe, consent to be directly instrumental 
ia elevating to strength, and in cherishing, a system like this ? I think not. 
I think the citizens of this State will say it ought not to be. 

Mr. President, for myself, I wish our Catholic fellow-citizens to enjoy al! 
the immunities that are enjoyed by any others ; but with that I wish them 
to fest content. I have sought carefully, and according to my best ability, 
during this discussion and previously, to ascertain what is the precise 
ground of their dissatisfaction, and I confess I am not instructed yet. We 
are told that ia these common schools religion is not taught ; and in juxta- 
position -^e are told that the Bible is read. Now, with regard to the ad- 
ministration of those schools, we have had abundant testimony, both here 
and elsewhere, that they are conducted with extreme — with the very utmost 
'■are. Is disobedience to parent* taught there ? Are they taught to falsify 
the truth ? or to do a wrong thing ? On the contrary, are they not instruct- 
ed in the common fundamental principles of morals, while they are taught 
to read and write, and to discharge the duty of citizens when they arrive at 
maturity ? The Bible is read, as it ought to be ; and occasionally passages 
have been found in the books, admitted into the libraries, which are offen- 
sive to the feelings of Catholics. These have been expurgated as soon a.s 
detected, in every instance that I am aware of But is this a sufficient reason 
for so great a change ? Can you, or any gentleman who is in the habit of 
reading, for a single week or day, be perfectly sure that, even when reading 
works of a select kind you shall not find something that may not be conso- 
nant with your feelings ? But let it be overlooked and passed by. Do 
these schools interfere with our religious instruction of our children ? Do 
they take them away from the parent, or the pastor, or from the Sabbath 
school ? Are they conducted by individuals of the same faith ? I believe 
not. I am not able to find a just cause of complaint. 

I have but a single remark more, for I have observed the great patience 
with which this honorable Council has sat to hear the remarks of gentlemen 
both yesterday and to-day, and I am unwilling to occupy more than another 
moment of their time on a single point. The gentleman who first addressed 
you yesterday afternoon, throughout the whole of his exceedingly able and 
eloquent address, labored this one point, to endeavor to produce an imi)rcs-, 
sion on the minds of this Common Council that a false issue had been started 
— that they do not want the public money to aid them in communicating 
religious instruction. Why, Mr. President, it is strange that this single idea 
was not lost sight of during that long, able, and eloquent address of more 
than two hours' duration. But, sir, if they are willing to pledge themselves 
to give no religious instruction in their schools, why not allow their chil- 
dren to go to the common schools during school hours, and afterward give 
them religious education ? I confess I do not know how this can be so. 
The only answer I can myself imagine is this : that, upon the whole, there 
is an influence exerted by a contact with the children in t^ese schools ad- 
verse to feelings of reverence for Catholic peculiarities. That must be it. 
Well, now, is it so ? Sir, my children are exposed, by mingling with the 
18 



214: THE PUBLIC scnooL society. 

community, to things whicli are adverse to their feelings — if you choose, 
their prejudices ; they may at the same time meet with things which reflect 
on their family, and on their associations — their religious associations and 
their other associations too. Does that weaken their attachment to those 
associations ? No, it strengthens them. They at once say. Those persons 
don't think as I do ; they don't feel as I do. We may be taunted about our 
pastors or our faith ; does that lessen our attachment to them ? I think 
not. We think we are right and they are wrong, and we let it pass. Sir, I 
repeat, though I am not delegated to attend here to tell it, that these senti- 
ments pervade the denomination which I represent, and with the expression 
of that fact I will retire, and not trouble the board any longer. 

The Rev. Dr. Bangs, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
said : 

Sir : I avail myself of the liberty which your resolution gives me, to 
make one or two remarks. It might be inferred by some, from the position 
we occupy here, that we appear here as a sect, to vindicate our sectarian 
principles and rights. Now, if such an impression should have existed, I 
wish to correct it. We appear here simply, with the rest of our fellow-citi- 
zens, for the purpose of opposing what we conceive to be an unjust applica- 
tion. We have nothing to ask for. We do not ask for a portion of the 
public money to enable us to educate our children. The time was when the 
Methodist Episcopal Church had a flourishing charity school, which they 
supported for upward of forty years without a cent from the jiublic fund ; 
but when the Legislature of the State concluded to distribute a portion in 
the cLty of New York among tiie cliarity schools, we received our propor- 
tion ; and at the first, when a motion was made to take it out of the hands 
of charity schools, and give it to the public schools, we did remonstrate, 
vrith others. But we are very glad to say that, since we have seen the sys- 
tem in operation, and viewed its blessed effects on the minds of our children 
and the community, we joyfully acquiesce in the decision of the Common 
Council on that subject. There is one objection made to this system which 
somewhat surprised me. It was stated, if I did not misunderstand it, that, 
by taking these children and sending them to these schools, they are taken 
out of the hands of their parents and delivered over to the hands of the 
public officer of the State. Why, sir, this is very estraordinary. Suppose 
our brethren of the Roman Catholic Church established theii- schools — for 
they have them, I suppose— do they not take their children, during school 
hours, from the hands of their parents ? Are they not, for the time being, 
taken out of the domestic circle, and delivered over to the hands of the 
public teacher ? And does not every father and mother, when they resign 
their children to a school, an academy, or a college, deliver them out of 
their hands for the time being ? But, sir, the sending of children to public 
schools in this city is not taking them out of the hands of the domestic gov- 
ernment. The schools are established in the midst of us ; we can send our 
children to them, and they ai'e only absent from us about six hours, and the 
rest of the time they are with u?. IIow, then, pray tell me, have these 



SPEECH OF EEV. NATHAN BANGS, D.D. 275 

schools invaded the authority of the father and mother ? There is another 
point. If I did not misunderstand the senior pastor of the Roman Catholic 
Church, he told us that the instruction in these schools tended to infidelity. 
He disclaimed any intention to charge this upon the principles of the man- 
agers of that institution, but he said the system itself tended to infidelity. 
Now, sir, what is the great bulwark against infidelity ? Is it not the Bible, 
sir ? What are all the commentaries, what are all the dissertations that 
were ever written, even the most learned, in comparison with the Bible ? 
Are we to suppose that any human teaching in the Roman Catholic schools 
will be paramount to the Bible in checking the overflowings of infidelity ? 
Would I trust myself, or my denomination, in preference to the Bible ? No, 
sir. The Bible contains its own evidence of its own truth ; it reflects its 
own light, unobscured by the commentaries of feeble man ; and are we to 
be told that the Holy Scriptures, without note and comment, will lead to 
infidelity ? If I mistake not, one of the trustees told ns that the Holy 
Scriptures were read every day, and that the children were taught that God 
made them, and that He saw their thoughts, words, and actions ; and these, 
we know, are the first principles of revealed religion, in opposition to secta- 
rianism ; and, in all this, what testimony have we that these schools tend to 
infidelity ? For what shall we change the Bible, the Holy Book of God, 
which announces divine troths to man ? Shall we exchange this Bible for 
the teaching of the Roman Catholic schoolmaster ? Which is the best 
adapted to stem the flood of infidelity ? But they don't design to teach 
sectarianism ! What then ? I rejoice to be able to say here — and I believe 
the right reverend gentleman will join me in saying — that he believes in one 
God, in one Saviour, in the Holy Ghost, the forgiveness of sins, the regener- 
ation of the heart by the Holy Spirit, justification by faith, and in a future 
day of judgment. I believe he will join with me, or any one else, in the 
belief of these truths. Are they not the ti'uths of the Bible ? And may 
not these truths be taught our children ? Are they not taught in Roman 
Catholic schools ? What, then, do they desire to teach ? Why, the pecu- 
liarities of their system, and nothing else ; for all these leading truths are 
taught in the Bible. He wants something, I presume, that is not in the 
Bible ; for the Bible is taught there, and, if any thing else is to be taught 
that is not in the school, it must be something that is not in the Bible, and 
therefore it must be sectarian. Now, we have arrived at an age in our 
republic when we see the difl'erent sects and denominations, though they 
may not agree in all things, agreeing in all leading points. On these we can 
meet and unite, and strengthen each other's hands to do good in our day 
and generation. We therefore, as a denomination, unite with our brethren 
of otlier denominations, and those of no denomination — or, in other words, 
with the representatives of every society — ^to say. Let this fund be appropri- 
ated as it was intended to be, and let all share alike in the education of the 
rising generation. For myself, I could go still farther than has been gone, 
and say, that these little vagrants that are suffered to stroll about the streets 
and spend their time in idleness, I would compel to enter these schools ; 
and I believe it would be an act of humanity, if their parents were so indif- 



376 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ferent to the welfare of their children that they allowed them to spend their 
time in idleness, or something worse. Let the State extend the hand of 
compassion, and take them out of the streets, to be taught where they will 
be saved from vicious indulgences ; and I hope the time will yet come when 
it will be done. 

The Rev. Gakdinee Speing, d.d. of the Presbjtei'ian Churcli, 
said : 

Mr. PEEsroENT : As much time has been consumed, as this question has 
been abundantly discussed, and with great ability, especially by the learned 
counsel, had I not been urged to say a word on behalf of the Presbyterian 
Church, I should not have claimed your attention. I am not authorized by 
the Presbyterian Church, as a Church, to attend here ; but if I had, I would 
have paid more i^articular attention to the subject than I have done. I can 
say, with my worthy brother of the Dutch Reformed Church, that the senti- 
ment of the Church at large with which I am connected is one of eritire 
unanimity of ardent and cordial opposition to the petition •which is now 
before you from the Roman Catholic Church. I will state, sir, but a single 
fact, without recai^itulatiug the valuable remarks of the other gentlemen, 
which has rested ou my mind, and may have some weight in the bosom of 
some gentlemen with whom the decision rests. In the providence of God, 
sir, having been more than thirty years in this city, I have had opportunities 
of watching the progress of the Public School Society, and of knowing 
some of its history in that period of time. When it was separated from the 
Churches as such, and assumed its present shape, it was a solemn matter of 
compromise and contract on the part of the Corporation and the Public 
School Society. I do not say it was a contract in writing, but this was the 
understanding of all our Churches. We were solicited to give up our 
rights and denominational feelings, to which we were strongly attached, 
that this large scheme might go into operation and spread its influence over 
the community ; and the alternative with us was, whether we should oppose 
that great scheme, and continue the pilfering which had been detected in 
one society, with its unpleasant attendant consequences, or aid the public 
school plan. And we sacrificed our feelings for the general good, on the 
sacred understanding that the system should be continued ; and we shall 
consider it a violation of good faith if you grant this application. I can 
unite with some of my friends who have preceded me, in saying that, if this 
application had come from any other denomination, I would have opposed 
it. But I cannot say that I have no greater opposition to it because it comes 
from my Catholic friends. I do view it with more alarm on account of the 
source from which it comes. And any man who looks at the history of the 
Catholic Church, whether in or out of power, and fiuds she has ever been, 
and in those parts of Europe where she remains in power she continues to 
be, almost uniformly the enemy of liberty, will look upon this application 
with suspicion and fear. I do so not only as an American, but as a Chris- 
tian, as a Protestant, and as a Presbyterian. The gentleman has sought to 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 2Y7 

prove that the present system leads to infidelity. Now, sir, let no man think 
it strange that I should prefer even infidelity to Catholicism. Even a mind 
as acute as "Voltaire's came to the conclusion that, if there was no alternative 
between infidelity and the dogmas of the Catholic Church, he should choose 
infidelity. I would choose, sir, in similar circumstances, to be an infidel to- 
morrow. 

Mr. President, my worthy father — I would call him brother, for my hairs 
are almost as gray as his — has well said, that the great barrier to infidelity 
is the Bible. But, sir, the right reverend gentleman told us, yesterday, he 
had no confidence in the Protestant Bible ; and yet you heard him, when he 
came to a community of Protestant citizens, ask for the bounty of the State 
to support such a system as his ! With you, gentlemen, the power remains. 
I need not now, after what has been said — indeed, this would not be the 
proper place — urge any arguments at length on this subject, and therefore I 
will not farther trespass on your time ; nor need I scarcely ask pardon for 
detaining you so long, having been myself urged to say something on be- 
halPof the Church with which I am connected. 

T]ie President said the dosing remarks would be given to 
the petitioners. 

Mr. Ketchum observed that, if any new matter were intro- 
duced, he hoped he should have the opportunity to reply. The 
right reverend gentleman opened on the part of the petitioners ; 
he had been replied to, and it was but right that he should have 
the right to reply to the other speakers ; but if he urged new 
matter, either of fact or argument, he, on the part of the School 
Society, should claim the right to rej^ly to that new matter. 

The President called upon the Eight Kev. Dr. Hughes to 
conclude the debate. 

The Riglit EcT. Bishop IIdghes then rose, to reply to tlie 
arguments of all the gentlemen who had been heard on the sub- 
ject, and he, spoke nearly as follows : 

Mr. President : It would require a mind of much greater capacity than 
mine to arrange and mature the topics, relevant or otherwise, that have been 
. introduced into this discussion since I had the honor to address you yester- 
day. No less than seven or eight gentlemen of great ability have presented 
their respective views on the subject ; and not only on the subject in regard 
to its intrinsic merits, but on suljjects which they deemed at least collateral, 
but which I think quite irrelevant. The gentleman who last addressed you 
(Dr. Spring) is entitled to my acknowledgments for the candor with which 
he expressed his sentiments in reference to it — namely, that he was opposed 
to it more because it came from Catholics than if it had been presented by 
any other denomination. That gentleman is entitled to my acknowledg- 
ment, and I award it, if worthy of his acceptance. The subject— for it is 



278 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

exceedingly important that tlie subject should be kept in view — is one, as I 
stated bt-fore, that is veiy simple. We are a portion ol' this community ; vre 
desire to be nothing greater than any other portion ; we are not content to 
be made less. There is nothing, sir, in that systeiu of the Public School 
Society against which any of the gentlemen who have spoken, either in their 
individual capacity or as the representatives of bodies of people, have urged 
U single conscientious objection, and, of course, they have no right to com- 
plain ; they are satisfied, and therefore I am willing that they should have 
the system ; but I am not willing that they should jjress it upon me, and ft>r 
good reason. And, sir, if this -honorable body rejects the claim of your 
petitioners, what is the issue 2 That we are deprived of the benefits to 
which we are entitled, and that we are not one iota worse than we were 
before. That is our consolation. But the whole range of the argument of 
the gentleman who spoke last was, to show that this public school system 
was got up with the concurrence of public opinion, and that, having been 
so got uji, it had worked beautifully, and that gentlemen who had never 
heard of conscientious objections to it, because it suits their views, deem it 
wonderful that we can have any conscience at all on the subject. That is 
the amount of it. What ! no ground for conscientious objection, when you 
teach our childi-en in those schools that " the deceitful Catholics " burned 
John Huss at the stake for conscience, when evidences are numerous before 
you of a more just and a more honorable character — when you might find 
on the page of history that, in Catholic Poland, every avenue to dignity in 
the State was opened to Protestants, by the concurrent vote of eight Catho- 
lic bishops, whilst the vote of any one of them, according to the constitu- 
tion of the Polish Diet, of which they were members, could have prevented 
the law being passed ; — and, what is more, when the first lesson of universal 
toleration and freedom of conscience the world was ever called to learn was 
set by the Catholics of Maryland. I speak in the presence of gentlemen 
who can contradict me if they know where to find the authority. And 
what was this but homage to the majesty of conscience by a Church which 
they wish to establish as a persecuting Church ? That Church, sir, which 
the gentleman has come here to prove justifies the murdering of heretics, 
was the first to teach a lesson which Protestants have been slow to learn and 
imitate, but which the religion they profess should have taught them. But 
not these examples alone ; there are hundreds more. At this day, in- Bel- 
gium, where Protestants are in a minority of one to twelve, the State votes 
them an equal jjortion, and, where their clergy are married, a larger portion, 
and that with the concurrence of the Council and the Catholic bishops. 
The gentleman need not tell me of Catholicism — I know it well ; and, what 
is more, I know Protestantism well ; and I know the professions of good- 
will of Protestants do not always correspond with their feelings. But I 
should like to know whether or not in Protestantism they find authority for 
persecuting to the knife not Catholics alone, but each other, even after they 
have proclaimed the right of every man to think for himself. With good 
reason, sir, do I contend for conscience ; but they may think a Catholic has 
no right to liave a conscience at all. They may think, because this system 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 279 

is beautiflil in their view, tliat this pretension to conscience on the part of 
Catholics ought to be stifled as a thing not to be admitted at all. But that 
will not do. Man, in this country, has a right to the exercise of conscience, 
and the man that should raise himself up against it will find that he has 
raised himself up against a tremendous opponent. Now, what is it we ask ? 
You have heard from beginning to end the arguments on this occasion ; and, 
though I may not follow the wanderings of this discussion through all its 
minute parts, if I jjass over any jjart, be assured it is not from any desire to 
avoid or any inability to refute what has been said against us. I may pass 
over many points, but I will not pass over any great principle ; and you 
have no doubt given so much attention to the subject as to enable you, if I 
should not recapitulate the whole, to decide justly. It has been urged that, 
if you give Catholics that which they now ask, you will give them benefits 
which will elevate them above others ; but I contend, most sincerely and 
most conscientiously, that we have no such idea ; and when you shall have 
granted the portion we claim, if you should be pleased to grant it, I con- 
ceive then, and not before, shall we be in the enjoyment of the protection, 
and not privilege, to which we are entitled. That is my view of the sub- 
ject ; but I have been astonished to perceive the course of argument of the 
gentlemen who oppose our claim, generally speaking. What it is they con- 
tend for, I cannot determine ; but it seems to be the preservation of the 
existing system. They were among the first to disclaim the doctrine that 
the end justifies the means ; and if, in attaining their end, they find they 
cannot reach it without injustice, then, as conscientious and high-minded 
men, they should have paused by the way and have ascertained whether the 
means were worthy of them and of our glorious country. Yet, sir, they 
have generally overlooked this, and it is no new thing to find that they have 
labored to promote the benefit of their own Society at the sacrifice of the 
rights of others. Sir, it is the glory of this country that, when it is found j 
that a wrong exists, there is a power, an in'csistible power, to correct the 
wrong. They have represented us as contending to bring the Catholic 
Scriptures into the public schools. This is not true ; but I shall have occa- I 
sion to refer more particularly to this by and by. They have represented us 
as enemies to the Protestant Scriptures " without note and comment," and _ 
on this subject I know not whether their intention was to make an impres- 
sion on your honorable body, or to elicit a sympathetic echo elsewhere ; but, 
whatever their object was, they have represented that, even here. Catholics 
have not concealed their enmity to the Scriptures. Now, if I had asked this 
honorable board to exclude the Protestant Scriptures from the schools, then 
there might have been some coloring for the current calumny. But I have 
not done so. I say: Gentlemen of every denomination, keep the Scriptures 
you reverence, but do not force on me that which my conscience tells me is 
wrong. I may be wrong, as you may be ; and as you exercise your judg- 
ment, be pleased to allow the same privilege to a fellow-being who must 
appear before our common God and answer for the exercise of it. I wish to 
do nothing like what is charged upon me ; that is not the purpose for which 
we petition this honorable board in the name of the community to which I 



280 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

belong. I appear here for other objects ; and if our petition be granted, our 
schools may be placed under the supervision of the public authorities, or 
even of commissioners to be appointed by the Public School Society. They 
may be put under the same supervision as the existing schools, to see that 
none of those phantoms, nor any grounds for those suspicions which are as 
uncharitable as unfounded, can have existence in reality. There is, then, 
but one simple question : Will you compel us to pay a tax from which we 
can receive no benefit, and to frequent schools which injure and destroy our 
religious rights in the minds of our children, and of which iu our con- 
sciences we cannot approve ? That is the simple question. Or will you 
appoint some other system, or will you leave the children of our denomina- 
tion to grow up in that state of ignorance which the School Society has 
expressed its desire to save them from ? Or shall the constable be employed, 
as one reverend gentleman seems to recommend (Dr. Bangs), or some public 
officer, to catch them and send them to school ? For from this moment, in 
consequence of the language used, and the insulting passages which those 
books contain. Catholic parents will not send their children there, and any 
attempts to enforce attendance would meet with vigorous resistance from 
them. I have now presented what is in reality the simple issue ; it is no 
matter whether we believe right or not, for neither the Catholic nor the 
Protestant religion is on trial here ; and I repeat, therefore, that the gentle- 
man who represents the Methodist Church has taken so much pains to distil 
through the minds of this meeting a mass of prejudice which it will take 
several hours, but, at the same time, very little beside, for me to refute and 
scatter to the winds. I shall, perhaps, not dwell long on that part, because 
I judge it is irrelevant to the case in hand, but still I shall feel authorized to 
trespass on the patience of the meeting a short time, though but a short 
time, to remove the improper prejudice which may have been created. 

Now, I start again with a statement of the question, as I did the other 
day, and, notwithstanding all the learning — theological, legal, medical, and 
I know not what beside — which has been employed to oppose our position, 
and although I have had to meet so many able gentlemen who have been 
accustomed to public speaking, I rise in the proud consciousness that not a 
solitary principle laid down by me, or laid down iu that petition, has been 
refuted. I see the question stand jsrecisely where it did before the gentle- 
men began to speak, and I see the same false issue — and I challenge any gen- 
tleman to say that it is not a false issue — ^persevered in to this very hour ; 
so that our argument has not boon moved one iota. There must, therefore, 
be something powerful in our plain, unsophisticated, simple statement, when 
all the reasoning brought against it leaves it just where it was before. 

I shall now take the gentlemen in order, and follow them according to 
the notes which I have taken and my recollection of their arguments, and I 
may possibly have some difficulty in avoiding a discursive reply. The first 
gentleman (Mr. Sedgwick) who spoke, took up this view : that, if this sys- 
tem is wrong, it ought to be overturned entirely. That I leave to the judg- 
ment of those with whom the confidence of the people has deposited the 
authority. He says that the people have a right to interfere, and to give to 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 281 ^ 

the children of the State an intellectual education ; that this must be car- 
ried out in some form or other, and that this s3-stem is as little objectionable 
as any that could be presented. That may be ; I do not dispute the possi- 
bility of it, because it is unimportant ; but if he did mean to contend that 
that system ■which has been once sanctioned must continue to be sanctioned, 
although its sanction was merely by the tacit cousent of the different de- 
nominations, and although it should become violative of the religious rights 1 
of any, then he goes beyond the limits which even the Constitution of the \ 
land has made sacred. I have been represented as endeavoring to create 
excitement on this subject. To that I shall refer immediately ; but I may 
here refer to my objection to the existing system, on the ground that it has (. , ji* 
a tendency to infidelity, and may observe that I know clergymen .of other f J/f^ ' 
denominations who are also opposed to it on the ground of its infidel ten- 
dency. There are many who have the conviction that it tends to infidelity, 
and who know that the preventive referred to is not equal to stem the ten- . • . <_- 
dency to infidelity which does exist. "1 ■ '"^'-^'7' 1 

The first gentleman who spoke, and he spoke with a frankness and sin- 
cerity for which I give him credit, contended — and, when I answer his objec- 
tion, I wish to be understood as speaking to all that took up that objection 
— and it was urged more or less by the whole — that it was inconsistent to 
charge upon the system a tendency to infidelity, and then a teaching of 
religion, and that this teaching was anti-Catholic. Now, this would be in- 
consistent under some circumstances ; but the gentleman left out the grounds 
on whicli that charge was made, and it will be proper, therefore, that I 
should state those grounds. In the document which emanated from the 
Board of Assistants last spring, they say that the smallest particle of re- 
ligion is a disqualification, and that " religious instruction is no part of a <iftr4 i^U 
common school education." Now, was it the intention of your honorable Q (i 
body to exclude all religion ? Was it the intention of the State Legisla- 
ture ? Did any public authority require that the public school education 
should be winnowed, as corn on a barn-floor, and all religion driven out by 
the winds orheaven as chaff not worthy to be preserved ? Was there such 
authority ? Who made such a decision ? And yet that very decision, I ask 
you, if we are not authorized to interpret as proof of the charge, that the 
system has a tendency to infidelity ? For, banish religion, and infidelity 
alonejaniains. And, on the other hand, we find the gentlemen of the Pub- 
lic School Society themselves repeatedly stating that they inculcate religion, 
and give religious impressions, and I say it does them credit ; for, as far as 
they can, they ought to teach religion. It would be better if they did for 
those who are satisfied with their religious teaching. This explanation 
will set us right in the minds of your honorable body. It is first said, no 
religion is taught, and then it is admitted that religion is inculcated ; and 
next, our petition is opposed because it is alleged that, if our prayer be 
granted, religion will be taught. Wliat weight, then, is the objection of the 
Public School Society entitled to, if this be the fact ? And where is our 
inconsistency ? If there is a dilemma, to whom are we indebted for it but 
to the report of the Board of Assistants on the one hand, and to the testi- 



282 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

mony of the Public School Society on the other ? Let us not, then, be 
charged with inconsistency. 

Now, sir, I contend there is infidelity taught. I do not mean in its gross 
form ; but I have found principles of inferiority in (he books, an4 one that 
would pass current as a very amiable book — a religious lesson which I would 
not suffer a child to read over whom I had any influence. The lesson repre- 
sents a father and his son going about, on Sunday morning, to the different 
churches, the little boy asking questions as they pass along from one to the 
other ; at last the boy said to his father — I may not quote the words, but I 
t;hall be found right in substance : " What is the reason there are so many 
different sects ? AVhy do not all people agree to go to the same place, and 
to worship God in the same way ? " " And why should it not be so ? " 
replied the father. " Why should they agree ? Do not people differ in 
other things ? Do they not differ in their taste and their dress ? — some like 

■ their coats cut one way, and some another. And do they not differ in their 
appetites and food ? and in the hours they keep, and in their diversion ? " 

, Now, I ask if there is no iniidelity in that ? I ask if it is a proper lesson to 
teach children, that, as they have a right to form their own tastes for dress 
and food, they have the right to judge for themselves in matters of religion ? 
for — with deference to the Public School Society — children are too young to 
have such principles instilled into them. Let them grow up before they are 
left to exercise their judgment in such weighty matters — at least, do not 
teach Catholic children such a lesson at so early an age. And, in all I have 
said, I desire to be understood as abstaining most carefully from prescribing 
any rule, or method, or book, for any denomination with which I am not 
connected. But for Catholic children I speak, and I say, it is too early for 
them to judge for themselves. And is this all ? No, sir ; one other passage, 
and for that there may perhaps be something to be said as to its defence, 
because it is from the pen of an eminent Protestant divine, the Bishop of 
London. I presume the Bishop of London, when he wrote that passage, 
must have been writing on some suliject connected with infidelity — he must 
have been writing against infidelity, and indulging in a range of argument 
which might be proper for such a subject, but out of place in the hands of 
common school children. What was that passage ? Why, it is one which 
represents the Divine Redeemer as a man of respectahle talents. 

Mr. Ketchum rose, and intimated Lis doubt of sueli a passage 
being in the books. 

The right reverend prelate continued : 

/r I have read it in their books, but the trustees have recalled them — I hope 
not for the purpose of depriving me of the opportunity of quoting the page. 
Such a lesson is now to be found in one of the books, which represents the 
Divine Redeemer as showing uncommon quickness of penetration and saga- 
city. I ask whether such a lesson is a proper one for children, and whether 
such is the instruction to be given to them of the Redeemer of the world ? 
The gentleman who first spoke said it was not in reality religion that was 



SPEECH OP BISHOP HUGHES. 283 

tauglit, but mere morality that was inculcated — tlie propriety of telling tlie 
truth, and of fulfilling all moral duties. If this be true, it is still strange 
that the School Society should prefer thg word " religious." He did not 
deny that it was a kind of religion, aud that the precepts of the Decalogue 
were inculcated ; and while the Public School Society admit that religion is 
inculcated, aud the legal gentleman, their representative, does not disclaim 
it, so far as it forms the groundwork of a good moral character, it may be 
taken as admitted. And now, if they teach religion, let us know what it is 
to be. Let them not delegate to the teachers — some of whom may teach 
one religion, some another — the authority or permission to make " religious 
impressions," to give " religious instruction," to give a " right direction to 
the mind of youth," and all the other phrases which we find in their docu- 
ments. Now, on the subject of religion and morals, would they teach 
morals without religion ? — which, I conceive, will be found as visionary as 
castle-building in the air. Mr. Ketchum says they are taught not to lie ; 
but, without religion, he furnishes no motive for not lying. ' If a man tells 
me not to lie, when it is my interest to lie, I, as a rational being, want a 
motive for telling the truth. My love of gain tells me, if I lie, and lie suc- 
cessfully, it will add to my fortune ; and if I am told to abstain from lying 
at the risk of my fortune, let me have a reason. But if I am told there is a 
God to whom I am accountable, that is a motive, but then it is a teaching 
of religion. Yes, sir, when I am told there is a God, I am taught religion, 
and therefore I am astonished that the report which has gone forth from the 
other board should declare that the smallest teaching of religion vitiates the 
claim. You may as well think to build an edifice without a foundation, as 
to pretend to produce moral effects without religious belief 

There may not be the details of religion, but there must be the principle 
to a certain extent, otherwise you cannot lay the foundation of good morals 
for men. Now, sir, I will show you that Mr. Stephen Girard, of Philadel- 
phia, who had no religious belief whatever, in his will, by which he be- 
queathed large sums of money for the purpose of procuring great and mate- 
rial benefits to society — but which has been looked upon by many Christians 
of every denomination in Philadelphia rather as a curse than a blessing — 
even he speaks of morality without religion nearly as the Public School 
Society does. He says : 

Secondly, I enjoin and require that no ecclesiastic, missionary, or minis- 
ter of any sect whatsoever, shall ever hold or exercise any station or duty 
whatsoever in the said college ; nor shall any such person ever be admitted 
for any purpose, or as a visitor, within the premises appropriated to the pur- 
poses of the said college. On making this restriction, I do not mean to cast 
any reflection upon any sect or person whatsoever ; but as there is such a 
multitude of sects, and such a diversity of opinion amongst them, I desire 
to keep the tender minds of the orphans, who are to derive advantage from 
this bequest, free from the excitement which clashing doctrines and secta- 
rian controversy are so likely to produce. My desire is, that all the instruct- 
ors and teachers in the college shall take pains to instil into the minds of 
the scholars the purest principh'S of morality, so that, on their entrance into 
active life, they may, from inclination and habit, evince benevolence toward 
their fellow-creatures, and a love of truth, sobriety, and industry; adopting, 



284 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

at the same time, such religious tenets as tlieir matured reason may enable 
them to prefer. 

That, sir, is the policy of Mr. Girard, who had no belief that was known 
to others. That was the policy of a man who, so far as was known, was as 
much a skejitic as Voltaire or Rousseau. He, by his bounty of two millions 
of dollars to the city of Philadelphia, provided that poor orph.ans should be 
brought up to respect infidelity. He did not say a word against religion, 
but he took care to stand by, not personally, but by his executors in his 
will, to prevent its precepts being inculcated in the minds of those who are 
the dependents on his bounty. They were to have the purest principles of 
morals instilled into their minds ; but the attempt is vain when religion is 
not placed as the foundation of morals. 

He, like the Public School Society, stands by to see that the potter shall 
give no form to the vase till the cl.ay grows stifi^ and hardened. Then it will 
be too late. 

The gentleman also made objections to our schools, because, he said, they 
were in our churches. The fact is, we were obliged to provide them where 
we could, and our means would permit ; and there are some of them in the 
basement of our churches. And he conceived it impossible to keep them 
from sectarian influence, because the children would be within hearing of 
the chant of divine service ; — as thougb sectarianism depended on geo- 
graphical distances from church. But this could not have been a valid 
objection, because the Public School Society has had not only schools under 
^ churches, but in the session-rooms of churches. 

I shall refer now to the learned gentleman who followed him (Mr. 
Ketchum) ; and I can only say that this gentleman, with a great deal of 
experience in this particular question, really seems to me to confirm all I say 
on the ground we have taken. I know he lectured me pretty roundly on 
the subject of attending the meetings held under St. James' Church. I 
know he did more for me than the pope : the pope " mitred " me but once, 
but he did so three or four times during the course of his address. He read 
me a homily on the duties of station ; and he so far forgot his country and 
her principles as to call it a " descent " on my part when I mingled in a 
popular meeting of freemen. But it was no descent ; and I hope the time 
will never come when it will be deemed a descent for a man in oflice to min- 
gle with his fellow-citizens when convened for legitimate and honorable pur- 
poses. 

But, from his speech, it would appear that his experience has been ob- 
tained by the discharge of the duty of standing advocate of denial ; and 
yet, with all his experience and opportunities of research, his inability to 
overturn our grounds confirms me in the conviction that they are not to be 
removed, even by the aid of splendid talents ; for that speech, like most 
others, went on the false issue that we want privileges. But we want no 
privilege. That speech, like the speech from the throne, might have been 
the speech of years past, and might have been stereotyped ; for its only nov- 
elty, which proved to me that it was not all the work of antiquity, was the 
part which appertained to myself. And not only that, but I have to say 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 285 

that, wlien I came into this hall— and it is the first time I ever stood in an 
assembly of this description — I felt that I was thrown on the hospitality of 
the professional gentlemen ; and I think, if I and that gentleman could have 
exchanged places, I should not have looked so hard at him as he did at me. 
In fact, throughout that speech he, with peculiar emphasis and a manner 
which he may perhaps have acquired in his practice in courts of law, fixed 
upon me a steady gaze — and he has no ordinary countenance — and addressed 
me so solemnly, that I really expected every moment he would forget him- 
self, and saj', " The prisoner at the bar." He did not, however. He passed 
that over ; and, whilst I recognize and respect the " human face divine," 
because God made it to look upward, I may here observe, that it has no 
power to fnghten me, even if it would be terrible ; and therefore I was not 
at all disturbed by the hard looks which he gave me. The gentleman will 
pardon me, I hope, in this, for it is natural enough, after what has been said 
— though I know it was said in good humor — to claim the privilege to 
retort. 

Well, sir, this was not all, but he told us something about going to the 
stake. He was sure, if any of the public money was voted to the denomi- 
nation of a reverend gentleman whose name I will not mention, the Catho- 
lics would go to the stake. Now, sir, we have no intention to do so. We 
know the public money does go to the support of religion ; it goes to the 
support of chaplaincies, theological seminaries, universities, and chaplains 
of institutions whose apisointments are permanent; and be it remembered, 
that one of the first lectures delivered in one institution — the University of 
this city — which was aided from the public funds, was on the anti-republi- 
can tendency of popery. And yet we did not go to the stake for that ; and 
why ? Because, though our portion of taxation mingles with the rest, we 
have no objections to the use of it which the law prescribes, so long as no 
inalienable rights of our own are involved in the sacrifice. 

But again, he said, if any of the money was appropriated to the Catho- 
lic religion, Protestants would go to the stake. I will not say whether Prot- 
estants are so exclusive. While we submit to taxation for Protestant pur- 
poses without going to the stake, whether, if we participate, they will go to 
the stake, is not for me to say. 

Then he came to the Protestant Bible, " without note or comment ; " and 
" it was hard for him to part with that translated Bible." He stood by it, 
and repeated that " it was hard to give up the Bible ; " just as if I had said 
one word against it, and as if I was about to bring the pope to banish it out 
of the Protestant world, or wished to deprive any man who venerates it of 
any use he may think proper to make of it. And there, again, he looked so 
much as if he were in earnest, that, at one time, I thought he was actually 
about to rush to the " stake." But there was no stake there to go to, except 
that which he holds in the exchequer of the Public School Society. It is a 
most comfortable way of going to martyrdom. 

Sir, the gentleman taunted me for having attended the public meetings 
of Catholics on this subject, and he imputed the prejudice which exists 
against the public school system to the observations I have made, as though 



286 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

it were of my creation. In answer to that, 1 may state — wliat has been the 
fact for years — that Catholics have been struggling to have schools, and to 
the extent of their means we have them ; and. what is the reason ? Do you 
supiDose that we should impose additional burdens upon ourselves, if we 
were satisfied with those public schools ? Do you suppose we should have 
paid for our bread a second time, if that which these schools ofiered had 
not, in our opinion, been turned to a stone ? No ; the existence of our own 
schools proves that I have not excited the prejudice ; but still it is at all 
times my duty to warn my people against that which is destructive or vio- 
lative to the religion they profess ; and if they abandon their religion, they 
are free ; but so long as they are attached to our religion, it is my duty, as 
their pastor, as the faithful guardian of their principles and morals, to warn 
them when there is danger of imbibing poison instead of wholesome food. 
That is the reason ; and I am sorry that he has not found a motive less un- 
worthy of me than that he has been pleased to assign. 

Then — and I may as well take up the question now as elsewhere — it has 
been said that it is conceived to be an inconsistency in our argument, that 
we object to the public schools because religion is taught in them ; and yet, 
in the schools which we propose to establish, or, rather, which we have 
established, but for which we now plead, we profess to teach no sectarian- 
ism ; and the question arises, " If you are opjjosed to religion in these 
schools because it is sectarianism, how can you teach religion in your 
schools, and yet your schools not be sectarian ? " This is the position in 
which they place us ; and, in answer, I have to state that, in the first place, 
we do not intend to teach religion. We shall be willing that they shall be 
j)laced under the same inspection that the public schools are now ; and if it 
should be found that religion is taught, we will be willing that you shall cut 
them off You shall be the judges. Tou may see that the law is complied 
with, and if we violate it, let us be deprived of the benefits for which the 
conditions were prescribed. But there is neutral ground on which our chil- 
dren may learn to read and cipher. If they read, it must be something that 
is written ; words are signs of ideas, and, in the course of their instruction, 
they may be made so to shape their studies as to loathe Catholicism without 
learning any other religion. And this could be produced not alone in refer- 
ence to Catholics, but Presbyterians, Methodists, Unitarians, or any other. 
They might find that their children disregard their own religion, while they 
are not taught any other. Suppose the Presbyterians, or any other denomi- 
nation, were in the minority, and Catholics were numerically what Prote.s- 
tants are now, and therefore were able to decide what lessons their children 
should read in these schools, I ask you if the gentleman would not conceive 
he had reasonable objections, if they had forced upon them a system of edu- 
cation which teaches that their denomination, past, present, and to come, 
was deceitful ? Now, take up these books, which teach all that is infamous . 
in our history — which teach our children about the " execution of Cran- 
mcr," the burning of Huss, and " the character of Luther." If such a prac- 
tice were reversed, what would he do ? 

Now, in our schools I would teach them — I would give our children les- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 28Y 

sons for exercise in reading tljat should teach them that, when the young 
tree of American liberty was planted, it was watered with Catholic blood, 
and that therefore we have as much right to every thing common in this 
country as others. I should teach them that Catholic bishops and Catholic 
barons at Runneymede wrung the charter of our liberties — the grandparent 
of all known liberty in the world— from the hands of a tyrant. I should 
teach them where to find the bright spots on our history, though the gentle- 
man who represents the Methodists knew not vfhere they were to be found. 
This I would do ; and should I violate the law ? If, instead of the burning 
of Huss, I gave them a chapter on the character of Charles Carroll of Car- 
rollton as a reading-lessou, would that be teaching them of isurgatory, and 
the doctrine of transubstantiation ? 

But if our circumstances were reversed, so that Catholics controlled the 
public schools, would not Presbyterians have a right to complain ? And 
should not we be tyrants while we refused to listen to their complaints, if 
we spread before tlieir children lessons on the burning of Servetus by Calvin, 
and on the hangings of members of the Society of Friends by those who 
held Calvin's doctrines ? I should listen to their appeal in such a case with 
feelings far different from those manifested by them in regard to others. 
But I would do more, in order that those little vagrants of whom the gen- 
tleman speaks might come into school. Their parents themselves having 
by persecution been deprived, in many instances, of an education, do not 
fully appreciate its advantages, and if you seek to enforce the attendance of 
their children, they will resist ; if you attempt to coerce them, you will not 
succeed. But if you put them in a way to be admitted without being 
dragged by force to the school, or without destroying their religious prin- 
ciples when they enter (which you have no right to do), then you will pre- 
pare good citizens, educated to the extent that will make them useful to 
their country. Then their parents, having confidence in their pastors, will 
send their children to schools approved of by them ; and the children them- 
selves may attend schools where they need not be ashamed of their creed, 
and where their companions will not call them " papists," and tell them that 
ignorance and vice are the accompaniments of their religion. That will be 
the result, and I conceive it will be beneficial. 

Much has been said about the distinction between morality and religion, 
and about those certain broad principles on which it is thought all can 
agree. And yet our opponents contend, and I am surprised at the circum- 
stance — gentlemen who are not only Christians themselves, but Christian 
mihisters— contend all through for the rights of those who are not of the 
Christian religion, but are commonly called infidels. An attempt has been 
made to draw a distinction between morality and religion. I have already 
said — and there is not a gentleman here who will pretend to deny it — that 
morality must rest on religion for its basis. I refer you — and it is not an 
ordinary authority — to a man who passed through life with the most beau- 
tiful character and the most blameless reputation that ever fell to the lot of 
a public man ; one who was distinguished almost above all other men ; one 
of whom it would be profane to say that he was inspired, yet of whom his- 



288 THE rUBLIC school SOCIETi'. 

tory has not liancled down one useless action, or one single idle word — a man 
who left to his country an inheritance of the brightest example and the fair- 
est name that ever soldier or statesman bequeathed to a nation : that man 
■was George Washington. Hear v/hat he says, in his Farewell Address, on 
the attempt now being made to preserve morality, whilst religion is dis- 
carded from the public schools : 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, 
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man 
claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pil- 
lars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citi- 
zens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and 
to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with pri- 
vate and public felicity. Let it be simply asked, Where is the security for 
property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligations desert 
the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? 
j And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be main- 
jtaiued without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of 
I refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both 
forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of reli- 
gious principle. 

'Tjs substantially true, that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of 
popular government. The rule indeed extends with more or less force to 
every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can 
look with indifference ujion attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric ? 

Such is the warning, the solemn warning, of this great man. If you 
take away religion, on what foundation do you propose to rear the structure 
of morality ? No ; they stand to each other in the relation of parent and 
offspring ; or, rather, they are kindred principles from the same Divine 
source ; and what God has joined together let no man put asunder. 

Now, with regard to all said by me against the Protestant Bible, I appeal 
to this honorable body whether I ever said one word hostile to that Bible ; 
and yet, from the address of the gentlemen on the other side, men abroad, 
who should read their speeches, would be led to believe that I not only 
entertained, but that I had uttered, sentiments of hostility to that work. 
And it is ever thus that our principles and our feelings are misrepresented, 
while gentlemen profess to be conscious of entertaining no prejudice against 
us as Catholics. One gentleman, however, avowed his hostility to us on this 
ground, and for his candor I tender my acknowledgment. The whole effort 
of some of the gentlemen — indeed, of all who have spoken on the subject — 
has been, to show that the system must be made so broad and liberal that 
all can agree in it. But I think they contend for too much, when they wish 
so to shape religion and balance it on its pedestal as to make it suit every 
body and every sect ; for it infidels are to be suited, and it is made to recon- 
cile them to the system, I want to know whether Catholics, or any other 
class, are not entitled to the right to have it made to suit them ? And if 
every body is to be made satisfied, why is it that Catholics and others are 
discontented and excluded ? Is it not manifest that what they profess to 
accomplish is beyond their reach ? Now, the infidels have found able advo- 
cates in the reverend gentlemen who have spoken in the course of this dis- 
cussion—I mean the interests of infidelity ; and why is it, then, that the 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 289 

gentlemen who plead for that side of the question enter their protest against 
ours ? I should like to know why there is this inconsistency. If the rule is 
to be general, why is it not general ? 

I pass, now, to the reasoning of one learned gentleman who spoke yester- 
day, and defended the Protestant Bible. Now, this was unnecessary in that 
gentleman ; it was in him a work of supererogation to vindicate the Protes- 
tant Scriptures ; it was useless to defend a point which had not been at- 
tacked. It was time lost ; and yet, perhaps, not altogether lost, for, in some 
respects, it may have been profitable enough. In entering on its defence, he 
said it was the instrument of human liberty throughout the world ; wherever 
it was, there was light and liberty ; and where it was not, there was bond- 
age and darkness ; and he brought it round so that he almost asserts that 
our Declaration of Independence had been copied from the Bible. No doubt 
the just and righteous principles on which that Declaration has its founda- 
tion have their sanction in the Bible ; but I deny their immediate connec- 
tion, and on historical grounds, for it is known that its author looked upon 
St. Paul as an impostor ; consequently their connection is not historically 
true. But while the gentleman referred to our notes (but which we disown 
and repudiate) as containing principles of persecution, how was it that, 
after the Protestant Bible, " without note and comment," came into use, 
every denomination of Protestants in the wlwle tcorld that had the misfor- 
tune — for it must have been a misfortune — to be yoked to civil power, 
wielded the sword of persecution, and derived their authority for so doing 
from the nahed text? Yes, in Scotland, in all her confessions of faith, in 
England — and I appeal to her penal laws against Catholics, and those acts 
by which the Puritans and Dissenters were pursued — men who had the mis- 
fortune, like ourselves, to have a conscience, were driven out, and all was 
done on the authority of the Bible, without note or comment, and for the 
public good, and the good of the Church. I do not say that the Bible sanc- 
tioned persecution, l)Ut I deny that the absence of notes is an adequate pre- 
ventive. I refer to history. And almost to this day, though the Bible has 
been translated three hundred years, even in lilenil governments, the iron 
heel of iserseeutionhas been placed on the dearest rights of Catholics. The 
gentleman to whom I allude said, no doubt, what he knew would be popu- 
lar out of doors ; for he seems, witb others, to imagine that the world began 
at the period of the Reformation. Ho seems to think that every thing great 
originated at that period. But does he not know that eight hundred edi- 
tions of the Bible had been printed before the Reformation ? And does he 
not know that two hundred editions had been circulated in the common 
tongue, in the common language of the country ? And has he yet to learn 
that the first prohibition to read the Bible came not from a Catholic, but 
from a Protestant — from Protestant Henry VHI. of " glorious memory " ? 
He was the first to issue a prohibition ; and it was not till Catholics saw the 
evil — not of the Bible, but the bad uses men were making of the Bible — 
that they placed its perusal under certain restrictions, and cautioned their 
people against hastily judging of it for themselves. All had been united 
and harmonious, but by the use, or abuse, which men made of the Bibie, all 
19 



290 THE PUBLIC SCUOOL SOCIETY. 

became doubt and speculation, and the positive revelation of Christ was 
shaken or destroyed. They saw this Bible, and what then ? But, while 
these school gentlemen contend that it i.s a shield against infidelity, and that 
all sects here agrae, liow is it out of the schools ? Why, no sects agree upon 
it. How is it that the Bible, which is given by the inspiration of God, the 
God of trutli, is made use of, in this city even, to prove a Trinity and to 
disprove a Trinity ? How is it that Trinitarians quote it to prove tlieir doc- 
trines, and Unitarians quote it to establish the opposite doctrines ? How is 
it tliat, whilst one says from the Bible that God the Father is God alone, 
and that Christ is not equal to Him, for He says, " The Father is greater 
than I," another argues from the same Bible tliat the Father and Son are 
equal, because Christ says, " The Father and I are one " ? And another 
comes with the Bible in his hand, and says, " I believe — and I can prove it 
from this Bible — that Christ alo7ie is the Almighty God, and the Father and 
the Spirit are only attributes of the same person ! " Why, this Bible, which 
thoy say is the foundation of all truth — and they say well, when it is truly 
understood; a grace which God can vouchsafe, and no doubt He does to 
many — this Bible is harmonious in its every doctrine. But this is not the 
point ; the point is, the uses we see men make of it ; and this is the sum of 
our reason that we wish our children not to be taught in the manner in 
whicli Protestant children are taught in reference to the Bible. 

And then, again, if you teach that there is a hell, according to the Bible, 
others will contend that the Scriptures teach no such doctrine. And so I 
might pass on to other points to show you, whilst they thus contend for the 
Bible as the guide to truth, there is this disagreement among them, at least 
in this country, where human rights and liberties are understood, as allow- 
ing every man to judge for himself Is there not, then, danger — is there not 
ground to apjjrehend that, when our children read this Bible, and find that 
^11 these diflerent sects ft.ther all their contradictions on the Bible as their 
authority, they will derive their first notions of infidelity from these circum- 
stances ? But there is another ground on which it is manifest we cannot 
allow our children to be taught by them. Whilst we grant them the right 
to take, if they please, the Protestant Bible as the rule of their faith, and 
the individual right to judge of the Bible — and this great principle they 
proclaim as the peculiar and distinctive and most glorious trait in their 
religious character and history — and let them boast of it ; there is no diffi- 
culty on the subject — they interpret the Bible by the standard of reason, and 
therefore, as there is no given standard of reason, as one has more and an- 
other less, they scarcely ever arrive at the same result ; while the Bible, the 
eternal Word of God, remains the same. But this is not a Catholic princi- 
ple. Catholics do not believe that God has vouchsafed the promise of the 
Holy Spirit to every individual, but that He has given His Spirit to teach 
the Church collectively, and to guide the Church, and therefore we do not 
receive as the Biljle except what the Church guarantees; and wanting this 
guarantee, the Methodist gentleman failed to establish the book which he 
produced, with its notes, as a Catholic Bible. We do not take the Bible on 
the authority of a "king's printer" who is a speculating publisher, who 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HrGHES. 291 

publishes it but as a speculation. And why 2 Because, by the change of a 
single comma, that which is positive may be made negative, and vice-versa; 
and then is it the Bible of the inspired writers ? It is not. They proclaim, 
then, that theirs is a Christianity of reason; of this they boast; — and let 
them glory. Ours is a Christianity of faith ; ours descends by the teaching 
of the Church. We are never authorized to introduce new doctrines, be- 
cause we contend that no new doctrine is true fi-om the time of the apostles, 
unless it has come from the mind of God by a special revelation ; and, to us, 
that is not manifest among the reformers. We are satisfied to trust our eter- 
nal interests, for weal or woe, on the security of that Catholic Church and 
the veracity of the Divine promises. You perceive, therefore, that Protes- 
tants may agree in the system where this Bible is thus introduced; but it is 
not in accordance with the principles of Catholics that each one shall derive 
therefrom his own notions of Christianity. It is not the principle of Catho- 
lics, because they believe in the incompetence of individual reason in mat- 
ters of such importance. It is from this self-sufficiency and imputed capa- 
city that men derive such notions of selt-coniidence, which, owing to a want 
of power to control in some domestic circles, if taught to our children, lead 
to disobedience and disregard of the parental authority. 

I have been obliged to enter into this, which is rather theological than 
otherwise, to put you in possession of the true ground. We do not take the 
Protestant Bible, but we do not wish others not to take it if they desire it. 
If conscience be stifled, you do not make us better men or better citizens ; 
and therefore I say, gentlemen, respect conscience, even though you think it 
in error, provided it does not conflict with" the public rights. I have suffi- 
ciently disposed of the addresses of the two legal gentlemen who have spo- 
ken. I will now call the attention of this honorable body to the remarks 
of the reverend gentleman who spoke in relation to the Rhemish Testament. 
I did use, sir, yesterday, an expression which I used with reluctance ; but 
when we were charged before this honorable body — when the reverend gen- 
tleman who represents a numerous denomination charged us with teaching 
the lawfulness of murdering heretics, that expression came on me as a thun- 
derbolt ; because I thought that truth should proceed from the lips of age 
and a man of character. And, sir, I knew that position was not true, and 
that it was an easy matter to assert a thing, but not so easy to disprove it. 
I might take advantage of circumstances to charge a man with things that 
it would take weeks to disprove, and therefore I thought it necessary to nail 
that slanderous statement to the counter before it could have its designed 
influence here or elsewhere. That gentleman began with great humility, and 
with professions of being devoid of prejudice, and then he said that those 
meetings to which he referred, and which he called " public gatherings," 
had caused him to feel greatly alarmed about this question ; — as if the sta- 
bility of your republic was endangered, provided Catholic children received 
the benefits of a common school education ! He said I had applied certain 
remarks to the creed of the Society of Friends ; and though, p'ferhaps, it 
was somewhat out of order, but wishing to set the gentleman right, I denied 
that I had done so. But since then the reporter has handed me the notes 



292 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

taken of what I did say, and from them also it appears that I said no such 
thing. He referred to the practice of teaching religion in the schools ; but 
of that I have disposed already. 

He then, while going through the introductory part of the remonstrance 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church, threw out constantly calumnious charges 
against the Catholic Church and the Catholic religion. He did not throw 
them out as assertions, but by inuendo, as " if it be true," and " I should 
like to know " ; — as if I am liere for the purpose of supplying every thing 
he would " like to know." And how can I meet him, when insinuation is 
the form in whicli his charges are thrown out ? Why, their very feebleness 
takes from an opponent the power of refutation. But when he comes to 
something tangible, then I can meet him. Having gone through a series of 
insinuations, be misrepresents our intentions. Notwithstanding we disclaim 
such an intention, he indulges in the gratuitous supijosition that, if your 
honorable body should grant our petition, we shall secretly teach the Catho- 
lic religion. But if we do, is not the law as potent against us as against 
the public schools ? If they teach religion, as they acknowledge, why may 
not we ? We are not grasping to obtain jjower over others, but we desire in 
sincerity to beneiit a portion of our own neglected children. I shall pass 
over, therefore, a gi'eat deal of what the gentleman " would like to know," 
for I do not know if it is of importance to the subject. He said this 
Rhemish Testament was published by authority ; but he began by a retreat, 
and not by a direct charge. " He did not profess to say that our Church 
approved of it ; but it was priuted and published, and it was not on the 
Index'''' — as if every bad book in the world must be in the Index; — and, 
with this evidence of fact, he comes here and spreads before the American 
people the slander and calumny that the Catholics, by their notes and com- 
ments, teach the lawfulness of murdering heretics. Now, sir, I will take up 
that book, and the parts he read, with the notes giving an explanation, as 
though they came from Catholics. Do you know the history of that book, 
sir ? If not, I can tell you. When Queen Elizabeth scourged the Catholics 
from their altars, and drove them into exile, these men held a common no- 
tion, which was natural and just, that England was their country, and that 
they were suiiering unmerited persecution. The new religion, not satisfied 
with toleration for itself, grasped the substance of things — grasped the 
power of the State, seized all their temples, and, not even satisfied with this, 
scourged the Catholics from their home and country ; and they did write 
these notes — and why ? They wrote them in exile, smarting I'.nder the lash 
and the torture, and in connection, too, with a plan for the invasion of Eng- 
land by Philip II. of Spain. Their object was, to disseminate amongst 
Catholics of England disaffection to Queen Elizabeth, and thus dispose them 
to join the true Catholic and oppose the heretics, because the heretics were 
their enemies — were the enemies of their rights, and had crushed them. 
But when that book appeared in England, was there a single approval given 
it— a single Catholic that received it ? Not one. When it was published 
for political ends — to aid the invasion of Philip — did the English Catholics 
receive it ? Never. But the gentleman said it was published by the bish- 



SPEECH OF BISUOP HUGHES. 293 

ops Of Irelaud and Tvith tlieir approbation, and with tlie approbation of a 
great number of the Catholic clergy ; and this after his own admission that, 
insomuch as it had not been approved by the Holy See, the bishoiD of Rome, 
it was not of authority in the Catholic Church. Now, I shall take up both 
parts ; and first, I should like to know where is his authority that it was 
published by the bishops of Ireland ? I pause for a reply, and I shall not 
consider it an interruption. 

Dr. Bond. Do you wish an answer ? 

Bishop Hughes. I do, sir ; I desire your authority. 

Dr. BoKB. Why, if we are to believe historj-, it is true ; it is stated in 
the British Critic. 

Bishop Hughes. Oh ! I am satisfied. 

Dr. Bond. It could not have been reviewed if it did not exist. 

Bishop Hughes. Oh ! it is here, and that proves its existence without 
the British Critic. It was gone out of print again, and not a Catholic now 
heard of it, but your liberal Protestant clergymen of New York republished 
it. What for ? To bring infamy on the Catholic name. And it was from 
this Protestant edition, and not from Ireland, that the Methodist gentleman 
received it. I am now not surprised at his saying so often that he would 
" like to know," for a little more knowledge would be of great advantage 
to him. I need not read it. 

Dr. Bond. Oh ! you had better. 

Bishop Hughes. Well, sir, any thing to accommodate you. 

It is a remarkable fact, that, notwithstanding the Vulgate New Testa- 
ment, as it was translated and expounded by the memljers of the Jesuit col- 
lege at Rheims, in 1582, has been republished in a great number of editions, 
and their original annotations, either more or less extensively, have been 
added to the text ; yet, as soon as it is appeale'd to as an authority, the Ro-' 
man priests admit both the value of the book and the obligation of the 
papists to believe its contents. We have a very striking modern instance to 
prove this deceitfulness. 

Now, it must be recollected that this is a Protestant publication ; the 
Catholics did not circulate it, but the Protestant ministers did, to mislead 
their flocks, and to bring infamy on their Catholic fellow-citizens. 

The Douay Bible is usually so called because, although the New Testa- 
ment was first translated and published at Rheims, yet the Old Testament 
was pi-inted, some years after, at Douay ; the English Jesuits having removed 
their monastery from Rheims to Douay before their version of the Old Tes- 
tament was completed. In the year 181G, an edition, including both the 
Douay Old and the Rhemish New Testament, was issued at Dublin, contain- 
ing a large number of comments replete with impiety, irrcligion, and the 
most fiery jiersecution. That edition was published under the direction of 
all the dignitaries of the Roman hierarchy in Ireland, and about three hun- 
dred others of the most influential subordinate priests. 

Now, I called for the gentleman's evidence for this, and the gentleman 
was found minns hahens — he has it not to give. The prints said so, and he 
believed the prints ! Now, sir, this is a grave charge, and I am disposed to 
treat it gravely ; but I should not feel worthy of the name of a man — I 



294 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

should feel mj-self unworthy of being a member of the American family, if 
I had not risen and repelled such a charge as it deserved. 

Dr. Bond. You have not read all I read. 

Bishop Hughes. I will read all the gentleman may wish, if he will not 
keep me here reading all night. 

The notes which urged the hatred and murder of Protestants attracted 
the attention of the British Churches, and, to use the words of T. Hartwell 
Home, that edition of the Rhemish Testament printed at Dublin in 1810, 
corrected and revised and approved by Dr. Troy, Roman Catholic arch- 
bishop of Dublin, was reviewed by the British Critic, vol viii., pp. 296-308, 
New Series, and its dangerous tenets, both civil and religious, were e.xposed. 

Tliat is the testimony. 

Dr. Bond. There is another paragraph. 

Bishop Hughes. Well, I will read the other. 

This publication, with many others of a similar character, produced so 
great an excitement in Britain, that, finally, several of the most prominent 
of the Irish Roman prelates were called before the English Parliament to 
prove their own work. Then, and ujjon oath, with all official solemnity, 
they peremptorily disclaimed the volumes published by their own instiga- 
tion and under their own sujjervision and auspices, as books of no author- 
ity, because they had not been ratified by the pope and received by the 
whole papal Church. 

Now, what authority have we for this charge of perjury against the Irish 
bishops, better than the gentleman's own ? It is so stated here. What 
authority is there for that ? 

Dr. Bond. It was so stated before the British Parliament. 

Bishop Hughes. I should regret, on account of your age, if I used any 
expression that might be deemed harsh. 

Dr. Bond. Take the liberty to say what yon please. 

Bishop Hughes. With regard to these notes, I have to observe, that 
they were written in an age (1582) when the rights of conscience were but 
little understood. Protestants in that age everywhere persecuted not only 
Catholics, but each other. And, long after, the Puritans of New England, 
with the Bible, and without notes, persecuted with torture, and even to 
hanging, their fellow-Protestants. It was not wonderful, therefore, if, in 
such an age, Catholics were found to entertain the opinions set forth in the 
notes. But, bad as they are, it is remarkable that they do not sustain the 
calumnious charge of the reverend gentleman, that they " teach the lawful- 
ness of murdering heretics. 

And now, sir, let me call your attention to the book itself 

In the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew tlicre is this text, at the 29th 
verse. It occurs in the parable of the cockle (in the Protestant version 
tares) and the wheat, in answer to Christ's disciples, who asked : " WUt 
thou that we gather it up ? And he said, No : lest, perhaps, gatbeiing up 
the cockles, you may root up the wheat also together with it." The annota- 
tion on this is : 

Ver. 29. J^'st you pluck up also. The good must tolerate the evil, when 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 295 

it is so strong that it cannot be redressed without danger and disturbance 
of the whole Church, and commit the matter to God's judgment in the 
latter day. Otlierwise, w'hcre ill men, be they heretics or other malefactors, 
may be punished or suppressed without disturbance and hazard of the good, 
they may and ought by public authority, either spiritual or temj^oral, to be 
chastised or executed. 

They may and ought " hy public authority ! " Why, the proposition of 
the gentleman was, that Catholics were taught to kill their Protestant 
neighbors. Now, there is not throughout the whole volume a proposition 
so absurd as the idea conveyed by him. Bad as the notes are, they require 
falsification to bear him out. 

Again, Luke, ninth chapter, verses 54, 55 : " Anrl when his disciisles 
James and John had seen it, they said. Lord, wilt thou we say that fire come 
down from heaven, and consume them ? And turning, he rebuked them, 
saying. You know not of what spirit you are." Annotation : 

Ver. 55. He rchiked, them. Not justice r.or all rigorous punishment of 
sinners is here forbidden, nor Elias' fact rejjrehended, nor the Church 
or Christian jirinces blamed for putting heretics to death. But none of 
these should be done for desire of our particular revenge, or without dis- 
cretion, and regard of their amendment, and example to others. Therefore 
Pete;' used his power upon Ananias and Saphira, when he struck them both 
down to death for defrauding the Church. 

I am afraid I shall fatigue this honorable body by going over these 
notes, nor is it necessary that I should follow the gentleman in all his dis- 
cursive wanderings. There is nothing in this to authorize the murdering 
of heretics. 

But again, Luke, fourteenth chaj^ter, verse 33 : " And the Lord said to 
the servant. Go forth unto the ways and hedges, and comi)el them to enter, 
that my house may be filled." Annotation : 

Compel them. The vehement persuasion that God useth, both externally 
by force of His word and miracles, and internally by His grace, to bring 
us unto Him, is called compelling. Not that He forceth any to come to 
Him against their wills, but that He can alter and mollify a hard heart, 
and make him willing that before would not. Augustine also referreth 
this compelling to the penal laws, which Catholic princes do justly use 
against heretics and schismatics, proving that they who are, by their former 
profession in bajstism, subject to the Catholic Church, and are departed from 
the same after sects, may and ought to lie compelled into the unity and 
society of the universal Church again : and therefore, in this sense, by the 
two former parts of the parable, the Jews first, and secondly the Gentiles, 
that never believed before in Christy were invited by fair, sweet means only : 
but by the third, such are invited as the Church of God hath jjower over, 
because they promised in baptism, and therefore are to be revoked, not only 
by gentle means, but by just punishment also. 

Sir, the punishment of spiritual oifences, and the allusions here made to 
it, have their roots too deep and too widespreading to be entered into and 
discussed in the time that I could occupy this evening. It would be impos- 
sible to go over the historical grounds which suggest themselves in connec- 
tion with the subject, to show the results to the state of society which grow 
unavoidably out of the breaking up of the Roman empire, and the incur- 



296 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

siou of new and uncivilized nations and tribes. Society had been dissolved, 
with all the order and laws of the ancient civilization. It was tlie slow 
work of the Church to reorganize the new and crude materials — to gather 
and arrange the fragments-^to remodel society and social institutions as best 
she might. There was no other power that could digest the crude mass, the 
fierce infusions of other tongues and tribes and nations that had, during the 
chaos, become mixed up with the remains of ancient Roman civilization. 
She had to begin by religion, their conversion to Christianity being the first 
step, and the Catholic Church being the only one in existence. Hence, the 
laws of religion are the first with which those new populations became ac- 
quainted, and the only ones that could restrain them. Hence, too, what is 
called Canon Law went before, and Civil Law gradually followed, oftentimes 
mixed with and deriving its force from the older form of legislation. The 
actual state of society made it unavoidable that this should be the order of 
things. Civil governments oftentimes engrafted whole branches of the 
ecclesiastical law in their secular codes ; and ecclesiastical judges were often 
the interpreters and administrators of both. 

Canonical law and civil law, thus blended, became the codes of civil 
government, from the necessity of the case ; and it is to this state of things 
that the authors of the notes make allusion in their text. But, as I have 
remarked, the subject is too deep to be properly discussed on this occasion, 
■when time is so brief, and so many speakers to be replied to. 

We now come to Acts, chapter twenty-five, verse 11 : 

/ appeal to Co'nar. If Paul, both to save himself from whipping and 
from death, sought by the Jews, doubted not to cry for honor of the Roman 
laws, and to appeal to Cresar, the Prince of the Romans, not yel christened, 
how much more may we call for aid of Christian princes and their laws, for 
the punishment of heretics, and for the Church's defence against them. 
August. Epist. 50. 

Here you see the working of human interest ; and it is not the first time 
among Protestants and Catholics, nor will it be the last, that men have made 
the Word of God and sacred things a stepping-stone to promote temporal 
interests. They say there, " Heretics have banished us, and is it not natu- 
rally the interest of Catholics to join a Catholic prince to put down our 
stern persecutors? " As if they had said to their fellow-Catholics of Eng- 
land, A Catholic prince will soon make a descent on our country ; it will be 
your duty, as it is your interest, to join in putting down the heretic Eliza- 
beth, who has driven us from our country. 

I go now to Hebrews, chapter ten, verse 29 : " How much more, think 
you, doth he deserve worse punishments which hath trodden the Son of God 
under foot, and esteemed the blood of the Testament polluted wherein he is 
sanctified, and hath done contrarily to the spirit of grace ? " Annotation : 

The Mood of the Testament. Whosoever niaketh no more account of the 
blood of Christ's sacrifice, either as shed upon the cross, or as in the chalice 
of the altar — for our Saviour calleth that also the blood of the New Testa- 
ment — than he doth of the blood of calves and goats, or of other common 
drinks, is worthy of death, and God will in the next life, if it be not pun- 
ished here, revenge it with grievous punishment. 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 297 

" God will in the next life jjunish ! " Wliy, after all, bad as these notes 
are, objectionable and scorned and rcijudiated as they were by the Catholics 
of England — bad as they are, they do not sustain the gentleman — whose 
assertion has gone as far beyond the truth, as it is infinitely beyond charity. 
I do not find the notes from the Apocalypse, which would have gone to 
show, in like manner, that, bad as they were, they do not support the accu- 
sations made. 

Dr. Bond. There are others as well. 

Bishop Hughes. Well, I will give you the rest. 

The President. Perhaps it is not necessar\'. But, if they are, it is not 
necessary to interrupt the gentleman. 

Bishop Hughes. Such, then, sir, are the notes put by the Catholic 
translators of the New Testament at Rheims in 1582 — smarting, as they 
were, under the lash of Elizabeth's persecution, and looking fonvard with 
hope to the result of the invasion by Philijj H. They were repudiated in- 
dignantly by the Catholics of England and Ireland from the first ; and were 
out of i>rint, until some Protestant ministers of New York had them pub- 
lished in order to mislead the people and to excite odium against the Cath- 
olic name. 

But here, air, is the acknowledged Testament of all Catholics who speak 
the English language. This is known and may be read by any one ; it is 
the fourteenth edition in this country ; it corresponds with those used in 
England and Ireland ; and if any such notes can be found in it, then be- 
lieve Catholics to be what they have been falsely represented to be. 

But the reverend gentleman disclaims origin.ating the slander. He took 
it, we are told, from the British Critic; — as if that which is false must be- 
come true from the moment it is put in type and printed. But, sir, he 
should have known that the article in the British Critic was refuted at the 
time, and has been since refuted in the DuUin Review. And it so happens 
that Dr. Troy, then Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and who is here repre- 
sented as having approved these notes, had to sustain a lawsuit with the 
Dublin publisher, who was also a Protestant — not for approving the work, 
but for DENOLTJCING it, which destroyed the publisher's speculation, and in- 
volved a suit against the Archbishop for damages ! ! This is attested by 
Dr. Troy's letter, now before me, and by the legal proceedings, and in a 
speech made by Daniel O'Connell to the Catholic Board at the time (1817), 
we find the following : 

From Ihe Dublin Evrning Post of the &h of December, 181". 

CATHOLIC BOARD.— THE RHEMISH BIBLE. 

A remarkably full meeting of the Catholic board took place on Thursday 
last, pursuant to adjournment ; Owen O'Connor, Esq., in the chair. 

After some preliminary business, Mr. O'Connell rose to make his prom- 
ised motion for the appointment of a committee to prepare a denunciation 
of the intolerant doctrines contained in the Rhemish notes. 

Mr. O'Connell said that, on the last day of meeting, he gave notice that 
he wonkl move for a committee to draw up a disavowal of the very danger- 
ous and uncharitable doctrines contained in certain notes to the Rhemish 
Testament. He now rose to submit that motion to the consideration of the 



298 THE ITBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

board. The late edition of the Rhemisli Testament in this country gave 
rise to much observation. That worlc was denounced by Dr. Troy ; an ac- 
tion is now depending between him and a respectable bookseller in this 
city ; and it would be the duty of the board not to interfere, in the remotest 
degree, with the subject of that action ; but, on the other hand, the board 
could not let the present ojjportunity pass by of recording their sentiments 
of disapprolKiticni and even of abhorrence of the Ijigoted and intolerant 
doctrines pioniulgated in that work. Their feelings of what was wise, con- 
sistent, anil liberal, would suggest such a proceeding, even thougli the in- 
decent calumnies of their enemies had not rendered it indispensible. A 
work called The British Critic had, no doul^t, been read by some gentlemen 
who heard him. The circulation of the last number has been very exten- 
sive, and exceeded, almost beyond calculation, the circulation of any former 
number, in consequence of an article which appeared in it on the late edi- 
tion of the Rhoniish Testament. He (Mr. O'Connell) said he read that arti- 
cle ; it is extremely unfah and uncandid ; it gives, with audacious falsehood, 
jjassages, as if from the notes of the Rhemish Testament, which cannot be 
found in that work ; and, with mean cunning, it seeks to avoid detection by 
quoting, without giving either text or page. Throughout it is written in 
the true spirit of the inquisition ; it is violent, vindictive, and uncharitable. 
He was sorry to understand that it was written by ministers of the Estab- 
lished Church ; but he trusted that, when the charge of intemperance should 
be again brought forward against the Catholics, their accusers would cast 
their eyes on this coarse and illiberal attack — here tliey may find a specimen 
of real intemperance. But the very acceptaljlc work of imputing principles 
to the Irish people which they never held, and which they abhor, was not 
confined to The British Critic. The Ctnirier, a newsjjaper whose circulation 
is immense, lent its hand, and the provincial newspapers throughout Eng- 
land — those papers which are forever silent when any thing might be said 
favorable to Ireland, but are ever active to disseminate whatever may tend 
to her disgrace or dishonor. They have not hesitated to impute to the 
Catholics of this country the doctrines contained in those oftensive notes — 
and it was their duty to disclaim them. Nothing was more remote from 
the true sentiments of the Irish people. These notes were of English 
growth ; they were written in agitated times, when the title of Elizabeth 
was questioned, on the grounds of legitimacy. Party spirit was then ex- 
tremely violent ; polities mixed with religion, and, of course, disgraced it. 
Queen Mary, of Scotland, had active partisans, who thought it would for- 
ward their purposes to translate the Bible, and add to it those obnoxious 
notes. But, very shoi'tly after the establishment of the college at Douay, 
this Rhemish edition was condemned by all the Doctors of that institution, 
who, at the same time, called for and received the aid of the Scotch and 
Irish colleges. The book was thus suppressed, and an edition of the Bible, 
with notes, was published at Douay, which has ever been since adopted by 
the Catholic Church ; so that they not only condemned and suppressed the 
Rhemish edition, but they pulilished an edition with notes, to which no 
objection has, or could be, urged. From that period there have been but 
two editions of the Rhemish Testament ; the first had very little circula- 
tion ; the late one was published by a very ignorant printer in Cork, a man 
of the name of M'Namara, a person who was not capaljle of distinguishing 
between the Rhemish and any other edition of the Bible. He took up the 
matter merely as a speculation in trade. He meant to publish a Catholic 
Biljle, and having put his hand upon the Rhemish edition, he commenced to 
print it in numbers. He subsequently became bankrupt, and his property 
in this transaction vested in Mr. Gumming, a I'espectable bookseller in this 
city, who is either a Protestant or Presbyterian ; but he carried on the work, 
like M'Namara, merely to make money of it, as a mercantile speculation ; 
and yet, said Mr. O'Connell, our enemies have taken it up with avidity; they 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 299 

have asserted that the sentiments of those notes are cherished by the Catho- 
lics in this country. He would not be surprised to read of speeches in the 
next Parliament on the subject. It was a hundred to one but that some of 
our briefless barristers have already commenced composing their dull calum- 
nies, and that v;e shall have speeches from them, for the edification of the 
Legislature and the protection of the Church. There was not a moment to 
be lost. The Catholics should, with one voice, disclaim those very odious 
doctrines. He was sure there was not a single Catholic in Ireland that did 
not feel as he did — abhorrence at the principles these notes contain. II- 
liberality has been attributed to the Irish peo]>!e, but they are grossly 
■wronged. He had often addressed the Catholic people of Ireland. He 
always found them applaud every sentiment of liberality, and the doctrine 
of perfect freedom of conscience — the right of every human being to have 
his religious creed, whatever that creed might be, unpolluted by the impi- 
ous interference of bigotted or oppressive laws. Those sacred rights, and 
that generous sentiment, were never uttered at a Catholic aggregate meeting, 
without receiving at the instant the loud and the unanimous applause of the 
assembly. 

It might be said that those meetings were composed of mere rabble. 
Well, be it so. For one he should concede that, for the sake of argument. 
But what followed ? Why, just this : that the Catholic rabble, without the 
advantages of education, or of the influence of polished society, were so 
well acquainted with the genuine princij^les of Christian charity, that they, 
the rabble, adopted and applauded sentiments of liberality and of religious 
freedom, which, unfortunately, met but little encouragement from the pol- 
ished and educated of other sects. 

(Then follows the jiassage which we have quoted in the preceding arti- 
cle.) 

Mr. O'ConnelVs motion was put and carried, the words being amended 
thus : 

That a committee be ajjpointed to draw up an address on the occasion 
of the late publication of the Rhemish Testament, with a view to have the 
same submitted to an aggregate meeting. 

Such, sir, are the history and the authority of the notes put to the 
Rhemish translation of the New Testament. The denunciation of Dr. 
Troy spoiled the sale of the work in Ireland, and the publishers sent the 
remaining copies for sale to this country; but even this did not remune- 
rate him, as his loss was estimated at £.500 sterling. It must have been 
from one of these exiled copies that the Protestant edition published in this 
city, now produced, was taken. These being the facts of the case, if I were 
a Protestant I should feel ashamed of a clergyman of my church who, from 
either malice or ignorance, should take up such a book, with the unchristian 
view of blackening the character of any denomination of my fellow-citizens. 
But not only this, sir, but look at the array of the names of Protestant 
ministers in this city certifying, contrary to the fact, that this text and these 
notes are by the authority of the Catholic Church, and then say whether 
there is no prejudice against the Catholics ! I shall now dismiss the subject. 

Sir, the Methodist gentleman, in the whole of his address, in which he 
made the charge I have now disposed of, and of which I wish him joy, slyly 
changed the nature and bearing of my language in the remarks I made last 
evening. For instance, resjoecting purgatory, of which I observed, if they 
were not satisfied with our purgatory, and wished to go farther, they might 



300 THE rOBLIC SCHOOL SOCIEXr. 

prove the truth of the proverb, Tvliich says they roay " go farther and fare 
worse." He said I ^' si'itt^'' them farther. But that corresponds with the 
rest. I did not send them farther. 1 here disavow such feelings, in the 
name of human nature and of that venerable religion which I profess. 

But he has seen that " betting," as he was pleased to call it, is a sin, 
because, forsooth, " he would get my money without an equivalent." Now, 
I think he suspected the contrary. But I did not propose betting. His 
calumny had taken me by surprise ; but was it not fortunate, almost provi- 
dential, (hat I had at hand a direct refutation ? — for, if his charge had gone 
abroad uncontradicted, the ignorant or bigotted would have taken it on his 
authority, and quoted it with as much assurance as he did on that of the 
British Critic — and for the same unholy purpose. He took me, I say, at an 
unfair moment, and then it was I stated that, if the gentleman could prove 
his charge — there were gentlemen here who had coniidence in my word, 
and I said I would pledge myself to forfeit one thousand dollars, to be dis- 
tributed in charities to the poor as this Council might direct, provided he 
would agree to the same forfeiture if he failed to prove it. This is not bet- 
ting. 4. L ■ 

He says that his Church has taught him the sinfulness of betting. But 
this did not desei-ve that nauje. It was only an ordeal to test his confidence 
in the veracity of the slandet contained in the Methodist remonstrance. I 
may not, indeed, have the same scruples about what he calls gambling that 
he has ; but I do remember — what he seems to have forgotten — that there is 
a precept of the Decalogue, a commandment of the living God, which says, 
" Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." 

I now pass to another portion of this gentleman's remarks. He con- 
tends that it is imjjossible to furnish reading-lessons from history for the 
last ten centuries, without iDroducing what must be offensive to Catholics. 
The history of Catholics is so black, that the public schools could not, in 
his view, find a solitary bright page to refresh the eye of the Catholic chil- 
dren. This is set forth in the remonstrance of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and this the reverend gentleman undertook to support in his speech. 
He said that history must not be falsified for our accommodation ; that the 
black and insulting passages against us and our religion, placed in the hands 
of our children at the public schools, were not to be charged as a defect in 
the system, inasmuch as the trustees could find worse, but would be obliged 
to falsify history itself to find better. From this defence you can judge 
what confidence Catholics can jjlace in this Society, or in the schools under 
their charge. 

I contended that there existed portions of history eminently honorable 
to Catholics. But, says he, "history is philosophj-, teaching by example ; 
the good and the bad must be taken together." Then how docs it happen 
that the bad alone is presented in the public schools ? Besides, if all the 
good and all the bad which history ascribes to Catholics must be presented, 
it would make a library rather large for a class-book in the public schools. 
Hence the necessity of a selection ; and how is it that, in the selection, the 
bad is brought out, and the good passed over in silence as if it did not 



SPEECH OF BISUOP HUGHES. 301 

exist? Wliy is the burning of Huss selected? why the burning of Cran- 
mer ? Why are our children taught, in the ftice of all sense and decency, 
that Martin Luther did more for learning than any other man " since the 
days of the apostles " ? Why is " Phelim Maghee " represented as " sealing 
his soul with a wafer " — in contempt to the holiest mystery known to Catho- 
lics, the Sacred Eucharist ? Why are intemperance and vice set forth as the 
necessary and natural effects of the Catholic religion ? All this put in the 
hands of Catholic children by this Society, claiming to deserve the confi- 
dence of Catholic parents ! 

Now, the 3Iethodist gentleman says that all this is right — that the trus- 
tees could not possibly, within the last ten centuries, find history which 
would not be offensive to Catholics ; and that, to make it otherwise, it must 
be falsified. Now, sir, I should like to know whether it can bo expected 
that we should have any confidence in schools, for the support of which we 
are taxed, in which our religious feelings are insulted, our children pervert- 
ed, and whose advocates tell us gravely that we ought to be satisfied — that 
things cannot be otherwise, unless history is to be falsified for our con- 
venience ! To this we never shall consent. Religious intolerance has done 
much to degrade us, and its most dangerous instrument was depriving us 
of education. 

The gentleman [Dr. Bond] has corrected some of my remarks of last 
evening on the Methodist Episcojjal Church. The fact is, the style of re- 
monstrance presented here as emanating from that Church, imposed on me 
the necessity of alluding to the history and principles of that denomina- 
tion. It is unpleasant to me at any time to use language calculated to 
wound the feelings of any sect or class of my fellow-citizens. But they who 
offer the unprovoked insult must not complain of the retort. I stated that 
the Methodists in England had never done a solitary act to aid in the spread 
of civil and religious liberty in that country ; that, whilst the Catholics 
aided the Dissenters in obtaining the repeal of the Test and Corporation 
acts, the Methodists never contributed to that measure by so much as one 
petition in its favor. But it appears I fell into a mistake, which the gentle- 
man corrected with great precision and gravity. The "Methodist society" 
in England, he tells us, is something quite different from the " Methodist 
Episcopal Church " in the United States. The former consider themselves 
only as a society in the Established Church, just as the religious orders, the 
Dominicans, Jesuits, &c., are in the Catholic communion. Certainly it is 
new to me to learn that the Methodists and the Church of England are in 
such close and affectionate spiritual relationship. For, although the Metho- 
dists consider themselves a society within the pale of the Establishment, the 
members of the Established Church are quite of a different opinion, since it 
was only the other day that I read of a presbyter of that Church having 
been suspended by his bi.shop for having preached in a Methodist meeting- 
house ! So that the affection of the Methodists for the Church of England 
does not appear to be very cordially reciprocated. 

This gentleman tells us that the- Methodists, who are only a " society " in 
England, are an "Episcopal Church in America." Yes, sir, Mr. Wesley, w'ho 



302 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

was himself but a priest, actually consecrated a bishop for the United 
States ! And hence the Methodist Episcopal Church — a new order of epis- 
copacy, deriving their authority and character from Mr. John Wesley, a 
mere jjriest. But, with or without bishops, their whole history proves how 
much they imbibed of the intolerance of the Established Church of Eng- 
land, to which he tells us they are so intimately allied in that countiy, but 
which at all times spurns the connection. This same John Wesley held and 
wrote that no government ought to grant toleration to Catholics ; because, 
forsooth, either from ignorance of Catholic doctrines, or bigotry against 
them, he was pleased to lielieve and assert falsely that they held it lawful to 
murder heretics. When the Government of Great Britain was about to miti- 
gate the code of penal laws and persecution against the Catholics in 1780, 
who was more fervent and fanatical in opposition to the exercise of mercy 
than John Wesley ? The great object of the Protestant Association, headed 
by Lord George Gordon, was to oppose the least mitigation of severity. 
Who was more active in the intellectual operations of that Society than Mr. 
John Wesley ? Under the leadership of Lord George Gordon, they raised a 
rebellion in that year, and when the mob had plundered, destroyed, and 
burnt the houses and churches of the Catholics, spread consternation 
throughout the city of London, and caused human blood to flow in torrents, 
we have this same Wesley with sanctimonious gravity charging it all on the 
/Catholics — the victims of its fury — and contending that it was a " popish 
plot." His services in that association had been acknowledged by a ■unani- 
mous vote of timnlis, dated February 17th of that very year. This was in 
1780, when the mighty events which had occurred in this country taught 
the British Government the expediency of relaxing the penal laws against 
so large a portion of her subjects in England and Ireland. Tlie rebound of 
those events had been felt throughout the world. They were the events cre- 
ated and accomplished by the great fathers of this republic, thcu struggling 
into existence ; and whilst Catholics and Protestants fought bravely side by 
side in the ranks of independence — while a Catholic Carroll was signing its 
charter, and another Carroll, a priest and (tell it not in Gath) a Jesuit, was 
employed on an embassy to render the population of Canada friendly, or, at 
least, not hostile to our struggle — whilst a Catholic Commodore Barry was 
doing the office of a founder and father to our young and gallant navy — 
what was John Wesley doing ? He was creeping to the British throne, to 
lay at the feet of His Majesty's Government the ofler to raise a regiment, 
and put them at the disposal of the Crown, expressly to put down what he 
called the " American Rebellion "—to crush the rising liberties of your 
infant country ! 

Now, sir, I think I was authorized to state that the Methodists have 
done as little for the spread of human liberty, the rights and equality of 
mankind, as any other denomination, no matter how old or how young. If 
they have not done extensive mischief, of which the gentleman boasts, it is 
to be remembered that they never possessed supreme civil power, and that, • 
in the order of time, they have been too insignificant, and are still too juve- 
nile, to have done extensive evil. If they have done private good, as the 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 303 

gentleman contends, I confess it reminds mc of Stephen Girard's cliarity. 
He was exceedingly rich, and, because he was rich, people thought he was 
very wise. And inasmuch as he despised all external show of religion, it 
was inferred he was very charitable to the poor, without, however, making 
a display of it. If it was so, no man ever practised better the counsel of the 
gospel, " not to let the left hand know what the right hand doeth " in the 
matter. It was so private that no one ever could find it out. So is it with 
the Methodist Church with regard to any public benefit ever conferred on 
mankind — we have yet to hear of it. 

I will now satisfy the gentleman on another subject which seems to 
trouble him, and on which he " should like to know." And as other gen- 
tlemen have alluded to it, I hope the same explanation will suflice in reply 
to them all. 

Before the British Government released the Catholics from the penalties 
under which they labored, among which not the least was the exclusion of 
the schoolmaster, they called upon them to disavow principles which they 
knew Catholics did not entertain. But, in order to. reconcile the prejudices 
of the English people, they had an investigation of those imputed princi- 
ples before the Houses of Parliament ; they called upon some distinguished 
Catholic citizens, and questioned them on several points, such as those the 
gentleman has so frequently referred to, among which was the spiritual 
authority of the pope. Prom the testimony which they took I now quote. 
It is part of the testimony of Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare ; but other bish- 
ops and public men were all examined on the same subject. 

Question. According to the principles which govern the Roman Catholic 
Church in Ireland, has the pope any authority to issue commands, ordi- 
nances, or injunctions, general or special, without the consent of the king ? 

Answer. He has. 

Quest ion.. If he should issue such orders, are the subjects of His Majes- 
ty, particularly the clergy, bound to obey them ? 

Ansirer. The orders that he has a right to issue must regard things that 
ate of a spiritual nature ; and when his commands regard such things, the 
clergy are bound to oliey them ; but were he to issue commands regarding 
things not spiritual, the clergy are not in any wise bound to obey them. 

Consequently, if His Holiness, as the gentleman [Mr. Ketchum] said, 
should forbid the reading of the Declaration of Independence, it would not 
be of any authority. 

Mr. Ketchum. Does the book say so ? 

Bishop Hughes. I am authority myself in matters of my religion. 
Surely, sir, I am not here to betray it, and I am astonished that the gentle- 
man is not better acquainted with history on the matter. He amused us, a 
liltle while ago, with the idea of what terrible consequences might ensue if 
the pope, a '' foreign potentate," should forbid us to read the Declaration of 
Independence, or forbid the reading of the Bible in our common schools. 
He even apologized for his alarm with singular simplicity : " He meant no 
reflection. This matter had come out in evidence here." It was then, sir, I 
wondered at his not having read history, or having read it to so little advan- 
tacre. 



304 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Did he not know that, long before the Declaration of Independence, 
Venice rose out of the sea, a Catholic State, with all her republican glory 
round about her ? And when the pojie, in his capacity of " foreign poten- 
tate," attempted to invade her temporal rights, her Catholic sons did what 
they ought to have done — they unsheathed their swords and routed his 
troops. Did they thereby forfeit their allegiance to liim as spiritual head of 
the Church on earth ? Not an iota of it. To a man who reads history and 
understands it, this fact alone points out the difference, in the creed of 
Catholics, between the pope and the potentate. The Venitians knew that 
the pope, in his spiritual cajjacity, belongs to a kingdom which is not of 
this world. And the allegiance of Catholics to him, out of his own small 
dominions, is due to him only in his spiritual capacity. Whatever temporal 
right was acquired over independent States by the popes in former ages, was 
owing to no principle of Catholic doctrine, but purely to the disorders of 
the times and the pusillanimity of weak rulers, who, in order to secure the 
pope's protection, made themselves his vassals. The popes, in such circum- 
stances, would have been more or less than men, had they refused to embrace 
these opportunities of aggrandizement so placed within their reach and 
often pressed upon them. Now, every Catholic is familiar with this view 
of the subject, and yet, except a few of larger minds and better education, 
it has hardly penetrated the density of Protestant prejudice. Hence you 
hear them giving the most absurd construction .to the duties of Catholics 
between the supposed conflicting claims of their country and the imputed 
principles of their religion. Permit me here to call your attention to the true 
and beautiful exposition of the case as set forth in the language of a gentle- 
man who, though a Catholic, is acknowledged to be a man of as high honor, 
as lofty and patriotic principles, and as unblemished a character, as any man 
the nation can boast of: I mean Judge Gaston, of North Carolina. The 
State has no son of whom she is, or ought to be, prouder. And yet, up till 
within a few years, the laws of that State disqualified a Catholic from hold- 
ing any, even the office of a constable. In a speech made by Judge Gaston 
in the convention for revising the State Constitution, in reference to this 
matter, he says : 

But it has been objected, that the Catholic religion is unfavorable to 
freedom — nay, even incompatible with republican institutions. Ingenious 
speculations on such matters are worth little, and prove still less. Let me 
ask. Who obtained the great charter of English freedom, but the Catliolic 
prelates and barons at Runnymede ? The oldest, the purest democracy on 
earth, is the little Catholic republic of St. Maviuo, not a day's journey from 
Rome. It has existed now for fourteen hundred years, and is so jealous of 
arbitrary power, that the executive authority is divided between two gov- 
ernors, who are elected every three months. AYas William Tell, the founder 
of Swiss liberty, a royalist ? Are the Catholics of the Swiss cantons in love 
with tyranny ? Are the Irish Catholics friends to passive obedience and 
non-resistance ? Was La Fayette, Pulaski, or Kosciusko, a foe to civil free- 
dom ? Was Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, unwilling to jeopard fortune in 
the cause of liberty ? Let me give you, however, the testimony of George 
Washington. On his accession to the presidency, he was addressed by the 
American Catholics, who, adverting to the restrictions on their worship then 
existing in some of the States, expressed themselves thus : " The prospec* 



■ SPEECH OF BISHOP IIUGUES. 305 

of national prosperity is peculiarly pleasins to ns on another account ; be- 
cause, wliile our country preserves her ireedora and independence, we shall 
have well-founded title to claim from her justice the equal rights of citizen- 
ship as the price of our blood spilt under your eye, and of our common 
exertions for her defence under your auspicious concluct." This great man, 
who was utterly incapable of flattery and deceit, utters, in answer, the fol- 
lowing sentiments, which I give in his own words : " As mankind become 
more liberal, they will be more apt to allow that all those who conduct 
themselves as worthy members of the connnunity, are equally entitled to the 
protection of civil government. I hope ever to see America among the fore- 
most nations in examples of justice and lil)erality ; and I presume tbat your 
fellow-citizens will never forget the patriotic part which you took in the 
accomplishment of tlieir revolution and the establishment of their Govern- 
ment, or the important assistance which they received from a nation in 
which the Roman Catholic faith is professed."' By the by, sir, I would 
pause for a moment to call the attention of this committee to some of tlie 
names subscribed to this address. Among them are those of John Carroll, 
the first Roman Catholic bishop of the United States, Charles Carroll, of 
Carrollton, and Thomas Fitzsimmons. For the characters of tbe.se distin- 
guished men, if they need vouchers, I would confidently call on the vener- 
able President of this Convention. Bishop Carroll was one of the best men 
and most humble and devout of Christians. I shall never forget a tribute 
to his memory paid liy the good and venerable Protestant Bishojj White, 
when contrasting the piety with which the Christian Carroll met death, with 
the cold trifling that characterized the last moments of the skeptical David 
Hume. I know not whether the tribute was more honorable to the piety 
of the dead, or to the charity of the living prelate. Charles Carroll, of 
Carrollton, the last survivor of the signers of American Independence, at 
whose death both Houses of the Legislature of North Carolina unanimously 
testified their sorrow as at a national bereavement ! Thomas Fitzsinmions, 
one of the illustrious convention that framed the Constitution of the United 
States, and for several years the Representative in Congress from the city of 
Philadelphia. Were tliese, and such as these, foes to freedom, and unfit for 
republicanism ? Would it be dangerous to pernnt such men to be slieritTs 
and coustables in the land ? Read the funeral eulogiiun of Charles Carroll, 
delivered at Rome by Bishop England, one of ttie greatest ornaments of the 
American Catholic Church — a foreiguer, indeed, by birth, but an American 
by adoption, and who, becoming an American, solemnly abjured all alle- 
giance to every foreign king, prince, and potentate whatever — that eulo- 
gium which was so much carped at by English royalists and English tories 
— and I think you will find it democratic enough to suit the taste and find 
an echo in the heart of 'the sternest republican amongst us. Catholics are 
of all countries, of all governments, of all political creeds. In all, they are 
taught that the kingdom of Christ is not of this world, and that it is their 
duty to render unto Caesar the things that are Ca;sar's, and unto God the 
things that are God's. 

I shall now proceed with the testimony of the Irish bishops in order, 
which was interrupted by the gentleman's question. 

H«re, sir, is the testimony of another bishop — Dr. Murray, the present 
ArchbLshop of Dublin, before a committee of the British Parliament : 

Question. To what extent, and in what manner, does a Catholic profess 
to obey the pope ? 

Ansirtr. . Solely in spiritual matters, or in such mixed matters as come 

under his government — such as marriage, for instance, which we hold to be 

a sacrament as well as a civil contract ; as it is a sacrament, it is a spiritual 

thing, and comes under the jurisdiction of the pope. Of course, he has 

20 



306 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

aiitliority over that spiritual part of it; hut this authority does not affect 
the civil rights of the individuals contractinj;. 

Question. Does this obedience detract from -n'hat is due by a Catholic 
to the State under which he lives ? 

Aiixirer. Not in the least ; the powers are wholly distinct. 

(Question. Docs it justify an objection that is made to Catholics, that 
their allegiance is divided ? 

Ansrcei: Their allegiance in civil matters is completely undivided. 

Question. Is the duty which the Catholic owes to the pope, and the duty 
which he owes to the king, really and substantially distinct ? 

Ansiter. Wholly distinct. 

Question. How far is the claim that some popes have set up to temporal 
authority, opposed to Scripture and tradition ? 

Answer. As far as it may have been exercised as coming from a right 
granted to him by God, it appears to me to be contrary to Scripture and 
tradition ; but as far as it may have been exercised in consequence of a right 
conferred on him by the different Christian powers, who looked np to him 
at one time as the great jjarent of Christendom, who appointed him as the 
arbitrator of their concerns, many of whom submitted their kingdoms to 
him and laid them at his feet, consenting to receive them back from him as 
fiefs, the case is different. The power that he exercised under that author- 
ity of course passed away when those temporal princes who granted it chose 
to withdraw it. His spiritual power docs not allow him to dethrone kings, 
or to absolve their subjects from the allegiance due to them; and any 
attempt of that kind I would consider contrary to Scripture and tradition. 

Question. Does the pope now dispose of temporal affairs within the 
kingdoms of any of the princes of the continent ? 

Answer. Not that I am aware of. I am sure he does not. 

Question. Do the Catholic clergy admit that all the bulls of the pope 
are entitled to obedience ? 

Answer. They are entitled to a certain degree of reverence. If not con- 
trary to our usages, or contrary to the law of God, of course they are enti- 
tled to obedience, as coming from a superior. We owe obedience to a 
parent, we owe obedience to the king, we owe it to the law ; but if a parent, 
the king, or the law, were to order us to do any thing that is wrong, we 
would deem it a duty to say, as the apostles did on another occasion, " We 
ought to obey God rather than men." 

Question. Are there circumstances under which the Catholic clergy would 
not obey a bnll of the pope ? 

Answer. Most certainly. 

Question. What is the true meaning of the following words in the creed 
of Pius IV. : '■ I promise and swear true obedience to the Roman bishop, 
the successor of St. Peter ? " 

Ansicer. Canonical obedience in the manner I have just described, 
within the sphere of his own authority. 

Question. What do the principles of the Catholic religion teach in 
respect to the performance of civil duties ? 

Answer. They teach that the performance of civil duties is a conscien- 
tious obligation which the law of God imposes on us. 

Question. Is the Divine law, then, quite clear as to the allegiance due 
by subjects to their prince ? 

Ansicer. Quite clear. 

Question. In what books are to be found the most authentic exposition 
of the faith of the Catholic Church ? 

Ansxeer. In that veiy cref d that has been mentioned — the creed of Pius 
rV. ; in the catechism which was published by the direction of the Council 
of Trent, called " The Roman Catechism," or " The Catechism of the Coun- 
cil of Trent ; " " An Exposition of the Catholic Faith, by the Bishop of 



SPEECU OF BISHOP HUGHES. .307 

Meaux, Bossuet ; " " Verron's Rule of Faith ; " " Holden's Analysis of 
Faith," and several others. 

Such is the character and limitation of the pope's authority, .attested 
under oath, by bishops and other Catholic dignitaries, before the Britisli 
Parliament. The Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland had been bowed 
down to the earth by penal laws and persecution. during three hundred 
years, with nothing between them and the enjoyment of alt their rights but 
the solemnity of an oath. If their conscience had permitted them to swear 
what they did not believe, they might have entered on their political rights 
at any time ; and yet, as martyrs to the sacredness of conscience, they re- 
sisted. 

I have now, sir, supplied the reverend gentleman who presented the 
remonstrance from the Methodist Episcopal Church with all the information 
which the occasion permits on the subject of the pope's authority. But 
there is a good deal more to which, if time allowed, I might address myself. 
He became very logical, and insisted on the fact that the doctrines of the 
Catholic Church are always the same — immutable. He says that we boast 
of this ; and we do so, most assuredly. From the hour when they were 
revealed and taught by Divine authority until the present, from the rising to 
the setting of the sun, the faith of the Catholic believer and the doctrines 
of the Catholic Church are everlastingly and universally the same. But 
then he concludes that, as Catholics in some instances in former times perse- 
cuted, so, their religion being always the same, they are still bound to perse- 
cute, or else disavow the doctrine, as Protestants do. Now, sir, we do dis- 
avow and despise the doctrine of persecution in all its essence and forms. 
But does it follow that, by this, we disavow any doctrine of the Catholic 
Church ? By no means. And this proves that persecution never was any 
portion of the Catholic faith ; for if it had been, the denial of it would cut 
us off from her communion. The Church we believe, by the promise and 
superintendence of Christ, her invisible Head and Founder, to be infallible. 
She received the deposit of the doctrines revealed by our Redeemer and His 
apostles ; her office is to witness, teach, and preserve them. These alone 
constitute the religious creed and doctrines of the Catholic Church and her 
members. We believe in a Trinity, the incarnation of Christ, the redemp- 
tion by His death, the divine institution of the Church. These, and what- 
ever the Church holds as of Divine revelation, are the doctrines of our Cath- 
olic unity. And the individual who is now addressing you, and the Cath- 
olic martyr who is at this moment, perhaps, bleeding for his faith in China 
—for the Church has her martyrs still — ^hold and believe identically the same 
doctrines. But as there is unity in faith, so there is, in the Church, freedom 
of opinion ou matters which are not determined by any specific revelation. 
Hence, we are republicans or monarchists according to individual prefer- 
ence, or the prevailing genius of the country we belong to. Hence, when 
the Catholic divines at Rheims were appending these notes to their edition 
of the Kcw Testament, the Catholic bishops of Poland, with her twenty-two 
millions, were opening the doors of the Constitution to the fugitive Protes- 
tants of Germany, fleeing from the intolerance and persecution of their fcl- 



308 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

low-Protestants. The one act is as mucli a Catholic doctrine as the other, 
because, in both cases, the agents acted not by the authority of the Church, 
but in the exercise of that individual judgment for which their account 
stands to God. 

But I must be brief. I cannot follow so many learned speakers through 
so much matter tliat is foreign to the subject ; for I agree with the medical 
gentleman, who said that neither the Catholic nor the Protestant religion 
was on trial here. It is not religious creeds that are to be tested by this 
Council. I have, however, given this explanation, and I trust it will be re- 
ceived, though it may have been tedious, as having its apology in the re- 
marks which called it forth. I only wish that the gentleman who made the 
observation had made it one hour and a half sooner; it would have saved 
all I have said on the subject. 

But this sijeakcr also (Dr. Reese) lectured me for attending certain meet- 
mgs, as if it were a descent from my dignity to find myself in an assembly 
of freemen. I did not consider it as a descent. But really, when I came 
here in the simple character of a citizen, I did not think I should be vested 
with my official robes for the purpose of being attacked. Individuals as 
respectable as he attended those meetings, and I consider it no disgrace to 
have been there or here ; for even if this petition came not from Catholics, 
but from Methodists or any other Protestant denomination, whose con- 
sciences were violated by this system, I should be found in their midst sup- 
porting their claim. Let me add, too, that I would rather be so found, 
than, for all the exchequer of the Public School Society, exchange places 
with gentlemen, and have conscience and right for my ojiponents. He also 
contended that this want of confidence in Catholics was the result of my 
appeals, forgetting that the state of things which is now brought under 
public notice has existed for years, by efforts to provide a safe education for 
our children, long before those meetings were called, and before I attended 
them. And, besides, I conceive it is my bounden duty, if I saw principles 
inculcated which will sap the young minds of our children — and I have no 
doubt this honorable board will say it is my duty — to warn them, and to 
bring them within the pale of that authority which they acknowledge. I 
wonder if Presbyterian gentlemen would see Catholic books circulated 
amongst their children, and not warn their people against them ? I won- 
der, if these books contained reading-lessons about Calvin and the unhappy 
burning of Servetus, whether they would not waru their people ? I say, if 
they believe in their religion, they would be in the discharge of their duty. 
And, while on this subject, it occurs to me at this moment that, in the wide 
range of observation which has been taken, reference has been made to 
national education in Ireland. And we are told that, after liooks had been 
agreed upon, the bishops sent the qu^tion to Rome to be decided by the 
Ijope. What question ? Can they tell ? for I am sure I cannot. To this 
day I have never understood the exact nature of the reference to the pope. 
But, sir, this is no extraordinary thing. Under the jealous eye of the Brit- 
ish Government, even in the darkest hour of her cruelty to Catholics, their 
intercourse with Rome was not interrupted. But, while that collection and 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HrCHES. 309 

compilation of Scripture lessons was agreed on in the more Catholic parts 
of the country where the poj^ulation is divided between Protestants and 
Catholics, what is the fact ? Why, in another part, the north of Ireland, 
where the Presley terians are more numerous, they had conscientious objec- 
tions to this selection of Scripture ; they asserted their objections, and the 
British Government recognized them ; and thus, while these lessons, by 
agreement, were in general use, an exception was made in favor of the Pres- 
byterians, who had objections to the use of any thing but the naked word 
of God ; — and I say, honor to those Presbyterians. The Catholics sent in no 
remonstrance. But if the rule applied to their case, by what authority will 
your honorable body determine that it shall not apply to ours ? Oh ! I per- 
ceive. The gentleman whose remarks I am reviewing, reasoned on, until he 
arrived at the conclusion that there were no conscientious grounds for our 
objection at all. True, we said we had ; but he could not see what con- 
science had to do with a matter so jjlain. He said, here the community had 
built uj) a beautiful system ; it was doing good. He asked. Shall we put it 
aside in deference to pretended scruples ? Now, tell me when the despotism 
of intolerance ever said any thing else than this? AYhy, the Established 
Church of England said " we are doing good," " our doors are open to all," 
" the minister is at the desk, and the bread of life is distributed for the public 
good." What then ? What business have these unhapjjy parents to find 
fault, for conscience' sake, and squeamishness 1 Now, sir, objections can 
exist to the slightest shade of violation to our conscience, and, therefore, I 
did not expect to hear this argument at this time of day. But the gentle- 
man speaks of my addressuig the public meetings to which he has alluded, as 
though my speaking there had been the cause instead of the consequence of 
the scruples of our people. Then it was I joined them to seek a remedy for 
our just complaint ; but if, in your wisdom, this body shall think proper to 
deny it us, we liust bear it. 

He contended, again, that it would be turning the public money to pri- 
vate uses. That seems to me to have been fully answered. He also con- 
tended that it would be the giving of the money of the State to support re- 
ligion. That I have disputed ; for if so, I shall have no objections to join 
those gentlemen in their remonstrance. But at the same time it does ap- 
pear strange to me, that the gentleman who pretends to have read the Scrip- 
tures with so much attention, should not have learned that principle — the 
most general, sir, and the most infallible of Christian principles for the 
guidance of our conduct — " Do unto others as ye would that others should 
do unto you." That is the principle ; and is it not strange that such oppo- 
sition should be made to us, when it is known that money raised by public 
tax goes to tlie support of literature under the supervision of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church ? And why do not Catholics object to that ? Because 
the tax does not belong to any particular sect ; it is thrown into a common 
fund, and applied to such uses as the Legislature in its wisdom thinks 
proper. We, sir, however, ask for our own, and nothing else. But if you 
say that we shall be taxed for a system which is so organized that we cannot 
participate in it without detriment to the religious rights of our children, 



310 THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

then I say that injustice is done even to our civil riglits ; for taxation is the 
basis of even civil rights. And I was not a little struck, in the course of 
the argument, that some gentleman should refer -with so much emphasis as 
to a circumstance novel and unparalleled even in social life : that a certain 
class of gentlemen should petition for — ^what ? The jirivilege of being 
taxed! They deemed it a, privilege ; and that was wonderful! and merit 
was ascribed to them for it. Yes, sir ; but did it go to the extent only of 
their own pockets ? Or did it not reach the pockets equally of those who 
did not petition ? If to themselves only, it was all fair and proper, disin- 
terested and patriotic : but great emphasis was laid on this class being most 
" intelligent " and " wealthy " and " respectable " — nobility almost ; as 
though a question of this kind was intended for a particular class. But let 
me tell you, the honest man who occupies only a bed in a garret is also a 
taxpayer. Why give him a vote ? Because he pays tax for the space he 
occupies. If he occupies a room and pays the tax, his rent is less ; if the 
landlord pays, his rent is so much more. So, if he occupies a garret, or if 
he boards, it goes down to that ; for the person who keeps the boarding- 
house pays the rent. If that tax is paid by the boarding-house keeper, the 
rent is so much less, than if the tax was paid by the landlord. If the 
boarding-house keeper pays the tax, he charges more for board. So that the 
boarder is a taxpayer, and it is so understood in our broad and excellent 
system of representation. The exclusive merit of this tax, then, is not to be 
given to any particular class, no matter how wealthy ; and I was surprised 
that so much emphasis should be laid on it. I did not suppose that the 
interests of the poor were to be sacrificed to the respectability of the rich. 
The poor pay too, and it is a beautiful and admirable thing to see what a 
dignity this confers on human nature — what an interest this excites in the 
poor. I recollect passing along a street some time since, and I observed a 
little house, almost a shed or hovel, some fourteen or sixteen feet square, 
which was too small to be divided into two compartments. It had but one 
window, and this had originally had four panes of glass, but one having 
been broken, it was darkened. There had been some political party tri- 
umph ; the boys in the streets had their drums out, and there appeared to 
be a popular rejoicing, and there I saw three lights Ijurning in the window 
of this poor habitation. I was amused to see that a man living in so poor 
a hovel, and unable to buy a fourth pane of glass, should find means to 
light the other three. But, on further reflection, I said to myself, " There is 
philosophy there." What other nation can e.^hibit such a spectacle 1 This 
poor man, who must toil till the day he goes to his grave, participates in a 
political triumph. His bread has to be earned by daily toil ; nevertheless, 
though the triumph, perhaps, will never bepeflt him, Ire exhii)its a glorious 
spectacle to the world. He is a man — he feels it_ is recognized. It is a na- 
tion's homage offered to human nature. He is a man and a citizen ; and, ou 
reflection, I was delighted at a spectacle so glorious as this. 

But, returning to the subject, they say all religion is left to voluntary 
contribution. Now, is this true in the sense in which it is here applied ? 
Are not chaplains appointed to jjublic institutions which are supported by 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 311 

the public money ? And have you not given it to the Protestant Orphan 
Asylum, and the Half-Orphan Asylum ? Have you not given it to the Cath- 
olic Benevolent Society ? And do you suppose the Wesleran Catechism is 
taught there 2 Do you suppose the Catholic Catechism is taught in the 
Protestant asylums ? One gentleman argued that you had not power to do 
this. But if you have done it, does not that prove that you had the power ? 
If you had power to do that, you have power equally to do this. I shall go 
farther. I find, in the report of the regents of the University, that the 
Genesee Wesleyan Seminai'y — Theological Seminary, as I understand — has 
last year received $1,393.56 of the public money. This is not exclusively 
literary, as I understand it — 

Dr. Bangs. Altogether literary. 

Bishop Hughes. I was under the impression that it was theological, 
and that religion was admitted. But those in this city furnish evidence that 
a religious profession does not disqualify. 

I believe now, sir, I have gone through the substance at least, if not 
through every particular, of what has been said by the gentlemen who in- 
terpose their remonstrances and their arguments in opposition to our right- 
ful claim. I will now read one authority, and I am the more willing because 
it is from tlie Public School Society itself. It is from the memorial 
which they presented to the Legislature in the session of 1823, in which 
they state, p. 7, " It will not be denied " — recollect, I do not quote this to 
show that our petition ought to be granted, but that, whatever opinion 
these gentlemen may now have of the unconstitutionality of granting this 
claim, they saw nothing unconstitutional in the practice then, and I know 
of nothing so far as the Constitution is concerned, neither of the State, nor 
of the United States — I know of no enactment which should change their 
opinion — " it will not be denied, in this enlightened age, that the education 
of the poor is enjoined by our holy religion, and is, therefore, one of the| 
duties of a Christian Church. Nor is there any impropriety in committing* 
the school fund to the hands of a religious society, so long as they are con- 
fined in the appropriation of it to an object not necessarily connected or 
intermingled with the other concerns of the church, as, for instance, to the 
payment of teachers ; because the State is sure, in this case, that the benefits 
of the fund, in the way it designed to confer them, will be reaped by the 
poor. But the objection to the section sought to be repealed is, that the 
surplus moneys, after the payment of teachers, is vested in the hands of the 
trustees of a religious society, and mingled with its other funds, to be 
appropriated to the erection of buildings under the control of the trustees, 
which buildings may, and in all probability will, be used for other purposes 
than school-houses." 

Tliat is the statement of the Public School Society itself; and through- 
out this document — while the gentlemen here have been wielding against 
our petition the iniluence of respectable and wealthy classes — I find that, 
before the acquisition of their monopoly, they advocated the claims of the 
poor, who cannot Tjuy education, sometimes scarcely bread. This is the class 
to whose welfare the eye of the enlightened, the patriotic, and the benevo- 






312 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

lent should be directed ; this is the class that essentially requires education. 
Thus they say, " The school fund is designed for a civil purpose, for such is 
the education of the jioo?'." 

Again, they say that the New York Free School (that was their own 

Society) has " one single object — t/ie education of the poor." Again, the 

Board of Trustees is annually chosen, &c., " for the education of the poor." 

And yet now I could poijit out thousands of our poor who are destitute of 

education, and who have no means to provide it. We do what we can, but 

, we are too limited in means to raise, of ourselves, a sufficient fund. We 

J ^ have labored under great disadvantages ; we have taught the catechism in 

r^ \C Jf our schools, because, while ice supported them, we had the right to do so ; 

N but if you put them on the footing of the common schools, we shall be 
V ,> satisfied, and the State will secure the education of our children. You will 

y,.^ ^ secure them an education on the basis of morality ; for they had better be 
brought up under the morality of our religion, though gentlemen object, 
than none at all. They say the objection to the present schools is, that 
there they are made Protestants. Ko, sir; it is because they are made 
Nothingarians, for we cannot tell what they are. I have now concluded, 
and if I have been obliged to trespass long upon your patience, recollect, as 
some extenuation, that I had a great deal to reply to in the arguments of 
gentlemen which were urged to overthrow the principles of our petition, 
but had no bearing on the petition at all. We do not ask for the elevation 
of the Catholics over otliers, but for the protection to which all are entitled. 
The question is exceedingly plain and simple. If it has or can be shown "1 
that we are claiming this money for sectarian puqjoses, then I should advise ; 
you to withhold it. But if, in honesty and truth and sincerity, it is a right ' 
belonging to us as citizens to receive our pro rata, then we appeal to you ' 
with confidence. 

From the sentiments expressed here on behalf of the Public School 
Society, you can judge of the chance that Catholic children have in those 
schools to have their religious rights respected. It will be, as perhaps it has 
been, considered a great and a good work to detach them from a religion 
which is supposed " to teach the lawfulness of murdering heretics." Infidel- 
ity itself will be considered preferable to Catholicism in their regard, for 
one reverend gentleman has told you that, if there was no alternative, he 
would embrace the doctrines of Voltaire rather than the religion of a Che- 
verus or a Penclon. If the Catholics have been obliged to keej) their chil- 
dren from those schools in time past, you may imagine what effects these 
sentiments, this animus of the system, is likely to have on their minds for 
the time to come. But if it is our religious right to have a conscience at 
all, do not take pains to pervert it, for we shall not be better citizens after- 
ward. Do not teach us to slight the admonitions of our conscience. Re- 
verse our case and make it your own, and then you will be able to judge. 
Make it your own case, and suppose your children were in the case of those 
poor children for whom I plead ; then suppose what your feelings would be 
if the blessings of education were provided bountifully by the State, and 
you were unable to participate in those blessings, unless you were willing to 
submit that your conscience should be trenched upon. 



\/: 



f- •>' 



SPEECH OF IIE. KETCHIDI. 313 

Here tlie right reverend prelate sat down, after having spo- 
ken for nearly three lionrs and a half. 

Dr. Bangs. I wish simply to correct an error, into which the reverend 
gentleman has fallen, respecting an observation I made as to a matter of 
fact. I believe he understood me to say that it was my opinion the Legisla- 
ture ought to take the children of Catholics and compel them to attend the 
schools. If so, he misunderstood me. I meant to say that those children 
that do not go to any schools ought to be compelled to go to the public 
schools. 

A brief conversation ensued between the Eight Eev. Bishop 
Hughes and Dr. Bond, in explanation of the charge made against 
John Wesley, that he had aided or excited Lord Ge()rge Gor- 
don's mob. 

The Right Rev. Bishop Hughes. Might I be allowed to read the pas- 
sage from the chapter on '■ The Character of Christ," by the Bishop of Lou- 
don, to which reference has been had 2 Speaking of Jesus Christ, it says : 

His answers to the many insidious questions that were put to Him 
showed uncommon quickness of conception, soundness of judgment, and 
presence of mind, completely bafHed all the artifices and malice of His ene- 
mies, and enabled Him to elude all the snares that were laid for Him. 

Mr. Ketchum rose, and said : I wish, sir, to say a few words in explana- 
tion. I do not wish to continue the theological discussion, but to make a 
few remarks on the precise issue before the board. 

The CuAiKMAN. That has, I apprehend, Ijeen very fully debated. 

Mr. Ketciidji. I desire to make a remark in reply to the gentleman on 
the other side, in reference to the publication of the Bishop of London. 
But first, sir, the reverend gentleman has endeavored, with great dexterity, 
to place this case upon the consciences of the Catholic society. He has rep- 
resented the decision of this board against their petition as a violation of 
the rights of conscience. He well knows the favorable attitude in which 
they stand who ajjpear to be persecuted for conscience' sake. Does the rev- 
erend gentleman mean to say here, he has conscientious scruples against 
these schools as public institutions ? Does he mean to atfirm here that they 
have not performed all they promised — namely, to give a good secular edu- 
cation to the poor ? No ; that is not afiirmed. Whatever he may have 
stated and whatever he may have contradicted, throughout the length of his 
address, he made no such declaration. But the Roman Catholics have con- 
scientious scruples — they cannot send their children to these schools with- 
out sacrificing their right of conscience ! Kow, the Friends cannot send 
their children to these schools, because they believe in their consciences that 
they ought to educate their own children ; but can the Friends say they are 
opposed upon conscientious grounds to these schools ? They are estab- 
lished by a public act of the State, for a public purpose, and they have 



314 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

accomijlislied their purpose — they have furnished all the education they 
promised. But now the reverend gentleman says his conscience, and the 
consciences of the Roman Catholic community, are violated, because they 
cannot send their children to these schools. Do they mean to say they have 
conscientious scruples against paying their portion of the tax for the sup^ 
port of these schools ? It might well be that some denomiuations of Chris- 
tians have conscientious scruples against sending their poor to be taken care 
of at the almshouse ; but would they have the right to say that they would 
not therefore be taxed for the suijjiort of the poor ? The conscientious scru- 
ple here is not against paying the tax, but agaiust sending their children to 
these schools. Now, who compels them ? Does the State interfere, and say 
they shall send their children to these schools 2 The State saya that they, 
in common with others, shall pay the tax to support these institutions of 
learning. Have they alleged that their consciences are violated by paying 
this tax ? Can they say so ? No. Wherein, then, consists this pressure on 
their consciences ? 

Now, Mr. President, allow me to take another view of this conscientious 
objection. If I am taxed to support the religion of the Roman Catholics, 
my conscience is violated, because I am ^compelled to pay a tax to support 
tliat which I believe ought not to be supported. If you establish these sec- 
tarian schools through this community, and make Protestants pay for Cath- 
olic schools, then indeed you infringe the right of conscience, because you 
compel them to do that which is a violation of their consciences. But we 
do not compel them to attend these schools. We receive this public boun- 
ty, and we come here and account for the manner in which we use it. The 
gentleman does not object to this. He does not object to our doing good to 
the children that clo come. That is not the objection ; but he objects that 
he cannot send his children. He pays a tax for a necessary public purpose 
— admitted to be necessary—but, because he cannot come in and participate, 
he insists that this public fund shall be taken by the Roman Catholics, by 
the Methodists, by any and every other denomination, to support their 
religion, prant this, and then indeed you will infringe the right of con- 
science. I do not mean that the reverend gentleman shall have the advan- 
tage here of standing on this right of conscience. The consciences of thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of this community will be violated, if they are 
to be compelled to pay a tax to the public treasury, and from thence to 
make religionists of a description that they oppose. I want this matter to 
be set right, not only in the estimation of this board, but of the public. I 
■want them to see what this oppression of conscience is. If it is anywhere, 
it is on those who pay the tax of which they do not in their conscience 
approve ; the pressure is not on the man that cannot send his children to 
participate in the fund. I cannot send my children to these schools. There 
are obstacles in the way as formidable as the gentleman's conscience. There 
are obstacles, perhaps, with tens of thousands who pay the tax but do not 
jiarticipate, and who cannot particijjate, because this olistacle exists. But 
liave they the right to say they will withhold their tax ? Would the State 
listen to such an objection ? No ; the State has established these puljlic 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHFM. 315 

institutions for a necessary public purpose ; every man must be taxed for 
their support ; and if he does not avail himself of them, it must be his own 
fault, or his own peculiarities, perhaps. And now, what, after all, is the 
objection to these schools ? Why, from the beginning to the end of this 
three hours' speech, we have heard that these books contain jjassages that 
reflect on Catholics. 

The Chairman interjjosed. 

Mr. Ketchum continued. This is new matter, so far as I am concerned. 
From the beginning to the end of the gentleman's speech, we have heard 
that the books used in these public schools contain passages that retiect on 
Koman Catholics. Now, I submit to any fair, candid man, if this is the time 
of day to bring such a charge ? The books have been placed in the hands 
of the reverend gentleman ; he has been asked to put his finger on any 
objectionable passages, that the board might pass a resolution for its expur- 
gation ; and now the gentleman comes here, and lays great stress on and 
urges as an argument against the system, from the beginning to the end, the 
passages which the trustees offered to expunge. Sir, when the trustees 
ofiered to expunge the passages, in all fairness and candor, they were to be 
considered, for the true purposes of this argument, as exjjungcd. And if 
they were expunged, what would become of three fourths of the gentleman's 
speech — all, indeed, except the theological jiart ? And now, the next great 
topic is the Bible. 

The President. The gentleman is not in order. 

Mr. Ketchcm. I'll not press this matter, if it is disagreeable. I know 
the night is far advanced. 

The Chairman. I must say the gentleman is out of order. The board 
agreed that the parties should be heard in the order in which their memo- 
rials were presented — that the petitioners should have the usual right to 
reply. They have been so heard, and the gentleman is therefore out of 
order, unless the board rescinds its resolution. 

An alderman then observed, that there wore some gentlemen that were 
desirous of j^utting in written legal opinions, and he moved that they have 
permission to do so at the next meeting of the board. 

The President said that the next meeting of the board was Monday 
next, and therefore no order of the board was necessary for an adjournment 
on the subject. 

It was, then, understood that legal opinions would be received at the 
next meeting of the board. 

The debate was here brought to a close, and the Council 
adjourned a few minutes before 12 o'clock. 

The protracted and exhaustive discussion being brought to a 
close, and the committee, having spent some time in visiting 
schools and making thorough examination of the facts involved 
in tlie question, prepared their report, which was submitted to 
the Boaid of Aldermen on January 11, 18-±1, asking to l)e dis- 



316 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETV. 

charged from tJie- consideration of the subject. The report is 
subjoined : 

REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN. 

Board of Aldekmkn, January 11, IMl. 

The Special Committee to whom was referred the petition of the Catho- 
lics for a portion .of the school fund, together with the remonstrances against 
the same, presented the following report thereon, which was, on motion, 
accepted, and the committee discharged, on a division called by Alderman 
Graham, Jr. In the affirmative — The President, Aldermen Balis, Woodhull, 
Benson, Jones, Rich, Chamberlain, Campbell, Hatfield, Jarvis, Smith, Nich- 
ols, Graham, Cooper, and Nash — 15. In the negative — Alderman Pentz — 1. 
And one thousand copies thereof ordered printed, with the vote taken on 
the report. 

Samuel J. Willis, Clerh. 



Sesohed, That all letters and papers touching and connected with the 
school fund question be referred to the Special Committee appointed for the 
purpose of investigating the subject. 

By William Chamberlain. 

Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed, in conformity to the 
request of the Public School Society, and that a committee of the petition- 
ers for a portion of the school fund, and also of the remonstrants, be invited 
to accompany them to examine the public schools, for the piirjjose of ascer- 
taining what defects, if any, exist in their organization : and that the said 
committee be instructed to report to this board whether any arrangement 
can be agreed ujjon which will be mutually satisfactory to the parties in- 
terested. 

By William CnAMBEHLAiN. 



The Special Committee to whom was referred the petition of the Catho- 
lics of New York relative to the distribution of the school fund, the several 
remonstrances and other documents connected with the subject, together 
with the above resolution of instructions, respectfully submit the following 



In pursuance of the instructions contained in the resolution, they em- 
ployed two entire days in visiting the public schools, accompanied by a 
committee of the petitioners, and also of the Public School Society, with a 
view to ascertain if any defects exist in their organization ; and after a 
thorough scrutiny, in which all parties particiijated, your committee not 
only failed to discover any thing strikingly defective in the system, but be- 
came strongly impressed with a conviction that the public schools, under 
their present organization, are admirably adapted to afford precisely the 
kind of instruction for which they were instituted. It is deemed essential 
to the welfare and security of our Government that the means of mental 



EEPOKT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE. 317 

cultivation should be extended to every child in the community. The rising 
generation are destined to be the future rulers of tlie land, and their hai)pi- 
ness can only be secured by such an education as will constitute them an 
intelligent community, prepare them to guard against the machinations of 
demagogues, and so to exercise the rights and franchises of citizens as not 
to deprive themselves of the invaluable privileges ■nhich are their birth- 
right. That the public school system, as now organized, is calculated to 
effect these objects, your committee do not entertain a doubt ; but. though 
they regard it as an incalculable public blessing, if they could be persuaded 
that it trespassed upon the conscientious rights of any portion of our citi- 
zens, they would begin to doubt the propriety of its continuance. They 
canuot, however, conceive that it is .justly amenable to such a charge, so 
long as sectarian dogmas and peculiarities are excluded from the schools, and 
no pupils are either admitted into them, or excluded from them, against the 
consent of their natural or legal guardians. The system has grown up 
under the auspices of a voluntary association of individuals usually known 
as " The Public School Society," formed for the jjurpose of promoting edu- 
cation, and admitting to membership any citizen of good moral character 
who is not a clergyman, upon a contribution of ten dollars to its funds. 
This Society has watched with indefatigable vigilance and untiring assidu- 
ity over the rise and progress of the system, and by their unrequited labors 
it has been nurtured into maturity. In its present aspect, it is a monument 
of disinterestedness and public spirit, of which our city has reason to be 
proud. Your committee hereby acknowledge their indebtedness to the 
members of that Society for the promjjt manner in which they responded to 
every call made upon them ; and they cannot but hope that the spirit of 
candor which they have displayed, and which the petitioners in the same 
spirit acknowledge, will ultimately remove every barrier which, through mis- 
apprehension, as your committee believe, has hitherto retarded the entire 
success of their benevolent and patriotic exertions. It has been objected on 
the part of the petitioners, that the books used in the public schools contain 
passages that are calculated to prejudice the minds of children against the 
Catholic faith. This objection your committee discovered to be not wholly 
unfounded ; but we are happy to have it in our power to add, that the 
■ School Society fully agree with us in the opinion that nothing in the books 
or usages of the schools should be continued that is calculated in the re- 
motest degree to wound the feelings or prejudice the minds of children in 
favor of or against any religious sect whatever ; that they have expunged 
such passages in the books as they have been able to discover in any way 
objectionable; that they desire to continue, and earnestly solicit the aid and 
cooperation of the petitioners, in the work of expurgation, until every 
really objectionable feature shall be entirely obliterated. The extreme difB- 
culty of this undertaking is illustrated by the fact that some of the very 
same passages quoted by the petitioners as particularly objectionable, and 
which have been obliterated in the public school books, were found by your 
committee entirely unobscured in the books used in one of the Catholic 
schools. It is a melancholy fact that, in neighborhoods where Catholic chil- 



318 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

dren are numerous, the puljlic schools number but few ehiklren whose parents 
profess the Catholic faith ; but after the arduous tasli: of expurgation shall 
have been completed, and every well-grounded objeetiou removed, your com- 
mittee fondly hoije that the school-houses will be filled with children, and 
that no parents or guardians, be their religious feelings what they may, will 
refuse to avail themselves of the benefits of the public schools for the edu- 
cation of their children, being fully persuaded that many years would elapse 
before any new system of instruction could be organized, with advantages 
equal to the one now equally available to every child in the community. 
If, with such a system, any portion of the children should be left unedu- 
cated, it cannot be justly chargeable to a want of comprehensiveness in the 
system, but is more fairly attributable to imperfections which human legisla- 
tion cannot remedy. The general objections to sectarian public schools do 
not apply to cases where children are supported by charity, and necessarily 
confined to a particular locality, and not open to all children. Your com- 
mittee think that all such establishments might enjoy the benefits of educa- 
tion at loulilic expense, without an infringement of the principles contended 
for ; and, the rule being made general, their participation in the benefits of 
the school fund would not necessarily constitute a public recognition of 
their religious sectarian character. No school system can be perfect which 
does not place the means of education within the reach of every child who 
is capable of receiving instruction ; and such your committee believe to be 
the design and capacity of the system now in use in this city. 

The public school buildings are constructed upon a uniform model. The 
books used are the same in all the schools, and the classes and departments 
in each are so similarly constituted and provided, that the removal of a 
pupil from one school to another will not interrupt his studies or retard his 
progress. Though religion constitutes no sjjecific part of the system of 
iustruction, yet the discipline of the schools, and the well-arranged and 
selected essays and maxims which abound in their reading-books, are well 
calculated to impress upon the minds of children a distinct idea of the 
value of religion, the importance of the domestic and social duties, the 
existence of God, the Creator of all things, the immortality of the soul, 
man's future accountability, present dependence upon a superintending 
providence, and other moral sentiments which do not conflict with secta- 
rian views and peculiarities. 

The different classes examined in several schools by your committee ex- 
hibited an astonishing progress in geograjjhy, astronomy, arithmetic, read- 
ing, writing, &c., and indicated a capacity in the system for imparting 
instruction far beyond our expectations ; and though the order and arrange- 
ment of each school would challenge comparison with a camp under a rigid 
disciplinarian, yet the accustomed buoyancy and cheerfulness of youth and 
childhood did not appear to be destroyed in any one of them. Such were 
the favorable impressions forced upon our minds by a careful examination 
of the public schools. It is due to the trustees to add, that not one of our 
visits was anticipated, and no opportunity was aflbrded to any of the teach- 
trs for even a momentary preparation. In the course of our investigations, 



REPOET OF TUB SPECIAL COMMITTEE. 319 

we also visited three of tlie sohools established by tlie petitioners, and for 
the benefit of which a portion of the school fund is solicited. We found 
them, as represented by the petitioners, lamentably deficient in accommoda- 
tions and supplies of books and teachers. The rooms were all excessively 
crowded and poorly ventilated, the books much worn as well as deficient in 
numbers, and the teachers not sufficiently numerous. Yet, with all these 
disadvantages, though not able to compete successfully with the" public 
schools, they exhibited a progress which was truly creditable ; and, with 
the same means at their disposal, they would doubtless soon be able, under 
suitable direction, greatly to improve their condition. The object of the 
petitioners is to supply these deficiencies from the fund provided by the 
bounty of the State for the purposes of common school education. But, 
however strongly our sympathies may be excited in behalf of the poor chil- 
dren assembled in these schools, such is the state of the public mind on this 
subject, that, if one religious sect should obtain a portion of the school 
fund, every other one would present a similar claim, and it would be a sig- 
nal for the total demolition of the system which has grown up under the 
guidance of many years of toilsome experience ; attaining a greater degree 
of perfection than has perhaps ever before been achieved, and which is 
probably extending a greater amount of instruction, at smaller expense, than 
can possibly be imparted by any other school system that has been devitcd. 
This I'esult of such a disposal of the school funds would most probably be 
followed by a counteraction in the public mind, which would lead to a revo- 
cation of the act by a succeeding Common Council, and the awakening of a 
spirit of intolerance, which in our country is, of all calamities, the one most 
to be dreaded. Political intolerance is an unmitigated evil ; but {he expe 
rience of past ages ought to admonish us to guard with unceasing vigilance 
against religious intolerance, as an evil greater in magnitude in proportion 
as eternal consequences exceed those of time. So long as Government 
refuses to recognize religious sectarian differences, no danger need be appre- 
hended from this source ; but when it begins to legislate with particular 
reference to any particular denomination of Christians, in any manner which 
recognizes their religious peculiarities, it oversteps a boundary which public 
opinion has established, violates a principle which breathes in all our con- 
stitutions, and opens a door to that unholy connection of politics with reli- 
gion which has so often cursed and desolated Europe. Under these impres- 
sions of tlie impossibility of granting the prayer of the petitioners without 
producing the most fatal consequences, and impressed, at the same time, 
with an anxious desire .to remove every obstacle out of the way of the pub- 
lic education of their children, if it could be done without sacrificing any 
fundamental priucii^le, your committee invited the School Society and the 
petitioners to appoint delegates to meet them, with a view to efi'ect a com^ 
promise, if possible. The invitation was promptly responded to, and several 
meetings were held, at which the subject was fully and very courteously dis- 
cussed iu all its bearings ; and though we extremely regret to rejiort that 
the conferences did not result as favorably as we had hoped, yet the spirit 
and tenor of the following propositions, submitted at our request by both 



320 THE PrBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the School Society and the petitioners, encourage a belief that our labor 
may not have been entirely in vain. 



PROPOSITION ON THE PART OF THE PETITIONERS. 

The schools represented by the undersigned, wherein children are in- 
structed free of charge, shall be placed under the supervision of, conform to 
the system and discijijline adopted by, the Public School Society, and con- 
sent that all the expenditures of the schools shall be made under the direc- 
tion of that institution, to the purposes of common school education, and to 
no other purpose whatsoever, upon the following terms : 

1st. That there shall be reserved U> the managers, or trustees, of these 
schools respectively, the designation of the teachers to be appointed therein ; 
who shall be subjected to the examination of a committee of the Public 
School Society, shall be fully qualified for the duties of their appointment, 
and of unexcejjtionable moral character ; or, in the event of the trustees or 
managers failing to present individuals for these situations of that descrip- 
tion, then individuals having like qualifications, and of unexceptionable 
character, to be selected and appointed by the Public School Society, who 
shall be acceptable to the managers or trustees of the schools to which they 
shall be appointed ; but no person to be continued as a teacher in either of 
the schools referred to, against the wishes of the trustees or managers 
thereof. 

2d. That the schools shall be open at all times to the inspection of any 
authorized agent or officer of the city or State government, with liberty to 
visit the same and examine the books used therein, or the teachers, touching 
the course and system of instruction pursued in the schools, or in relation to 
any matter connected therewith. 

The undersigned are willing that, in the superintendence of their schools, 
every specified requirement of any and every law passed by the Legislature 
of the State, or the ordinances of the Common Council, to guard against 
abuse in the matter of common school education, shall be rigidly enforced 
and exacted by the competent public authorities. 

They believe that the benevolent object of every such law is to bring the 
means of a plain education within the reach of the child of every poor man, 
without damaging their religion, whatever it may be, or the religious rights 
of any such child or parent. 

It is in consequence of vrhat they consider the damaging of their religion 
and their religious rights, in the schools of the Public School Society, that 
they have been obliged to withdraw their children from them. The facts 
which they have already submitted, and which have been more than sus- 
tained by the sentiments uttered on behalf of the Society, in the late dis- 
cussion, prove that they were not mistaken. 

As regards the organization of their schools, they are willing that they 
should be under the same police and regulation as those of the Public 
School Society ; the same hours, the same order, the same exercises, even the 
same inspection. 




LI NDLEY. MURP A^ 



PROPOSITION ON BEHALF OF THE SCHOOL SOCIETY. 321 

But the books to be used for exercises in learning to read or spell, in his- 
tory, geography, and all such elementary knowledge as could have a ten- 
dency to operate on their hearts and minds in reference to their religion, 
must be, so far as Catholic children are concerned, and no farther, such as 
they shall judge proper to put in their hands. But nothing of their dog-^ 
mas, nothing against the creed of any other denomination, shall be intro- 
duced. 

(Signed) Hugh Sweeny, 

James W. McKeon. 

New Toek, December 19, 1840. 



PROPOSITION OX BEHALF OF THE SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

In compliance with the request of the committee of the Board of Alder- 
men, the undersigned committee of the New York Public School Society 
submit the following propositions 'as a basis of a compromise with their 
Roman Catholic fellow-citizens on the subject of the jmblic schools ; which 
propositions they are willing to support before the trustees of the Society, 
and which they believe will be sanctioned by that board. 

The Trustees of the New York Public School Society will remove from 
the class-books in the schools all matters which may be pointed out as oflen- 
sive to their Roman Catholic fellow-citizens, should any thing objectionable 
yet remain in them. 

They will also exclude from the school libraries (the use of which is pir- 
mitted to the pupils, but not requind of them) every work written with a 
view to prejudice the mind of the reader against the tenets or practices of 
the Roman Catholic Church, or the general tendency of which is to jjroduee 
the same effect. 

They will receive and examine any books which may be recommended 
for the use of the schools ; and should such books be adapted to their sys- 
tem of instruction, and void of any matter offensive to other denominations, 
they shall be introduced so soon as opjiortunity may be afforded by a call 
for new books. 

Any suggestions in reference to alterations in the plan of instruction or 
course of studies, which may be offered, shall receive prompt consideration ; 
and, if not inconsistent with the general system of instruction now prevail- 
ing in the schools, nor with the conscientious rights of other denominations, 
they shall be adopted. 

The building situated in Mulberry street, now occujjied by Roman Cath- 
olic schools, shall, if required for the use of the Public School Society, be 
purchased or hired, on equitable terms,' by the trustees, should such an 
arrangement be desired. 

Every effort will be made by the Trustees of the Public School Society 
to prevent any occurrence in the schools which might be calculated to 
wound the feelings of Roman Catholic children, or to impair their confi- 
dence in, or diminish their respect for, the religion of their parents. 

Anxious to keep open every avenue to such an arrangement as will lead 
to a general attendance of the Roman Catholic children at the public 
21 



322 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

schools, and fully aware that some things may have escaped their observa- 
tion which might he modified without violation of the conscientious rights 
of others, the undersigned wish it to be distinctly understood that, in oflFer- 
ing the foregoing propositions as the basis of an arrangement, it is not in- 
tended to exclude other propositions which the Roman Catholics may make, 
provided they do not interfere with the principles by which the trustees feel 
themselves bound. 

(Signed) Samcel F. Mott, i 

A. P. Halsey, V Committee. 

J. Smtth Rogers, ' 

New York, December 19, ISJO. 

Tour committee deem it proper to remark, in vindication of the School 
Society, that they were only one of the numerous remonstrants against the 
praj'er of the petitioners. Their views were represented in the late discus- 
sion before the board only by their legal advisers, Messrs. Sedgewick and 
Ketchum. The other gentlemen who participated in the discussion repre- 
sented other bodies which are not in any manner connected with them. 
Sentiments were uttered by some of them which the School Society do not 
entertain, and for which they are not justly accountable. This explanation 
is deemed proper, in consequence of a remark in the above proposition of 
the petitioners which appears to be founded on an erroneous impression. 
The unwillingness of the petitioners to agree to any terms which did not 
recognize the distinctive character of their schools as Catholic schools, or 
which would exclude sectarian supervision from them entirely, was the 
obstacle to a compromise, which could not be overcome. However much 
we may lament the consequences, we are not disposed to question the right 
of our Catholic fellow-citizens to keep their children separated from inter- 
course with other children ; but we do not believe the Common Council 
would be justified in facilitating such an object. They have an unquestion- 
able right to pursue such a course, if the dictates of conscience demand it 
of them ; and they have a just claim to be sustained by the Common Coun- 
cil in the exercise of that right ; but they cannot justly claim public aid to 
carry out such intentions, unless they can show that the public good would 
be promoted by it, and that such public aid can be extended to them with- 
out trespassing upon the conscientious rights of others. But if any religious 
society or sect should be allowed the exclusive right to select the books, 
appoint or nominate the teachers, or introduce sectarian peculiarities of any 
kind into a public school, the exercise of such a right, in any one particular, 
would very clearly constitute such school a sectarian school, and its support 
at the jjublic expense would, in the opinion of the committee, be a trespass 
upon the conscientious rights of every taxpayer who disajiproved of the 
religion inculcated by the sect to which such school might be attached ; 
because they would be paying taxes for the support of a religion which they 
disapproved. Your committee are, therefore, fully of the opinion that the 
granting of the prayer of the petitioners, or conforming to the terms of the 
proposals submitted by the committee who represented them, would render 



EEPOST OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE. 323 

the school system liable to the charge of violating the rights of conscience 
— a charge which would be fatal to the system, because it would invalidate 
its just claim to public patronage. 

The proposition of the committee who represent the Public School Soci- 
ety appears to us to have been conceived in a liberal spirit. Your commit- 
tee think it goes as far as a due regard to the true objects of the institution 
would warrant, and seems to open an avenue which we would fain hope may 
yet lead to a satisfactory arrangement. Both jjropositions exhibit more lib- 
erality, probably, than either party had before given the other credit for ; 
and we hope that result may prove to be an important step toward the ac- 
complishment of an object which every patriot must desire with intense 
anxiety. Your committee respectfully ask to be discharged from the further 
consideration of the subject. 

WiLLiAii Chamberlain, 
Robert Jones, 
JosiAH Rich. 



The report of the committee being read, the question on its 
acceptance and adoption was put, and decided in the affirmative, 
as follows : 

Ayes— The President (E. F. Purdy), Aldermen Balis, Wood- 
hull, Benson, Jones, Pich, Chamberlain, Campbell, Hatfield, 
Jarvis, Smith, Kichols, Graham, Cooper, and Xash — 15. 

Xay — Alderman Pentz — 1. 

The application of the Koman Catholics for the school 
moneys was thus negatived, and the committee were discharged. 

The proceedings in the Board of Assistant Aldermen were 
interesting and important. The vai'ious petitions and remon- 
strances were referred to the Committee on Arts, Sciences, and 
Schools, whose report was submitted on the 27th of April. A 
brief statement of the facts, together with the report of the com- 
mittee, will be fonnd in the Appendix marked B. 



32i THE PUBLIC SCnOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTEE XI. 

EXPURGATION OF SCHOOL-BOOKS.— 1840-1841. 

Propositions of Bishop Dubois relative to School-Boolis — Rev. Feli.'C Varela — Commit- 
tee of Examination and Correspondence Appointed — Report of tlie Committee- - 
Letter of Rev. Felix Varela — Letter to the Freeman's Journal by Rev. John 
Power, D.D, — Letter to Dr. Powers from the Committee — Address of the Roman 
Catholics — Reply of the Trustees of the Society — Letter to Bishop Hughes- 
Reply of Bishop Hughes — Letter of David Graham to the Society — Reply of the 
Committee — Expurgation of School-Books. 

The exciting dismission relative to the distribution of the 
school fund brought into requisition all the arguments and objec- 
tions on both sides of the question, and, among the grounds of 
complaint, it was urged by the parties who advocated a change 
in the apportionment of the school money, that the text-books in 
use in the public schools contained passages ■which were not 
merely objectionable to Homan Catholics, but hostile to their 
faith, some of tliem being even " defanuitory," and at the same 
time ^false in their statements of historical facts. 

The trustees of the Society were anxious to remove every 
objection, and took measures to secure the fullest information 
u])on the subject from the highest authorities in the Church, 
among laymen as well as the clergy, in order that the obnoxious 
passages might be detected and removed. This measure formed, 
at the time, the topic of animated discussion, and tlie facts are 
worthy of detail as an important event in the history of the 
school system. 

The reader will have noticed, in the chapter devoted to the 
controversy of 1834, between Bishop Dubois and the trustees 
relative to Public School No. 5, in Mott street, that he submit- 
ted several propositions to the Board of Trustees, the third of 
which was as follows : 

3cl. That no books shall be received in the school but such as will have 
. been submitted to the bishop as free from sectarian princiiiles, or calumnies 



COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO EXA5IINE BOOKS. 325 

against his religion ; and as many otlierwise good books may require only 
■that such passages should be expunged, or left out in binding, that, on the 
recommendation of the bishop, the board -will order it to be done. 

At that time no furtlier action was taken in the matter, as 
the trustees could not concede thq general proposition of the 
bishop, and no reply to their letter was ever received. 

At a meeting of the trustees held at Public School No. 5, for 
the annual examination on March 24, 1840, the Vice-President 
stated that Eev. Felix Varela had made a request to bo fur- 
nished with a set of tiie reading-books used in the schools, and 
the following resolution was immediately adopted : 

Resohed, That the Secretary be requested to send a copy of each of said 
books to Mr. Varela for his inspection. 

The following resolution was also unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That the board continues to entertain an anxious desire to 
remove every objection which the members of the Catholic Church may 
have to the books used or the studies pursued hi the public schools, and 
that the Secretary be requested to renew the assurance given on a former 
occasion, that any suggestion or remarks which the Rev. Mr. Varela may 
deem it right to make, on his own behalf and that of his associates, after 
said books have been examined, shall receive the most serious and respect- 
ful consideration of this board. 

The resolutions and books were ordered to be transmitted to 
Mr. Varela, and soon after the receipt he made a reply. At 
the meeting of the trustees lield on the 1st of May, Mr. Varela's 
response was read, and the following resolution was adopted : 

Resolved, That a committee of five be appointed to eKamine the books in 
use in the public schools, including those in the libraries, with a view to 
ascertain and report whether they contain any thing derogatoi-y to the 
Roman Catholic Church or any of its religious tenets, with power to com- 
municate with such persons of that Church as may be authorized to meet 
them in reference to such alterations. 

The committee so appointed consisted of J. Smyth JRogers, 
M.D., Joseph B. Collins, Samuel F. Mott, James F. Depeyster, 
and Robert Ilogan, M.D. 

At the meeting of the Society held on the 25th of Sejjtem- 
ber, called for the consideration of the action of the committee, 
the following report was presented and adopted, and the recom- 



326 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

mendation that the subject be referred to the Executive Com 
mittee was adopted : 

To the Trustees of the Puhlie School Society : 

The committee appointed on tlie 1st of May, 1840, to examine the school- 
books, confer with the Roman Catholic clergy, »&c., respectfully beport : 

That they have devoted much time in discharging to the best of their 
ability, the important duty assigned them. Soon after their ajjpointment, 
the secretary placed in their hands a letter from the Rev. Dr. Varela, with a 
few remarks regarding the school-books, copies of which had been placed in 
his hand under the resolution of the board, passed on 24th of March. A 
copy of Dr. Varela's letter is appended, marked A. 

The committee early sought and obtained an interview with the Very 
Rev. Dr. Power, Yicar-General of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New 
York, during which he treated the suliject with much apparent frankness 
and candor, but gave very little encouragement to expect a satisfactory 
arrangement of the points at issue. It resulted, however, in his requesting 
a copy of the school-books, with an understanding that, when he had ex- 
amined them, he would communicate with your committee. After a lapse 
of several weeks, and- when the committee were in daily expectation of a 
communication from Dr. Power, a letter under his signature appeared in the 
Freeman's Journal, a copy of which is in the appendix, marked C. This 
unlooked-for course on the part of the reverend geutleman induced the 
committee to address a letter to him, as per copy herewith, marked D, to 
which the committee have not received any reply. About the middle of 
August, the Roman Catholics of this city issued an " Address to the People 
of the City and State of New York," urging their claims to a portion of the 
school money ; see copy, marked E. The extraordinary character of por- 
tions of this address appeared to the committee to call for a prompt reply. 
They accordingly prepared, and, with the sanction of the Executive Com- 
mittee, issued a reply, a copy of which is annexed, marked F. Subsequent 
to this, the committee hail an informal interview with the Right Rev. Dr. 
Hughes, Roman Catholic Bishojj Coadjutor of New York, which resulted in 
a request on his part to be furnished with copies of the school-books, and 
as each member of the committee confidently supposed, for the purpose of 
uniting with the committee in ascertaining objectionable passages. The 
books were sent, and a letter was addressed to the bishop, a copy of ■which 
is annexed herewith, marked G. The answer was received, marked H. 

By referring to the report of the committee on " Arts and Sciences, and 
Common Schools " of the Board of Assistant Aldermen, to whom was re- 
ferred the petition of the Roman Catholics (p. 353 of Document No. 80), it 
is stated that the committee had " been informed, by the officers of the 
Public School Society, that no books are used in the schools which reflect in 
any degree upon the Catholic Church." Your committee are unable to 
account for this misapprehension on the part of the Board of Assistant 
Aldermen. By reference to the annexed copy of a note addressed to David 
Graham, Jr., Esq., chairman of that committee, in reply to one from him, 



EXPUEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 327 

marked I, it will be perceived that your committee expressly acknowledged 
the existence of such passages. Their answer is subjoined, marked J. 

From the foregoing statement, and the accompanying documents, it will 
be seen that your committee has been actuated throughout by the motives 
which influenced the Board of Trustees in creating it — that is, a sincere 
desire to remove, as far as may be done, without sacrificing the rights and 
feelings of otliers, every obstacle to the attendance of Catholic cliildren at 
the public schools. It is now evident that the cooperation of the Catholic 
clergy in efiecting an expurgation of the books cannot be relied on. The 
committee is fully aware of the importance of such aid in order to secure 
their influence in promoting the attendance of Catholic children, and, possi- 
bly, in preventing the necessity of a second revision. But it is believed that 
the time has arrived for the trustees to accomplish the work without tliem. 
If it does not have the efl'ect so greatly desired, the trustees will have the 
satisfaction of reflecting that they have discharged their duty in the prem- 
ises. Under a strong impression of the duty which devolves on the trustees 
to expunge words and passages clearly objectionable, your committee had 
made some progress in the work ; but a reference to the resolution appoint- 
ing them showed that their powers do not extend beyond reporting the 
ofiensive parts. They have, therefore, asked for the present meeting, in 
order to lay before the board the parts adverted to, and obtain permission to 
continue the work. 

In conclusion, the committee have to report that a petition is now before 
the Board of Aldermen, with a renewed request for aid to support the 
Roman Catholic schools. As the petition has not yet been printed, the com- 
mittee is unable to furnish a copy. It is with feelings, more of sorrow than 
indignation, that this committee have to add tliat this petition — notwith- 
standing the repeated assurances made to the Roman Catholic clergy, that 
every obnoxious word should be expunged from the school-books, and that 
the trustees only await their aid in selecting them — contains some quota- 
tions, and again urges them, as a reason why they cannot permit their chil- 
dren to attend the public schools. 

The committee respectfully suggest whether, under existing circum- 
stances, it may not be expedient to refer further movements in opposing all 
applications for school money for schools connected with churches, to the 
Executive Committee, particularly as that committee will meet nearly every 
day for some time to come, in making the usual annual examinations of the 
schools. 

All which is repcctfullj- submitted, 

Joseph B. Collins, Chairman pre tern. 

New Tobk, SrpUmher 25, 1840. 



A. 

Niw YoElt, April 8, 1810. 

Dear Sib : I received the books you had the kindness- of sending to me, 
according to a resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Common Schools, 
in consequence of an information given by one of them as to my wish of 



328 ' TiiK I'uiii.io SCHOOL sociprrv. 

examining said books. I thank tlie Board of Trustees for this mark of 
good feelings, and, iu order to comply with their request, I will express my 
opinion on the subject. 

The '' Scripture Lessons " present, in the very title-page, an attack 
against the Catholic Church ; for it is expressly stated that they are without 
note or eommtnt, so as to call the attention of a child, and to tell him : 
"Your Church is wrong iu giving the Bible always with notes ; disregard 
her, and read the Scriptures without any note or comment, and find out » 
religion for yourself." This is to establish at once the Protestant fundamen- 
tal principle", and to make the public schools completely sectarian. 

Iu the Geography (p. 143), it is said that the Catholic clergy, who have 
vast influence, oppose the diffusion of general knowledge ; and, in the very 
next page, it is said that Catholics pay great reverence to the priests. It is 
very easy to perceive that a child will think very little of such a reverence, 
and lose every regard for such a muaistry. 

There are also, in the description of Italy, some passages which evi- 
dently tend to diminish the consideration that a Catholic child has for the 
Catholic Church. I also noticed, iu the " Reading-Book," the description 
of the character of Luther, with some expressions which, no doubt, will 
please the Protestants, but imply an attack against the Ciitholic Church. 

By making these few observations, I do not allude to the question as to 
the petition made by the Catholics to obtain a part of the school funds, but 
I merely respond to the kindness of the Board of Trustees in sending me 
the books for examination. 

With great respect, your obedient 

Felix Vaekla. 
To A. P. Halsey, Secretanj of Puhlic School Society. 



C. 

To the Editor of the New Yorh Freeman's Journal : 

Sir : In compliance with your request, I must, in justice to myself, say 
that my duties are of so heterogeneous a nature as to leave me but little 
time to arrange my thoughts to my own satisfaction on any subject. Yet, 
as the education of Catholic children has been always to me a matter of 
deep interest, I claim familiarity with the subject, and can therefore ap- 
proach it with less timidity and reluctance. 

You, sir, are fully aware that the enemies of the Catholic priesthood say 
that we keep the people in ignorance, in order to promote our own interests. 
This charge has often been repeated, even in this enlightened community, by 
persons who cannot be ignorant of the efforts we are daily making to teach 
those under our care how to employ the faculties which God gave them to 
the best advantage. 

Our sincere wish, sir, is to have instilled into their minds a clear notion 
of the compact and duties of society. We wish them to comprehend the 
comforts as well as the restraints of civilization, knowing that they are part 
of the materials which will form the edifice of the State, and which, by the 
simple process of a more graceful order and position, will contribute to its 
beauty and permanency. 

The Catholic clerj^ glory in an association with the charms of litera- 
ture. They consider education, next to the gospel — to be the best boon of 
Heaven to man. They know that it infuses a divinity into liis spirit. 

" Doctrhia sed vim promovct insitam 
Kectiq.ue cultus pectora roborant." 

They know that nations have been rendered formidable by knowledge. 
They know that public liberty has never been injured by understanding its 



KXI'UKGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 329 

true meaning. They know that freedom has not been abused because soci- 
ety has learned to comprehend and obey the law. Wlien, sir, I open the 
historic page, and Icai'n that the bravest jjeople whose history we can trace, 
loved and cultivated letters — when I see Sparta making the education of her 
sons the public care, and securing the culture of their minds by a public 
provision — with all this in view, sir, I should despise myself were I for one 
instant to place an obstacle in the way of public instruction, were it based 
on a proper foundation. 

You, Jlr. Editor, will agree with me, that the object of public instruc- 
tion is to fit man for society. It is also an axiom, that man has various 
duties to fulfil, both of a public and private nature, toward the community. 
He has also, as a rational and accountable being, duties to perform toward 
his Maker. Now, without religion, what security have we that those duties 
will be punctually discharged ? What guarantee have we that man will be 
honest in the dark, and without a witness 1 We have no pledge, sir, that 
the claims of society will be answered ; and I therefore assert that a purely 
intellectual education will not fit a man for society. On this principle, sir, 
I am decidedly opposed to the education which is now given in our " puli- 
lic schools." It is not based, as in a Christian community it ought to be, on 
the Christian religion. Its tendency is to make deists. 

There are, it is true, beautiful lessons in the class-books on the providence 
of God, the immortality of the soul, man's accountability, <fcc. ; but these 
lessons do not constitute Christianity. We learn them from the light of 
reason alone, while the positive ordinances of the Christian religion are 
learned from revelation ; and, as there is not the slightest allusion to these 
ordinances, we say that pure deism alone is taught in these schools. 

My second exception is founded on the sectarian character of the public 
schools. The Holy Scrijjtures are read every day, with the restriction that 
no specific tenets are to be inculcated. Here, sir, we find the great demar- 
cating principle between the Catholic Church and the sectaries introduced 
silently. The Catholic Church tells her children that they must be taught 
their religion by adthoritt. The sects say, Read the Bilde, judge for your- 
selves. The Bible is read in the public schools, the children are allowed to 
judge for themselves. The Protestant principle is therefore acted upon, 
silently inculcated, and the schools are sectarian. It may be said that the 
Bible is introduced for the mere purpose of teaching its morality. But 
recollect, sir, that the morality of the Bible is founded on the law of nature, 
and is a clearer evolution or expression of that law ; and as the motive for 
introducing the Bible into the schools is the inculcation of its morality only, 
a severe logic forces me to say, that the holy Book is made ancillary to pure 
deism. 

There are libraries connected with our public schools, and it is notorious, 
that books which to Catholics must be exceptionable, as containing the 
most malevolent and foul attacks on their religion, were placed in the way 
of Catholic children, no doubt for the very laudable purpose of teaching 
them to abhor and despise that monster called popery. 

How, then, sir, can we think of sending, under these circumstances, our 
children to those schools, in which every artifice is resorted to in order to 
seduce them from their religion ? 

One word to parents, before I close this hasty communication. If it be 
of acknowledged moment that parents should engage in those duties which 
concern the temporal welfare of their children, should not the most ani- 
mated zeal be indulged in fixing and giving life to every moral and religious 
principle ? In moral and religious acquirements consist the chief dignity 
and happiness of man. Deprive him these, and you leave him ignorant of 
the true grounds of rectitude and honor, artd dry up the purest sources of 
human joy ; you degrade him in the creation, and render him an improper 
object for the future reward of his Maker. Many parents, sir, by their in- 



330 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

attention to this part of their duty, are tlie cause of ruin to those ■whom 
they ijrofessedly love, and, instead of being their best friends, become their 
worst enemies. 

The objections to our claims for a due portion of the school fund are, I 
think, urged in bad faith. It is said that tlie State cannot lend itself to the 
support of sectarian principles. But recollect, sir, that this objection is 
urged by those whose conduct is truly sectarian, as far as regards the man- 
agement of the public schools. This, I think, I have abundantly proved. 

When the common school fund was created, it was not considered un- 
constitutional to extend it to the charity schools in connection with the 
incorporated religious societies in this city; and, if I am not much mistaken, 
the philanthropic and enlightened statesman with whom the measure origi- 
nated, thought that the best application of the fund lay in giving it to those 
who would make a proper use of it, by giving that instruction which alone 
can save man from the tyranny of his passions, and make him a good mem- 
ber of society. 

Would it not, Mr. Editor, be a libel on the memory of the founders of 
our glorious Constitution, to pervert that instrument to such an extent as to 
think that they, in disclaiming a civil preference for any form of Christianity, . 
thereby intended that the public education of the country should not be 
founded on religion ? In this respect I apprehend they did not depart from 
the rule of all wise legislators, and never contemplated that our charity 
schools should not participate in the fund set apart for public education, 
because the catechisms of the different religious societies of which this re- 
public is composed would be taught in them. 

I, sir, would be the last man to wish that the State would spend its 
means in supjiorting sectarianism ; and the principle that induces me to 
make this avowal, bills me also to express my conviction that, unless public 
instruction be connected with religious instruction, there is no guarantee for 
the permanence of our civil institutiims. I would, then, most respectfully 
say to our rulers. Let mental cultivation be general, but let it have religion 
for its basis. This will be the surest foundation not only for your internal 
improvement, but for the increase of your general prosjjerity. This will be 
the means by which your rank and consideration are to be raised into com- 
petition with the foremost of polished nations. 

I am, sir, with great respect, your very humble servant, 

John Power, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Nevj TorTc. 

New YonK, July 9, 18-10. 



D. 

New Youk, August, 1840. 

The undersigned, on behalf of the committee appointed by the trustee;: 
of the Public School Society " to examine the books used in the public 
schools, including those in the libraries, with a view to ascertain and report 
whether they contain any thing derogatory to the Roman Catholic Church, 
or any of its religious tenets, with power to communicate with such persons 
of that Church as may be authorized to meet them in reference to such alter- 
ations," referring to the interview had with you on the evening of the 14th 
of May last, on the subject of their appointment, instruct me to inquire 
whether you have examined the books placed in your hands, agreeably to 
the request then made ; and, if so, whether you will favor them with the 
result of your investigations. The committee has steadily prosecuted the 
objects indicated in the resolution appointing it, but does not feel prepared 
to report to the Board of Trustees until they have the benefit of those in- 
quiries and objections which your feelings, and the duties of your station, 
must alike prompt. The committee is anxious to discharge the duty assigned 
it without delay. It is therefore very desirable to hear from you as early a? 
your convenience will permit. 



EXPURGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 331 

I am further instructed to say, that the committee cannot, in justice to 
themselves or to you, close this communication without expressing the regret 
and surprise caused by portions of a letter under your signature, ■which 
appeared in the Nac Torh Freeman's Journal of tlie 12th ult. A vivid recol- 
lection of the frankness with which you treated this deeply-interesting sub- 
ject at the interview referred to, and the voluntary avowal then made of 
your entire satisfaction with the explanation given by the committee of the 
accidental introduction into the school libraries of a volume of the " Tem- 
perance Tales," in which there was one story justly obnoxious to Catholic 
censure, which, as you are aware, was withdrawn when discovered, and 
which, you remarked, might, under similar circumstances, have found its 
way into a Catholic library, still rests upon their minds. 

These facts contrast so strongly with the imputations of base and dis- 
honorable motives iu which you have seen fit to indulge, and with the im- 
portance into which you attempt to magnify the single story referred to, 
that the committee will not venture to express the feelings which such a 
course on your part must necessarily give rise to. They would gladly find 
an adequate apology for this unmerited and unlooked-for attack in the 
" haste " with which you say it was written, and in the fact, as you allege, 
that your duties are of so " heterogeneous a nature as to leave you but little 
time to arrange your thoughts to your own satisfaction on any subject ; " 
and they now submit to your more calm and deliberate consideration wheth- 
er, pending an examination of the school-books, with a view to their expur- 
gation, in which you promised cooperation, it would not have been more 
consonant with projiriety and the generally acknowledged courtesies of life, 
if you had susjjended your pulilic denunciations of a large body of your 
fellow-citizens until they had furnished evidence of "bad faith," by refusing 
to expunge — as they assured you they would do — eveiy thing in the school- 
books which might be pointed out as objectionable by yourselves and asso- 
ciates in religious faith. 

On behalf of the committee. 



E. 

ADDRESS OF THE ROMAX CATHOLICS TO THEIR FELLOW-CITIZEXS OF 
THE CITY AXD STATE OF NEW YORK. 

Fellow- CITIZENS : We, the Roman Catholics of the city of New York, 
feeling that both our civil and religious rights are abridged and injuriously 
affected by the operation of the " common school system," and by the con- 
struction which the Common Council have lately put on the laws authoriz- 
ing that system, beg leave to state our grievances, with the deep confidence 
in the justice of the American character that, if our complaints arc well- 
founded, you will assist us in obtaining the redress to which we are entitled. 
If they are not well founded, we are ready to abandon them. 

We are Americans and American citizens. If some of us are foreigners, 
it is only by the accident of birth. As citizens, our ambition is to be Ameri- 
cans ; and if we cannot be so by birth, we are so by choice and preference — 
which we deem an equal evidence of our affection and attachment to the 
laws and Constitution of the country. But our children, for whose riglits as 
well as our own we contend in this matter, are Americans by nativity. So 
that we are, like yourselves, either natives of the soil, or like your fathers 
from the Eastern woiid, having become Americans under the sanction of 
the Constitution, by the birthright of selection and preference. 

We hold, therefore, the same ideas of our rights that you hold of yours. 
We wish not to diminish yours, but only to secure and enjoy our own. Nei- 
ther have we the slightest suspicion that you would wish us to be deprived 
of any privilege which you claim for yourselves. If, then, we have suffered 



332 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

by the operation of the " common school system " in the city of New York, 
it is to be imputed rather to our own supineness, than to any wish on your 
part that we should be aggrieved. 

The intention of the Legislature of this State in appropriating public 
funds for the purposes of popular schools miiiit have been (whatever construc- 
tion the lawyers of the Common Council put ujjon it), to diffuse the bless- 
ings of education among the people, without encroachment on tlie civil and 
religious rights of the citizens. It was, it must have heeii, to have planted in 
the minds of youth principles of knowledge and virtue, which would secure 
to the State a future population of enlightened and virtuous, instead of 
ignorant and vicious members. This was certainly their general intention, 
and no other would have justified their bountiful appropriation of the pub- 
lic funds. 

But, in carrying out the measure, this patriotic and wise intention has 
been lost sight of; and in the city of New York at least, under the late 
arbitral^ determination of the present Common Council, such intention of 
the Legislature is not only disregarded, but the high public ends to which 
it was directed are manifestly being defeated. 

Mere knowledge, according to the late decision, mere secular knowledge, 
is what we are to understand by education, in the sense of the Legislature 
of New York. But if you should allow the smallest ray of religion to enter 
the school-room — if you should teach the children that there is an eye which 
Bees every wicked thought, that there is a God, a state of rewards and pun- 
ishments beyond this life, then, according to the decision of the Common 
Council, you forfeit all claim to the bounty of the State, although your 
scholars should have become as learned as Newton or wise as Socrates ! Is, 
then, we would ask you, fellow-citizens, a practical rejection of the Chris- 
tian religion in all its forms, and without the substitution of any other, the 
basis on which you would form the principles and character of the future 
citizens of this great commonwealth ? Are the meek lessons of religion and 
virtue, which pass from the mothci-'s lips into the heart of her child, to be 
chilled and frozen by icy contact with a system of education thus inter- 
preted ? 

Is enlightened villany so precious in the public eye, that science is to be 
cultivated, whilst virtue is neglected, and religion, its only adequate ground- 
work, is formally and authoritatively proscribed ? Is it your wish that vice 
should thus be elevated from its low and natural companionship with igno- 
rance and be married to knowledge imparted at the public expense ? 

We do not say that even the Common Council profess to require that the 
Christian religion should be excluded from the common schools. They only 
contend that the inculcation of each or any of its doctrines would be secta- 
rianism ; and thus, lest sectarianism should be admitted, Christianity is sub- 
stantially excluded. Christianity in this country is made up of the different 
creeds of the various denominations, and, since all these creeds are pro- 
scribed, the Christian religion necessarily is banished from the halls of pub- 
lic education. 

The objections which we have thus far stated, fellow-citizens, ought to 
appear to you, in our opinion, as strong to you as they do to us. For, 
though we may differ in our definition of the religion of Christ, still we all 
generally profess to believe, to revere it, as the foundation of moral virtue 
and of social happiness. Now, we know of no fixed princijjle of infidelity 
except the negation of the Christian religion. The adherents of this prin- 
ciple may diftcr on other points of skepticism, but in rejecting Christianity 
they are united. Their confession of faith is a belief in the negative of 
Christianity, but they reject it in toto ; whilst the Common Council rejects it 
only in all its several parts, under the name of sectarianism. 

It is manifest, therefore, that the public school system in the city of New 
York is entirely favorable to the sectarianism of infidelity, and opjiosed only 



EXPUEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 333 

to that of positive Christianity. And is it your wish, fellow-citizens — is it 
your wish more than ours, that infidelity should have a predominancy and 
advantages in the public schools which are denied to Christianity ? Is it 
your wish that your children shall be brought up under a system of educa- 
tion, so called, which shall detach them from the Christian lielief which you 
profess, whatever it may be, and prepare them for initiation into the myste- 
ries of Fanny Wrightism, or any other scheme of infidelity which may come 
in their way ? Are you willing that your children, educated at your ex- 
pense, shall be educated on a principle antayonist to the Christian religion 1 
— that you shall have the toil and labor of cultivating the greuud and sow- 
ing the seed, in order that inliilelity may reap the harvest ? 

With us it is matter of surjirise that conscientious persons, of all Chris- 
tian denominations, have not been struck with this bad feature of the sys- 
tem as understood by the Common Council. A new sectarianism antagonist 
to all Cliriitiaji sects has been " generated in, not the common schools, as the 
State originally understooil the term, but in the pulUc schools of the Public 
School Society. This new sectarianism is adopted by the Common Council 
of this city, and is supported, to the exclusion of all others, at the public 
expense. Have the conscientious Methodists, Episcopalians, Baptists, Lu- 
therans, and others, no scruples of conscience at seeing their childreu, and 
the children of their poor, brought up under this new ' sectarianism ? It is 
not for us to say ; but for ourselves we can sjjeak : and we cannot be parties 
to such a system except by legal compulsion and against conscience. 

Let us not be mistaken. We do not deny to infidels, for imbelief,.any 
right to which any other citizen is entitled. 

But we hold that the common school system, as it has been lately inter- 
preted by the Common Council of the city, necessarily transfers to the inter- 
est of infidel sectarianism the advantages which are denied to Christian sec- 
tarianism of every kind. 

, Again, let us not be misunderstood. We are 0])posed to the admission 
of sectarianism of any and of every kind, whether Christian or anti-Chris- 
tian, in the schools that are supported by the State. 

But we hold, also, that, so far as the commonwealth is concerned in the 
character of her future citizens, even the least perfect religion of Christian 
sectarianism would be better than no religion at all. And we hold that, of 
all bad uses to which the public money can be perverted, among the worst 
would be the expending of it, in the sha))e of a bounty to education, for the 
spread and propagation of sectarian infidelity. Far be it from us to sup- 
pose that either the Legislature, Coumion Council, or School Commissioners 
ever intended such perversion. We hold, nevertheless, that the consequence 
which we have pointed out, and the apprehension of which is one of the 
reasons whj' we Roman Catholics cannot conscientiously participate in the 
benefits of these schools, is necessary and inevitable. The education which 
each denomination might, under proper restraints and vigilance, give to- its 
awn poor, has passed and become a monopoly in the hands of " The Public 
School Society of New York." That corporation is in high and almost 
exclusive standing with the Conmion Council.* 

* " The Public School Society " was originally incorporated for " the education of 
poor children wlio do not belong to, or are not provided for by, any religious society." 
The purpose was humane, patiiotic, and benevolent. But, alas ! it has been most 
sadly departed from. One of tbo motives — indeed, the principal one — which they set 
forth in their petition for a charter from the people and Legislature of the State, was, 
in their own language, " the benefits which would result to society from the education 
of such children, by implanti.sg in jnEiR minus the principles of religion and 
MORALiTT." This was in 1805. In ISOS, they obtained a considerable appropii.'ition 
of the public money, independent of the school fund ; and had themselves designated 
the '• Kree-Scliool Society of New York," with an extension of their powers reaching 



334 TnE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Now, the education wliich is imparted on the principle of the schools of 
that Society is, in our decided opinion, calculated, from its defectiveness, to 
disappoint the benevolent hoj^e of legislative bounty, and to make bad and 
dangerous citizens. We all know that the belief of another world is, ulti- 
mately, at the base of all that is just and sacred in this. The love of God, 
the hope of future rewards, the dread of future punishment — one or all of 
these constitute and must be the foundation of conscience in the breast of 
every man. Where neither of them exists, conscience is but an idle word. 
Religion is but the development of these important truths, governing man 
by their internal intiuence on his passions and affections, regulating the 
order of his duties to God, to his country, to his neighbor and himself. If 
they have their full force, he will be a man of justice, probity, and truth. 
And in proportion as such men are numerous in the commonwealth, in the 
same proportion will the State enjoy security and happiness from within, 
honor and high estimation from without. 

Now, holding these truths as indisputable, we ask you, fellow-citizens, to 
say whether this — not common, but public — school system, as it is now ad- 
ministered, under the interpretation of the Common Council, is calculated 
to raise up for your successors in the State men of this description ; or, 
rather, whether it does not promise you men of a different and diametrically 
opposite character ? The Common Council makes it a condition — an essen- 
tial one of those schools— that religion shall not be taught, for this would 
be sectarianism. And thus the intellect is cultivated, if you please, but the 

" all children who are proper objects of gratuitous education." In 1810, they obtained 
an act (for they never slumbered), putting tlie right of membcrsliip at a contribution 
of fifty dollars, and providing for thera anotljcr extra appropriation. Thus they con- 
tinued from year to year, until they finally got themselves denominated " The Public 
School Society of New York," and from that time labelled their schools, as if they 
belonged to the community at large, " Public Schools." They are not, certaiidy, in the 
ordinary sense of the terms, what tlicy profess to be. They are merely called " public 
schools," but they belong to a private corporation, -nlio have crept up into high favor 
with the powers that be, and have assumed the exclusive right of monopolizing the 
education of youth, and of receiving exclusively the public funds set apart for that 
benevolent and patriotic purpose. 

But there is one circumstance which brands their exclusive pretension with the 
stamp of rare and peculiar arrogance. It is, that they claim the common school funds 
on the express ground of defeating the very cud for which their charter was obtained, 
viz., " the benefits that would result to society from the education of (such) children, 
by implanting in their minds the principles of religion and morality." Now, in their 
apostisy from tlieir first profession, they claim the merit of benefiting society by see- 
ing that, in their schools, no principle of religion and morality shall be implanted ! 
The same body, under different names, obtaining a charter and high pecuniary privi- 
leges in consideration of their doing a certain good work ; and yet coming out openly 
to claim exclusively the bounty granted for that purpose, on the ground that they, and 
they alone, have taken the precaution that the good work shall not be performed in 
connection with education. Not only will they not perform it themselves, but they 
will not allow others to accomplish it. What would have been a benefit to society 
when they applied for a charter, would be a terrible injury now. And if, by chance, 
" the principles of religion and morality were implanted in the minds of children," 
there would result nothing but sectarianism, bickering, and religious wars, and, over 
and above, the equilibrium of the American Constitution would be awfully disturbed, 
the rights of conscience would be violated, and disasters iimumerable would be the 
result. 

(Vide the apprehensions of the lame and laboring report put forth, in April, on 
behalf of the public school system, as emanating from a committee of the Board of 
Assistant Aldermen, against the petitions of the Roman Catholics, Scotch Presbyte- 
rians, and others, who have the misfortune to believe still that society would be bene- 
fitted tiy having " principles of religion imd morality implanted in the minds of chil- 
dren.") 



EXPOKGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 335 

heart and moral character are left to their natural depravity and wildness. 
This is not education ; and, above all, this is not the education calculated to 
make good citizens. 

Education cultivates all the faculties of the human soul, the will as well 
as the understanding and memory. 

The ]iublic school system not only does not cultivate the -svill (for this 
can hardly be done -without the aid of religion), but it almost emancipates 
the will, even in the tender age of childhood, in reference to the subject of 
religion itself. We have found in the hands of our children lessons setting 
forth, in substance, that, after all, humane feelings and actions are about the 
best religion. 

In these schools you give them knowledge without the moderating prin- 
ciple which will direct its use, or prevent its being applied to the worst of 
purposes. What principle do you inculcate that will check the lie that is 
rising to their lips, or cause confusion on their brow when they have uttered 
it ? None. Religion could accomplish this, but religion is excluded. If 
you tell them there is a God who w ill punish them, the atheist father, who 
thinks himself an honest man without God, and who thinks his own opin- 
ions good enough for his child, will appeal to the decision of the Common 
Council, and show that you violate the condition of the grant in favor of 
common schools, by speaking of God, or any thing sectarian. What prin- 
ciples of self-restraint are inculcated in this spurious system of education, 
which leaves the mil of the pupil to riot in the fierceness of unrestrained 
lusts ? " Train up a child in the way in which he should walk, and when 
he is old he will not depart from it," is the maxim of one who judged of 
human nature with more than Iniman penetration. But the Common Coun- 
cil has reversed it, and decided that the child will train up itself, provided 
you give it knowledge without religion. 

Thus far, fellow-citizens, we have stated our objections to the present 
system of common school education, not as they affect us more than any 
other denomination of Christians. 

Wc have stated them in view of the liearing which that sytem is likely 
to have on interests in which you are concerned as much as, or more than, 
ourselves, viz., religion, morals, individual and social happiness, and the wel- 
fare of the State. 

We believe it was the warning voice of the illustrious Washington, 
among the most solemn words of the- patriot, breathed into the ear of his 
beloved country, to heware of the man who would inculcate morality uithout 
religion. 

We now come to the statement of grievances which affect us iu our civil 
and religious rights as Roman Catholics. 

Under the guarantee of liberty of conscience, we profess the religion 
which we believe to be true and pleasing to God. 

We inherit it (many of us) from our persecuted fathers, for we are the 
sons of martyrs in the cause of religious freedom. 

Our conscience obliges us to transmit it to our children. 

A brief experience of the public school system in the city of New York 
convinced us that we could not discharge our conscientious duty to our off- 
spring if we allowed them to be brought up under the influence of the irre- 
ligious principles on which these scliools are conducted, and to some of 
which we have already alluded. But, besides these, there were other 
grounds of distrust and danger, which soon forced on us the conclusion that 
the benefits of public education were not for vs. Besides the introduction 
of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment, with the prevailing theory 
that from these even children are to get their notions of religion, contrary 
to our principles, there were, in the class-books of those schools, false (as we 
believe) historical statements respecting the men and things of past times, 
calculated to fill the minds of our children with errors of fact, and at the 



336 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

same time to excite in them prejudice against the religion of their parents 
and guardians. These passages were not considered as sectarian, inasmuch 
as they had been selected as mere reading-lessons, and -were not in fwoor of 
any particular sect, but merely against the Catholics. We feel it is unjust 
that such passages should be taught at all in schools to the support of 
which we are contributors as well as others. But that such books should ' 
be put into the hands of our otc/i children, and that in part at our own 
expense, was, in our opinion, unjust, unnatural, and, at all events, to us in- 
tolerable. Accordingly, through very great additional sacrifices, we have 
been obliged to provide schools under our churches, and elsewhere, in which 
to educate our children as our conscientious duty required. This we have 
done to the number of some thousands for several years past, during all 
which time we have been obliged to pay taxes ; and we feel it unjust and 
oppressive that, whilst we educate our children as well, we contend, as they 
would be at the public schools, we are denied our portion of the school 
fund, simply because we at the same time endeavor to train them up in prin- 
ciples of virtue and religion. This we feel to be unjust and unequal. For 
we pay taxes in proportion to our numbers, as other citizens. We are sup- 
posed to be from one hundred and til'ty to two hundred thousand in the 
State. 

And although most of us are poor, still the poorest man amongst us is 
obliged to pay taxes from the sweat of his brow, in the rent of his room or 
little tenement. Is it not, then, hard and unjust that such a man cannot 
have the benetit of education for his child without sacrificing the rights of 
his religion and conscience ? He sends his child to a school under the pro- 
tection of his Church, in which these rights will be secure. But he has 1o 
support this school also. In Ireland he was compelled to support a Church 
hostile to his religion ; and here he is compelled to support schools in 
which his religion fares but little better, and to supj5ort his own school 
besides. 

Is this state of things, fellow-citizens, and especially Americans, is this 
state of things worthy of you, worthy of your country, worthy of our just 
and glorious Constitution ? Put yourselves in the poor man's place, and say 
whether you would not despise him, if he did not labor by every lawful 
means to emancipate himself from this bondage. He has to pay double tax- 
ation for the education of his child — one to the misinterpreted law of the 
land, and another to his conscience. He sees his child going to school with 
perhaps only the fragment of a worn-out book, thinly clad, and its bare feet 
on the frozen pavement ; whereas, if he had his rights, he could improve the 
clothing, he could get better books, and have his child better taught, than 
it is possible in actual circumstances. 

Nothing can be more false than some statements of our motives which 
have been put forth against us. 

It has been asserted that we seek our share of the school fund for the 
support and advancement of our religion. 

We beg to assure you, with respect, that we would scorn to support or 
advance our religion at any other than our own expense. But we are unwill- 
ing to pay taxes for the purjiose of destroying our religion in the minds of 
our children. This points out the sole difference between what we seek 
and what some narrow-minded or misinformed journals have accused us of 
seeking. 

If the public schools could have been constituted on a principle which 
would have secured a perfect ncutruJity of influence on the subject of re- 
ligion, then we should have no reason to complain. But this has not been 
done, and we respectfully submit that it is impossible. The cold indiffer- 
ence with which it is required that all religions shall be treated in those 
schools — the Scriptures without note or comment — the selection of passages 
as reading-lessons from Protestant and prejudiced authors, on points in 



EXPUEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. " 337 

which our creed is supposed to be involved — ^the comments of the teacher, 
of which the commissioners cannot be cognizant — the school libraries, 
stuffed j vith s ectarian works against us — form against our religion a combi- 
nation of influences pr^iidicial, and to whose action it would be criminal in 
us to expose our children at such an age. 

Such, fellow-citizens, is a statement of the reasons of our opposition to 
the public schools, and of the unjust and unequal grievances of which we 
complain. 

You can judge of our rights by your own. You cannot be expected to 
know our religion ; many of you have, no doubt, strong prejudices against 
it, which we are fain to ascribe precisely to the circumstance of your not 
having had an opportunity to know it. 

But, notwithstanding your jjrejudices and your disapproval of our faith, 
we have confidence in your high principles of justice, under the sanction of 
our common Constitution, which secures equal religious and civil rights to 
all. Put yourselves in our situation, and say whether it is just, or equal, or 
constitutional, that, whereas we are contrilDutors to the public funds, we 
shall be excluded from our share of benefit in their expenditure, unless we 
submit to the arbitrary and irreligious conditions of the Common Council, 
and thereby violate our rights of conscience ? 

Our religion is dear to us ; for in the hearts of many of us it is connect- 
ed with the history of our fathers' sufl'erings and our own. Education is 
dear to us, for the tyrants who wished to enslave our ancestors and us, made 
it criminal felony for the schoolmaster to come among us, unless he were the 
avowed enemy of our creed. 

We seek for nothing but what we conceive to be our rights, and which 
can be granted without violating or abridging the privileges of any other 
denomination or individual breathing. They may be refused, as they have 
been. If they should, neither shall we yet sufii'er our children to receive the 
anti-religious education of the public schools, nor shall we kiss the hand 
that fixes a blot on the Constitution, by oppressively denying our just 
claims. 

What do we contend for ? Simply that our children shall be educated 
apart from these influences. We contend for liberty of conscience and freedom 
of education. We hold that the laws of nature, of religion, and the very 
Constitution of the country, secure to parents the right of superintending 
the education of their own children. 

This right we contend for, but we have hitherto been obliged to exercise 
it under the unjust disadvantages of double taxation. If the State, consid- 
ering our children as its own, grants money for their education, are we not 
entitled to our portion of it when we perform the services wliich are re- 
quired ? 

It appears not, according to the decision of the Common Council, unless 
we send our children to schools in which our religious rights are to be vio- 
lated, and our off^spring qualified to pass over to the thickening ranks of 
infidelity. This shall not be. Much as we dread ignorance, we dread this 
much more. 

If justice were done us, we could increase the number of our teachers to 
a proportion corresponding with the number of children. We could im- 
prove our means of teaching ; we could bring our children out of the damp 
basements of our churches into pure air of better localities. In a word, 
give us our just proportion of the common school fund, and if we do not 
give as good an education apart from religious instruction as is given in the 
public schools, to one third a larger number of children, for the same money, 
we are willing to renounce our just claim. Let the proper authorities appoint 
any test of improvement that shall be general, and we shall abide by it. 
Neither do we desire that any children shall attend our schools except those 

22 



338 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

K)f our own communion — although, so far as tee are concerned, they shall be 
lopen to all. 

In a country like this, it is the interest of all to protect the guaranteed 
rights of each. Should the professors of some weak or unpopular religion 
be oppressed to-day, the experiment may be repeated to-morrow on some 
other. Every successful attempt in that -way will embolden the spirit of 
encroachment and diminish the power of resistance ; and, in such an event, 
the monopolizers of education, after having discharged the office of public 
tutor, may find it convenient to assume that of public preacher. The tran- 
sition will not be found difficult or unnatural from the idea of a common 
school to that of a common religion, from which, of course, in order to 
make it popular, all Christian sectarianism will be carefully excluded. 

" Resist the beginnings," is a wise masim in the preservation of rights. 

Should the American people ever stand by and tolerate the open and 
authoritative violation of their Magna Charta, then the republic will have 
seen the end of its days of glory. 

The friends of liberty throughout the civilized world will fold their 
Iiands in grief and despair. The tyrants of the earth will point to the flag 
which your fathers planted, and cry, Ha ! ha ! 

The nations from afar will gaze upon it, and behold with astonishment 
its bright stars faded, and its stripes turned into scorpions. 

The above address was unanimously adopted at a general meeting of the 
Catholics of the city of New York, in the school-room of St. James' Church, 
August 10th, 1840, having been submitted by 

t JonN Hughes, Bishop of BasilcopoJis, ] 
Coadjutor and Administrator of tlie \ 
Diocese of New YorTc. ( 

Hugh Sweeny, | 

Thomas O'Connor, | 

James W. McKeos, \ Committee. 

Gregory Dillon, 

J. W. White, | 

B. O'Connor, | 

James Kelly, I 

John McLoughlin. J 

F. 
REPLY 

OP THE TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY TO THE ADDRESS OF 
THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. 

Fellow-citizens : The Roman Catholics of the city of New York, hav- 
ing appealed to you against a recent decision of the Common Council reject- 
ing their petition for a portion of the school fund for the support of their 
church schools, and having seen fit to prefer charges of a gross and serious 
nature against the present system of public instruction in the city of New 
York, the trustees of the public schools feel it to be a duty which they owe 
to themselves, and to the community who have, for more than thirty years, 
in great measure confided to them the important subject of common educa- 
tion, to reply, and disabuse the public mind. 

It is proper, at the threshold, to remove an important error which per- 
vades almost every part of the address. It assumes that the jjlan of with- 
holding the proceeds of the school fund and other school moneys from 
religious societies, is peculiar to the city of New York, and speaks of the 
late decision of the Common Council as something new ; whereas neither 
the Constitution nor laws of the State contemplate any such use of the fund. 



EXPURGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 339 

It never was so appropriated in any part of the State, except during a few 
years in the city of New York. This experiment resulted, inconsiderable as 
the amount then was, as it ever must result — in producing jealousies and 
abuses, which induced a repeal of the law nearly twenty years ago. The 
recent decision of the Common Council was, therefore, only in- contirmation 
of a previous one, and was in strict accordance with the Constit ution, the 
laws, and practice of the State. ;And it is worthy of special^remark, as evi- 
dence of the^sounclness of the conclusion, that the vote was unanimous, 
every member being present. 

With such portions of the address as relate to the general question, 
whether the school money shall or shall not be given to religious societies 
for the support of church schools, it is not proposed to detain you long. 
This question has been so conclusively settled by public opinion, and the 
consequent action of our legislative bodies, that, to enter upon a discussion 
of it now, might be considered an insult oflercd to the understanding of the 
people. There is, perhaps, no one. axiom connected with our political insti- 
tutions which is more strongly impressed on the mind of an American than 
this : " Religious establishments must not be supported by general taxa- 
tion." In the primary question, the Trustees of the Public School Society 
have no interest that is not common to every citizen. In all that relates to 
the quality and management of the public schools, they feel a deep interest, 
and hold themselves strictly responsible to public opinion and the consti- 
tuted authorities. It is proper, therefore, that the allegations contained in 
the address of the Roman Catholics be either admitted or refuted. They 
are of a grave and serious character, and such as should, if true, justly de- 
prive the trustees of the confidence which has been so long reposed in them. 
But they are not true, nor is there even an attempt made in the address to 
sustain them by evidence. Bold assertion, vague generalizing, and mystical 
reasoning, are alone relied upon. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to 
follow the address through all the forms and windings it is made to assume, 
in endeavoring to fasten upon the public school system of education features 
the most odious to a moral and religious people. That document asserts 
that, according to the late decision of the Common Council, " if you should 
allow the smallest ray of religion to enter the school-room — if you should 
teach the children that there is an eye which sees every wicked thought, 
that there is a God, a state of rewards and punishments beyond this life, 
then you would forfeit all claim to the bounty of the State." It also .avers 
that " the public school system in the city of New York is entirely favorable 
to the sectarianism of infidelity, and opposed only to that of positive Chris- 
tianity ; " that " it prepares the pupil for initiation into the mysteries of 
Fanny-Wrightism, or any other scheme of infidelity which may come in 
their way ; " that " it is calculated to make bad and dangerous citizens ; that 
no principle is inculcated that will check the lie that is rising to the impil's 
lip, or cause confusion on their brow when they have uttered it ; " tliat it 
■' leaves the will of the pupil to riot in the fierceness of unrestrained lusts." 
But we forbear. These are, indeed, high and serious charges. Happily for 
the reputation of the city, and the welfere of the thousands who have re- 
ceived and are receiving their education in the public schools, they are as 
unfounded as they are monstrous. Even the authors of the address shrink 
from a picture of their own coloring, and declare that they do not mean to 
say " that either the Legislature, Common Council, or School Commission- 
ers, ever intended such perversions." 

What, then, fellow-citizens, do they mean? The answer is obvious. 
They claim to have discovered thit the illustrious men who originated our 
admirable system of common school education, the framers of our State 
Constitution, and the successive legislative bodies who have enacted laws on 
the suljject— in short, that the whole people of the State of New York, have 
been, for nearly thirty years, laboring under a gross and dangerous delusion ; 



340 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

and it follows, by necessary implication, that the authors of the address are 
the exclusive judges of what constitutes religion, and of the kind of educa- 
tion adajjted to American citizens. 

It is a most extraordinary feature of this address, that, with the school- 
books in their hands, not a quotation is made to sustain their charges ; and 
the only book objected to by name is " The Holy Scriptures without note or 
comment." 

Strange inconsistency ! They charge us with teaching infidelity and a 
religion adverse to Christianity, and yet condemn us for using, unless accom- 
panied by their own explanation, that which is the foundation of the Chris- 
tian religion, and which believers and unbelievers unite in pronouncing the 
most perfect code of morals ever presented to the world. 

The trustees of the public schools did suppose that, by introducing the 
Holy Scriptures into the schools, they would not only avoid the charge of 
teaching " infidelity and Fanny- Wrightism," but that, in using the impres- 
sive and sublime language of the inspired penmen, " without note or com- 
ment," they would disarm the jealousy and quiet the fears of all who believe 
in the Sacred Volume. Had they attempted to enforce the peculiar views 
of any who deduce their religious doctrines from the Scriptures, they would 
justly have incurred the charge of " sectarianism." But, says the address, 
religion is not taught in any form. It is true that religion is not taught in 
the sense that reading, writing, arithmetic, and geography are, nor was it 
ever intended that it should form a branch of jjublic instruction. Our Con- 
stitution and laws have wisely omitted to provide for such instruction at the 
public expense, and have left it where it belongs — to the parent and pastor, 
and religious seminaries, sujaported by the voluntary contributions of its 
votaries. 

The reading-books used in tlie public schools are the same as those used 
in private schools of a similar grade in which children of various religious 
persuasions, including those of our more wealthy fellow-citizens of tho 
Roman Catholic Church, are educated. 

Many of them contain the best, most sublime, and impressive essays on 
morals and religion that can be found in the English language, and are cal- 
culated to impress on the young mind a belief in the existence of God, the 
immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments. 
They picture vice in its naked deformity, and present virtue in her most 
pleasing and attractive colors. 

Let the records of our criminal courts, our prisons, and the receptacles 
for those who, by reason of " rioting in the fierceness of unrestrained lusts," 
have become a public charge, be examined with reference to the eilect of our 
system of education on the mind and morals, as compared with any other 
system, and the result will be found highly fiivorable to the public schools. 

Let the characters of the tens of tliousands who have been educated at 
these schools be inquired into with a view to ascertain their value as citizens 
and their love of truth, as compared with those who have received their 
education by the opposite system, in this or any other country, and the 
friends of the " public schools in the city of New York " have nothing to 
fear from the result. 

The address states that books have been found in the hands of Catholic 
children " setting forth in substance, that, after all, humane feelings and 
actions are about the best religion." The eminent prelate who read the 
address, and said that he was concerned in drafting it, on the same occasion 
read to the assembly, from one of the school-books, a story entitled " Sun- 
day Morning." It is a dialogue between a father and son, and is evidently 
intended to convey a twofold moral : one, that worship is a work of the 
" mind and spirit," and that, when these are right, it will be acceptable in 
the Divine sight, however various in form and ceremony ; and, by an acci- 
dent which is made to happen to a poor man in the street, as the several 



EXPTJEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 341 

concregations are retiring from their respective places of 'worsliij?, it further 
aims to inculcate the doctrine that the Christian religion, in whatever form 
professed, leads to humane feelings and actions." The story occurs ia the 
" American Popular Lessons," p. 124, and is certainly any thing but " secta- 
rian." This is clearly the story referred to, and it assumes importance be- 
cause it furnishes data -whereby to estimate the charges against the public 
schools, and the books used in them, of which the address is so prolific. 

There are portions of the address that it is difficult, if not impossible, 
to understand, or reconcile -with other portions. One objection to the public 
school system is, that, in excluding the " different creeds of the various de- 
nominations," '' the Christian religion necessarily is banished from the halls 
of public education." Yet it declares that " the Roman Catholics are 
opposed to the admission of sectarianism of any and every kind in the 
schools that ai-e sujjported by the State." The questions then occur. Will 
they exclude religious instruction from the Catholic schools ? and, if so, in 
■what will they differ from the public schools ? If they teach " science with- 
out religion," will it not, according to their own showing, produce "enlight- 
ened villany," and be liable to the awful consequences which they predicate 
of the system denounced ? If, on the other hand, they mean — as they cer- 
tainly must — to teach the Roman Catholic religion, how can they ask " to 
be supported by the State " ? 

They say that " they could not discharge their conscientious duty to 
their offspring, if tbey allowed them to be brought up under the irreligious 
principles on which the public schools are conducted ; " tod, while they ask 
of the State the means of supporting tbeir schools, that they may train up 
tMeir children " in principles of virtue and religion," they assure the public 
that they " would scorn to support or advance their religion at any other 
than their own expense." 

A solution of some of these incongruities may, perhaps, be found in the 
fact that they do not class themselves among " sectarians," or " denomina- 
tions of Christians," but claim to be emphatically "The Church." However 
sincerely and confidently they may entertain this view of the subject, can 
they, fellow-citizens, with propriety ask you to sustain the Legislature in 
giving it the high sanction of legal enactment ? We think you will unite 
with us in saying, No ! 

That portion of the address which contains a statement of the grievances 
which are thought to affect the Roman Catholics in their " civil and reli- 
gious rights," remains to be considered. And the trustees approach it with 
the seriousness which its importance demands. 

The absence of a large portion of the Catholic children of this city from 
the public schools has been cause of deep and abiding regret to the trustees. 
At various times during the last ten years, efforts have been made to remove 
the obstacles to their attendance. Propositions have again and again been 
submitted to the Roman Catholic clergy to institute a joint examination of 
the books used in the public schools, with a view to their expurgation from 
every thing obnoxious to Catholic censure ; Ijut these overtures have not, the 
trustees regret to say, been met in the spirit in which they were made. 
Within the present year, a committee was appointed by the Board of Trus- 
tees to " examine the books in use in the public schools, including those in 
the libraries, with a view to ascertain and report whether they contain any 
thing derogatory to the Roman Catholic Church or any of its religious 
tenets, with power to communicate with such persons of that Church as may 
be authorized to meet them in reference to such alterations." An mterview 
was accordingly procm-ed with a dignitary of the Catholic Church, which, 
after a full and apparently a frank interchange of views, resulted in his con- 
senting to receive a copy of each book used in the public schools, and an 
understanding that he would commtmicate with the committee when he had 
examined them. 



343 THE rUELIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

rending this effort to reconcile conflicting opinions and views, and be- 
fore any communication is made to the committee, the Catholic press teems 
with misrepresentations of the j)ub]ic schools and abuse of the trustees, 
which are followed up by the address now under review ; and that, too, 
after positive assurances had been given that every thing should be removed 
from the school-books to which they might see fit to object. 

It is, therefore, evident that no expurgation — nothing of a mere negative 
character — will satisfy the Roman Catholic clergy. If the doctrines of their 
Church be not taught, nothing can be which they would not pronounce 
I'.eretical, and " adverse to Christianity." Even the Holy Scriptures are sec- 
tarian and dangerous, " without note or comment ; "' and certainly no com- 
nients would be acceptable other than those of their own Church. Tht 
address does, indeed, declare, that " if the public schools could have been 
constituted on a principle which would have secured a perfect neutrality of 
influence on the subject of religion," then they would have no reason to 
complain ; but in the same paragraph, they are careful to declare that sucli 
consummation is impossible. And why impossible ? we would ask, unless 
one of the parties enters upon the undertaking with feelings of exclusiveness 
which forbid a compromise. 

It is known that a large portion of the bishops and clergy of the Estab- 
lished and other Protestant Cliurches, and a majority of the Roman Catho- 
lic bishops of Ireland, have agreed upon a general system of education, and 
a collection of extiacts from the Sacred Sciiptures, for the national schools 
of that country. At the conference just referred to, tlie question was dis- 
tinctly put, whether the objection of the Catholic clergy to the public 
schools, so far as regards reading the Scriptures without note or comment, 
would be removed by the use of these extracts in them ? The answer was, 
that the dissentmg bishops had appealed to the pope against the majority 
of their body, and, as His Holiness had not yet settled the question, he wa,=i 
not prepared to give an answer. The trustees very much regret that circum- 
stances have placed them in a situation which renders this exposition neces- 
sary. But they could not do less, iind discharge their duty to themselves 
and the public. 

It now remains to speak of the real causes of complaint which the Ro- 
man Catholics have against the public schools. The books selected for the 
children have, from the first, been those used and most highly esteemed as 
school-books. The passages objected to, or nearly all of them, are histori- 
cal, and relate to what is generally called the Reformation. The writers 
were Protestants, and took a view of the men and incidents of that excited 
and eventful period directly opposed to those entertained by the members 
of the Roman Catholic Church. These portions must, of course, be offen- 
sive to Catholics, and they furnislj just cause of complaint. The books in 
all other respects are admirably adapted to the uses for which they were 
compiled. The objectionable passages are not numerous, but the books are 
not to be found without them. Had the overtures of the trustees for a joint 
examination been acceded to, expurgated editions would long ago have been 
prepared for the public schools. 

The difficulty of procuring books entii'ely exempt from objection cannot, 
perhaps, be more forcibly illustrated than by the fact that one work, con- 
taining passages as liable to objection as almost any other, is now used as a 
class-book even in the Catholic schools. It is the intention of the trustees, 
nevertheless, to prosecute the work of expm-gation until every jUst cause of 
complaint is removed. The use of one very excellent work has been recent- 
ly suspended, until a few passages, objectionable on the ground alluded to, 
can be obliterated. The cooperation of the Catholic clergy is, however, 
very desirable, inasmuch as it is abundantly evident that the most careful 
and vigilant scrutiny on the part of the trustees may not enable them to 
detect every thing that the former would exclude. 



EXPUKGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 343 

At the same time that the trustees feel that, in yielding to the conscien- 
tious scruples of the Roman Catholics, they are bound to protect the feelings 
and interests of the Protestant Churches, they are even disposed to remove 
reading-matter to which they can see no objection, because it cannot be 
doubted that the fertile iield of English literature will still furnish an amijle 
supply. 

A hope still lingers that every obstacle may be removed, and that their 
fellow-citizens of the Roman Catholic Church may be induced to permit 
their children to ]5art!cipate in the advantages which the public schools un- 
deniably afford. For the attainment of this desirable end the trustees will 
make every sacriBce compatible with justice and propriety. 

They remain ready and anxious to joiir with the Roman Catholics in 
efforts so to model the books and studies in the public schools as to obviate 
existing difficultits. They think that it may be done. But if — as was the 
case in the Irish national schools — an appeal to the pope should be neces- 
sai-y, they are free to confess, in the language of the address, that " a perfect 
neutrality of influence on the subject of religion " is indeed " impossible." 

The trustees are strongly impressed with the importance of the religious 
culture of the minds of youth. The jjublic schools are open for ordinary 
purposes only thirty hours iu each week. Two entire days of each week 
may be devoted to instruction m the peculiar religious views of those whose 
inclination and sense of duty may prompt them to bestow the labor. Jlost 
of the public school buildings are now occupied on the Sabbath by Sunday 
schools. There is room for more, and the Roman Catholics have repeatedly 
been told that the school buildings were as open to them as to others. 

Moreover, fellow-citizens, the trustees would observe that, if a portion of 
the school fund is given to the Roman Catholics for the support of their 
Church schools, it will be impossible to refuse the same boon to other 
Churches — in sliort, to all who may object, on conscientious grounds, to a 
general system of education. The effect would inevitably be, to destroy the 
present excellent establishment, and to introduce in its place innumerable 
small and inferior schools, in which, or in a part of them at least, the public 
money would be frittered away in efforts to establish in the minds of the 
rising generation the creeds and dogmas of each division and subdivision 
of the Christian Church. 

In urging their rights of conscience, the Roman Catholics appear to have 
lost sight of the important fact, that a great proportion of their fellow-citi- 
zens would think their own rights of conscience violated in being taxed for 
the support of Catholic schools. 

That religion, as a branch of study, should be excluded from the system 
of common school instruction, is the well-settled policy of the State ; and 
even political men are agreed that it is scarcely of secondary importance 
that it should be exempted from the blighting influence of party politics. 
On both these points the trustees have, to the best of their ability, guarded 
the public school system. 

In selecting teachers, no regard is had to the religious profession of the 
candidate. Moral character and qualifications for the important station are 
alone looked to. Those now employed embrace a variety of religious per- 
suasions, including six or seven of the Roman Catholic faith. 

In submitting the foregoing reply to the " Address of the Roman Catho- 
lics," the trustees of the public schools take occasion to say, that the duties 
they have assumed are as arduous as they are responsible. About one hun- 
dred of your fellow-citizens are engaged in this work, uniting in their num- 
ber men of almost every religious persuasion and of every political pai-ty. 
Upon a faithful and judicious discharge of their dutfes depends, in no small 
degree, the future welfare of the city, and, to some extent, the continued 
prosperity of our beloved country. More than eleven thousand visits were 
made to the schools by the trustees during the past year. From these labore 



344 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

neither emolument nor honor arc derived. Other and higher motives have 
induced the sacrifice. 

Finally, the trustees invite the public, and the officers of Government, to 
institute a rigid examination of the present system. If a better can be de- 
vised, they -will cheerfully surrender a trust which has afforded them no 
reward other than a consciousness of having done their duty. Without 
such examination, they feel assured that nothing -n-ill be done to disturb its 
operation. 

An entire separation between Church and State is a prominent feature 
of our political compact. History is pregnant with the awful consequences 
of their union. Even in the arbitrary governments of Europe, slow as they 
are to correct abuses, the bands that unite them are becoming weaker and 
weaker ; and it is confidently believed that the people of the State of New 
York are not jirepared to take the first step in a retrograde course. 

Robert C. Cornell, President. 
A. P. Halsey, Secretanj. 

New York, August 27, 1840. 



G. 

Scptemier 15, 1840. 

To THE Eight Rev. Dr. Hughes : 

The committee of the Trustees of the Public School Society to wliom has 
l)een assigned the duty of causing the school-books used in the public 
schools to be expurgated of the passages containing sentiments obnoxious 
to the Roman Catholic Church, have made some progress in their labors, 
and, having learned that the agent of the Board of Trustees placed in your 
hands, a short time since, at your request, copies of the various books used, 
ibr your examination, the committee are desirous of receiving from yoii, at 
your earliest convenience, a detailed specification of every passage by you 
deemed objectionable. 

The committee are anxious to avoid the necessity of repeating the labor 
and expense of expurgation ; and, being aware that many sentiments and 
opinions may be by you deemed exceptionable that would not strike the eye 
of a Protestant, however sincerely desirous of meeting your views, they feel 
the more in haste to be possessed of the result of your labors. 

It is a source of regret to the committee that the Very Rev. Br. Power, 
who was furnished, some months since, with copies of the books, has not 
communicated the result of his examination to them ; and the committee 
will take the liberty of suggesting that your own labor may be diminished, 
if you should see fit to avail yourself of whatever jjrogress he may have 
made in the work. 

On behalf of the committee, very respectfully, 

Joseph B. Collins. 



H. 

New Y'ork, Scplember 16, 1840. 

To Joseph B. Collins, Esq. : 

Deak Sib : I have just received your letter of this date, in relation to 
the expurgation of the books used in the public schools. I am at a loss to 
account for the supposition, on the part of your committee, that I was 
engaged in the special examination of objectionable passages, with a view 
to assist the committee in their laudable undertaking. This I should be 
most willing, however, to do, if luy many and incessant duties left me suffi- 
cient leisure for the purpose. 

I perceive, by the " Reply " of the trustees, that they are directing their 
attention to some of the principal passages. One of them, unless my memory 
fails me, I designated to one of your board more than eighteen months ago 



EXPtJEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 345 

^viz., the article about Huss, in " Putnam's Sequel ; " and it has remained 
untouched up to this time. 

AVith regard to the books which your agent had the kindness to send, I 
requested them through Dr. Hogan, without mcutiouing for what object, 
and never dreaming that the fact would have produced the impression that 
I was about to imdertake the labor of a critical investigation of their con- 
tents. The committee, indeed, profess their ■willingness to reject whatever I 
shall find objectionable. But do they not promise too much ? Now the 
fact is, that 1 wished to have the books in order to see on what ground the 
trustees of the public schools could, consistently with facts, state, as they 
did before the Board of Assistant Aldermen, that the Catholics had no rea- 
son to object to tlie system so far as " relates to books or exercises of any 
kind iu the public schools." This I should perhaps have stated, but the 
omission was purely accidental. 

I have the honor to be, with great respect, 

t JoHi; Hughes, Bishop, &c. 



I. 

Hesohcd, That it be referred to the Committee on Arts and Sciences, &c., 
to confer with the Commissioners of the Public Schools, and ascertain from 
them, and report to this board, whether any books of a sectarian character, 
or any books that contain any thing to the prejudice of any particular reli- 
gious sect, either as to faith or church discipline, are permitted in the public 
schools. 

New York, May 25; 1840. 

Dear Sir : By direction of the Committee on Arts and Sciences and 
Schools, of the Board of Aldermen, I have the honor to enclose to you (as 
above) a copy of a resolution offered by Alderman Chamberlain, and adopted 
at the last meeting of the Board, and to request that you will, at your earli- 
est convenience, communicate to me, as chairman of the committee, a list of 
the books used iu the schools established by the Public School Society. 
Very respectfully yours, 

David Graham, Jr., 
Chairman of the Committee on Arts and Sciences and Schools, of the Board of 

Aldermen. 
R. C. Cornell, 

President of Public School Society. 



To David Graham, Jr., Esq., Chairman of the Committee on Arts and Sci- 
ences and Sdtools, of the Board of Aldermen. 

The communication addressed to R. C. Cornell, President of the Public 
School Society of New York, under date of May 25, was laid before the 
E-xecutive Committee of the Board of Trustees at its monthly meeting held 
on June 4, and then referred to a committee appointed at a previous meet- 
ing on the very subject referred to by you. This is mentioned in order to 
account for what might otherwise appear to be an unnecessary delay in re- 
sponding to your note. I would premise that it has ever been the intention 
of the trustees of the public schools to divest them, as far as practicable, of 
every thing of a sectarian character ; and we are not aware that any of the 
books used in them have been deemed objectionable by any Church or soci- 
ety of religious purposes except the Roman Catholics. 

It has been known and lamented for years that the clergy of this Church 
have discouraged the attendance of the children of its members at the pub- 



346 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

lie schools ; and in 1834, a committee was appointed to wait on Bishop 
Dubois for the purpose of removing any reasonable ohjection he might have 
to the course of studies pursued aud the books used in the public schools, 
and to assure him of the wish of the trustees to alter or discontinue the use 
of any book agamst which a reasonable olijection may lay, and at the same 
time to invite the cooperation in the management of the iiublic schools of 
any lay member of the Catholic Church who feels an interest in the literary 
and moral culture of youth. This committee made a full report., embracing 
all the ijoints insisted on by the bishop as necessary to induce him to recom- 
meud the attendance of Catholic children at the public schools. Your com- 
mittee will be furnished with a copy of this report, if desired ; but it may I 
be sufficient to remark, that, to comply with all his propositions, would! 
have been to divest the schools of their neutral character, and make them I 
such as would necessarily have excluded the children of Protestant parents,/ 
To this, of course, the trustees could not assent. 

Desirous of doing all they could to induce the attendance of Catholic 
children, a teacher professing that ftiith was employed as principal of school 
No. 5, which is located near the cathedral in Jlott street. This experiment 
did not, however, answer the expectations of the trustees. The subject was 
again brought before the board by a verbal communication from the Rev. 
Mr. Varela, through one of the trustees. Whereupon the following proceed- 
ings were had, as appears by the minutes, from which the following are 
extracts : 

"The Vice-President stated that the Rev. Mr. Varela, of the Roman 
Catholie Church, had sent a request to be furnished with a set of the read- 
ing-books used in the public schools ; whereupon it was 

" Bssohed, That the secretary be requested to send a copy of eacli of said 
books to Mr. Varela, for his inspection. It was also unanimously Resolved, 
That this board continues to entertain an anxious desire to remove every 
objection which the members of the Catholic Church may have to the books 
used, or the studies pursued, in the public schools, and that the secretary be 
requested to renew the assurance given on a former occasion, that any sug- 
gestion or remarks which the Rev. Mr. Varela may deem it right to make on 
his own behalf, and that of his associates, after said books have been ex- 
amined, shall receive the most serious and respectful consideration of this 
board; 

" Mesolved, further, That a copy of these resolutions be sent with the 
books referred to." 

After a full opportunity to examine the books, a letter, of which the 
following is a copy, was received from the above-named gentleman : 

New York, April 8, 1840. 

Dear Sir : I received the books you had the kindness of sending to me, 
according to a resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Common Schools, 
in consequence of an infoiination given by one of them as to my wish of 
examining said books. I thank the Board of Trustees for this mark of good 
feeling, and, in order to comply with their request, I will express my opinion 
on the subject. 

The " Scripture Lessons " present, in the very title-page, an attack 
against the Catholic Church ; for it is expressly stated that they are without 
note or comment, so as to call the attenticm of a child, and to tell him, " Tour 
Church is wrong in giving the Bible always with notes ; disregard her, and 
read the Scriptures without any note or comment, and iind out a religion for 
yourself" This is to establish at once the Protestant fundamental principle, 
and to make the public schools completely sectarian. 

In the Geography (p. 143), it is said " that the Catholic clergy, who have 



EXPUEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 347 

vast influence, oppose the diffusion of general knowledge ; " and in the very 
nest page it is said that " Catholics pay very gi-eat reverence to the priests." 
It is very easy to perceive that a child will think very little of such a rever- 
ence, and lose every regard for such a ministry. 

There are also, in the description of Italy, some passages which evidently 
tend to diminish the consideration that a Catholic child has for the Catholic 
Church. I also noticed in the reading-book the description of the character; 
of Luther, with some expressions which, no doubt, will please tlie Protes- 
tants, but imply an attack against the Catholic Church. By making these 
few observations, I do not allude to the question as to the petition made liy 
the Catholics to obtain a part of the school funds, but I merely respond to 
the kindness of tlie Board of Trustees in sending me the books for examina- 
tion. 

With great respect, your obedient 
« Felix Varela. 

To A. P. Halset, Secretary^ &c. 

Your committee will be enabled to estimate the importance he attempts 
to attach to the notes on the title-page of the " Scripture Lessons." We 
can only say that the trustees had not the most remote intention of convey- 
ing the ideas or suggestions intimated in Dr. Varela's letter. 

The next objectionable passage occurs in Maltebrun's Geography, and it 
is certainly obnoxious to the charge made, as there is no way of removing 
this passage effectually, except by printing an edition expressly for the pub- 
lic schools ; and as this Geograjihy is, in all other respects, much preferable 
to any otlier extant, the trustees have 23ermitted the use of the present edi- 
tion without having, in several years, thought of applying a remedy. By 
way of apology, or at least in extenuation of this neglect, it may not be im- 
proper to state that the same book, with the passage objected to, is now 
used in the Catholic schools in this city. As the remaining objections re- 
ferred to by Dr. Varela are too general and indefinite to admit of a specific 
note here, we will proceed to state that the whole subject was again brought 
before the Board of Trustees at a meeting held last month, when the follow- 
ing proceedings took place : 

" The secretary read a letter from the Rev. Dr. Varela, in reply to a com- 
munication made to him by order of the board, with a set of the books 
used in the schools, whereupon it was 

" Sesohed, That a committee of five be appointed, to examine the books 
in use in the public schools, including those in the libraries, with a view to 
ascertain and report whether they contain any thing derogatory to the Ro- 
man Catholic Church or any of its religious tenets, with power to communi- 
cate with such persons of that Church as may be authorized to meet them 
in reference to such alterations. 

" Messrs. J. S. Rogers, Collins, Mott, J. F. Depeystcr, and Hogan, were 
appointed as the committee." 

At an early day after its appointment, the committee addressed a note 
to Dr. Power, the Vicar-General, requesting an interview with himself and 
others, for the purpose of discussing the subject referred to the committee. 
Such an interview took place on the 14th of last month, and resulted, after 
an open and frank interchange of views, in a request on the part of Dr. 
Power, that be might be furnished with a copy of each book used in the 
public sciiools. This request was promptly complied with. 

The books are now undergoing the careful review of a well-qualified 
member of the committee ; but inasmuch as there are doubtless passages 
which might not appear objectionable to the committee, but which tlie jeal- 
ous watchfulness 'and the religious duty of the Vicar-General would alike 



348 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

prompt Lim to detect, and as the committee is sincerely desirous of remov- 
ing every obstacle to the attendance of Catholic children at the public 
schools, it was thought best to omit reporting to the board till ample time 
is aiforded the objectors for investigation. 

Tliat the committee of the Common Council may be placed in possession 
of every fact and circumstance connected with this deeply interesting sub- 
ject, it piay be proper to add that, among the works passed upon and sanc- 
tioned by the Book Committee, the Executive Committee, and the Board of 
Trustees, as being suitable for the school library, was a collection of enter- 
taining and highly moral stories entitled, " Tenijierance Tales." These tales 
proved so popular, that the publishers were induced to issue volume after 
volume ; and the gentleman charged with tlie duty of jirocuring for the 
library all books ordered by the board, supposing that he was authorized to 
purchase the volumes issued subsequently to the date of the order, intro- 
duced into the library one volume which was afterward found to contain a 
story that is deemed objectionable by the Catholic clergy. This volume has 
been removed from all the school libraries. 

In conclusion, the committee of the Board of Trustees take occasion to 
renew the assurance, that every thing in their power shall be done to divest 
the public schools of a sectarian character or bias. 

The committee accompanied tLeir report to tlie Board of 
Trustees with a specification of some of the passages whicli they 
deemed exceptionable. They are as follows : 

New York Header. — Page 305, erase last paragraph. 

English Reader. — Page 51, strike out paragraph, " the Queen's bigoted 
zeal," &c., to " eternal welfare." Page 152, erase, "the most credulous monk 
in a Portuguese convent." 

Seqttel, MurrayU. — The whole article, " Life of Luther." Pages 84 and 
85, paste up " Execution of Cranmer." Page 379, erase, " and anon in pen- 
ance, planning sins anew." 

Putnam's Sequel. — ^Erase the article, '' John Huss." 

Maltebruii^s Geography. — Page 111, erase tirst five lines. Page 133, erase 
last paragraj)h, chapter 134. . Page 140, erase five lines from the top, " and 
there is no doubt the lower classes of Ireland are so." Page 145, erase, 
"inflict the most horrible tortures."' 'Page 148, erase, "Italy to be submit- 
ted to the Catholic bishop." Page 155, erase, " from their religion," down 
to " ceremonies." 

Ilale^s Histoi'y of the United States. — Page 11, erase, " from the jiersecu- 
tion of the Catholics," section 33. 

Scripture Lessons. — ^Erasc, in the title-page, the words, " without note or 
comment." 

The revision and expurgation of the hooks was continued 
under the direction of the board, and all the objectionable pas- 
sages were either stamped with ink from a wooden block, or the 
leaves pasted together or removed, or a volume discontinued as 
a text-book or library-book. This com-se, however, on the pai't 
of the trustees, was not satisfactory, and did not in the least 



EXPUEGATION OF SCHOOL BOOKS. 349 

abate tlie demands ot the applicants for a separate provision to 
be made for tlieii* scbools ii-om the school fund, and the contro- 
versy subsec^uently became more animated than ever before. 
The mutilated volumes were gradually worn out and rendered 
nnfit for use, and were replaced by new books, which were per- 
mitted to go into the schools without change or expurgation, and 
the discussion in reference to the text-books subsided. The 
action of the trustees was understood by a large portion of the 
public to have been in obedience to the direction and demands 
of the Catholic clergy ; and at the meeting of the Society held 
November C, 1840, the following declaration was submitted for 
adoption by the board : 

In consequence of unfounded rumors prevalent in the city, the Trustees 
of the New York Public School Society deem it proper to state that the 
obliterations in the books used in the public schools have been made under 
their direction, from an earnest desii-c to remove, as far as possible, all obsta- 
cles to the cooperation of every portion of the community with them in the 
business of public education. They further deem it proper to state, that 
this matter of expurgation has been long a subject of consideration with 
them, and has only been delayed for the reasons set forth in their address 
now before the public. 

After some discussion had upon this declaration, it was laid 
upon the table, where it was allowed to remain, and the agita- 
tion ceased. 



J50 IHE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOCIETT. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE SCHOOL CONTROVERSY OF 1841-1S42. 

Meeting of Roman Catholics at Washington Hall — Addresses by Rev. Dr. Power and 
Bishop Hughes — Central Committee Appointed — Ward Meetings and Committees 
— Petitions to the Legislature — Hon. John L. O'SulIivan's Bill — Action of the 
House of Assembly — Action in the Senate — Governor Seward's Message — Re- 
monstrance from the City of New York — Hon. John C. Spencer — Report on the 
School Question — The Committee on Literature — Speech of Hiram Ketchum — 
Memorial and Remonstrance of the Public School Society — Proceedings in the 
Senate — Speech of Bishop Huglies — Public Meetings of Catholics — Election of 
Members of the Legislature — Roman Catliolic Ticlcet Nominated. Note. — The 
Journal of Commerce — Review by one of its Contributors — Roman Catholic Ex- 
communications — Bishop Hughes — Tristam Shandy. 

The proceedings before the Common Council relative to the 
chiims of the Roman Catholics, were terminated by the vote 
adopting the report of the committee, submitted on the 11th of 
January, 1841. The result, although foreseen, was so decided 
in its character — only one member of the board having voted in 
the negative — that it gave little ground for expectation that the 
grievances complained of would be removed by that body. The 
committee of the Catholics, to whom the general care of the 
whole matter had been entrusted, accordingly called a meeting 
at Washington Hall, in Broadway, corner of Reade street, to be 
held on the 11th of February. 

A crowded auditory asssembled on the occasion, when Thomas 
O'CoNNon, Esq., was called to the chair, Francis Cooper and 
Gregory Dillon were named as vice-presidents, and B. O'Con- 
nor and Edward Shortill, secretaries. 

Rev. Dr. Power made the opening address, followed by 
Bishop Hughes, at the close of which, on motion of Dr. Hogan, 
it was 

Hesolced, That it is expedient to form a Central Committee, to be called 
" The Central Executive Committee on Common Scliools." 

James W. McKeon, Hugh Sweeney, M.D., Robert Hogan, 



KOMAN CATHOLIC COMiUTTEE OEGANIZED. 351 

M.D., James W. "White, and Thomas O'Connor, were named as 
the committee. 

On motion of James W. White, it Avas 

Jiesolsed, That it is expedient to call meetings in each ward, for the pur- 
pose of giving public expression to our sentiments in disapprobation of the 
public school system as at present existing in New York. 

On inoliou. of T. L. Danaher, it was 

Resolved, That the ward meetings be respectfully recommended to ap- 
point committees in their respective wards, for the purpose of obtaining sig- 
natures to a memorial to the honorable the Legislature, praying for such 
modification in the school system of this city and coimty as will afford to 
persons of every denomination, withput violation of their conscience, the 
advantages of the common school education provided by the bounty of the 
State. 

On motion of Hugh Sweeney, M.D., it was 

Ixesolved, That a committee of two shall be appointed by the meetings 
in each ward, whose duty it shall be to communicate with and to carry into 
effect in their res25ective wards the measures which may be recommended by 
the Central Executive Committee. 

Tlie resolutions were approved and adopted witli great en- 
thusiasm ; and a resolution tendering the thanks of the meeting 
to Alderman Peiitz, for his " independent and honorable conduct 
in voting against the report of the committee," was received 
with the most lively and earnest demonstrations of applause. 

The movement on the part of the Koman Catholics was thus 
fully organized, and the committees proceeded with great zeal 
and unanimity in the discharge of their several duties. Meet- 
ings were held, petitions were circulated, and signatures obtained 
to the number of about seven thousand. Mr. Joseph O'Connor, 
oil behalf of the committee, proceeded to Albany, and placed 
the memorial in the hands of Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck, a 
member of the New York delegation in the Senate, who prom- 
ised to present it to that body at the earliest day. Subsequent 
conferences between influential parties led to the adoption of an- 
other coutsc, as the presentation of tlie memorials from Eoman 
Catholics as a religious body was deemed inexpedient. They 
were returned to the committees of the Catholics, amended, and 
again placed in the hands of the Senator in the form of petitions 
from " Citizens of New Yokk." 



352 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL BOCIETY. 

On Saturday, March 13, Mr. John L. O'SuIlivan, a member 
of the Assembly from New York, gave notice that he would, on 
some future day, ask leave to introduce a bill, entitled, " An Act 
to Extend and Imjjrove the Benefits of Common School Educa- 
tion in the City of New York." On Monday following, he 
asked and obtained leave to introduce his bill, which was read 
the first time, and, by unanimous consent, was read the second 
time. Mr. O'SuIlivan then moved that the bill be referred to a 
select committee, consisting of the members of the House repre- 
senting the city of New York. Mr. Bryson moved that it be 
referred to the Standing Committee on Colleges, Academies, and 
Schools ; and, debate arising on the several motions, the subject 
was laid on the table under the rules. 

On Saturday, the 20th of March, Mr. O'SuIlivan called up 
the question, on the motion of Mr. Bryson, to refer his bill to 
the Committee on Colleges, &c., upon which some discussion 
was had, when the Speaker put the question whether the House 
would agree with the motion of Mr. Brj'son, and it was decided 
in the affirmative, and the bill was accordingly referred. The 
committee consisted of William Duer, of Oswego, William B. 
Maclay, of New York, Levi Hubbell, of Tompkins, Isaac N. 
Stoddard, of Genesee, and Edmund Elmendorf, of Dutchess. 

On Tuesday, March 30, Mr. O'SuIlivan offered a resolution 
that the Standing Committee on Colleges, Academies, and 
Schools be discharged from the consideration of the bill relative 
to common schools in the city of New York, and that the same 
be referred to a select committee. Mr. Shaw moved to amend 
the resolution, by adding, at the end, the words, " consisting of 
the delegation attending this House from the city and county of 
New York." Mr. Culver moved to amend the amendment, by 
striking out all after the words " consisting of," and inserting 
the words, " the mover of this resolution." Mr. W. F. Brod- 
head moved to lay the whole question on the table, which was 
lost, and a long debate ensued, pending which the House ad- 
journed. 

On Thursday, April 1, Mr. O'SuIlivan called up his resolu- 
tion of reference to a select committee. The i .^solution was 
read, together with the amendments, when Mr. Culver withdrew 
his amendment, and the Speaker put the question on the amend- 
ment of Mr. Shaw, to refer to the members of the New York 



GOVEENOE SEWAED's MESSAGE. 353 

delegation, which was agreed to by the House. The gentlemen 
comprising the delegation at that session were the following : 
AVilliam B. Maclay, Paul Grout, Norman liickok, Edmund J. 
Porter, Cornelius H. Bryson, Solomon Townsend, George Weir, 
David K. Floyd Jones, Absalom A. Miller, Conrad Swackhamer, 
AVilliam McMurray, Abraham B. Davis, and John L. O'Sullivan. 

On the 21st of the same month, the remonstrance of citi- 
zens of New York, against diverting the school fund from its 
legitimate objects was received from the Senate, and referred to 
the same committee. Tlie House adjourned without hearing any 
report on the matter, and the narrative of proceedings in the Sen- 
ate will not be mterrupted by the action of the Assembly. 

After the organization of the" Senate, the various topics of 
the message of Hon. "William H. Seward, the Governor, were 
referred to appropriate committees, and so much as related to 
colleges, academies, and common schools, the school fund, the 
literature fund, and the United States deposit fund, was referred 
to the Committee on Literature. Tliis committee was composed 
of Erastus Boot, of Delaware, John Hunter, of "Westchester, 
and Gulian C. Verplanck, of New York. 

Mr. Seward's recommendations arc contained in the follow- 
ing extract from his message : 

Previous to 1802, no foreigner could \ia naturalized until after a resi- 
dence of fourteen years. No one has better understood tlie tendency of 
republican institutions, or entertained more just views of the princiiiles upon 
which they were founded, than the illustrious citizen who in that year 
recommended to Congress an amelioration of the naturalization laws. " Con- 
sidering the ordinary chances of human life," he observed, " a denial of 
citizenship under a residence of fourteen years is a denial to a great portion 
of those who ask it, and controls a policy jDursucd from their first settle- 
ment by many of the States, and still believed to be of consequence to their 
prosperity. And shall we refuse the unhappy fugitives from distress that 
hospitality which the savages of the wilderness extended to our fathers- 
arriving in this land ? Shall oppressed humanity find no asylum on the 
globe ? The Constitution has wisely provided that, for admission to certain 
offices of trust, a residence shall be required sufficient to develop character 
and design. But might not the general character and capabilities of a citi- 
zen be safely communicated to every one manifesting a lond-Jide purpose of 
embarking his life and fortunes with us ? " In concurrence with these sug- 
gestions, Congress passed the act now in force concerning naturalization.. 
Probably half a million of persons have, since that time, complied with its 
provisions, and secured to themselves the rights of citizenship ; and thera 
23 



354 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

cannot now be less than half that number of electors of foreign birth in the 
United States. This class is largely increasing. The number of emigrants 
arriving at the port of New York, in 1828, was about twenty thousand. 
The number in 1840 was sixty-one thousand. Although the liberal and 
enlightened opinions of Jefferson have been the settled policy of the coun- 
try for almost forty years, yet an issue is still maintained upon those opin- 
ions between a portion of our fellow-citizens and those to whom the law, 
passed in conformity with those sentiments, has given a full participation in 
our political rights and privileges. Hence arise mutual jealousies. The con- 
sequences of these jealousies are seen in the separation and alienation of 
classes having common interests; in the misfortunes of the weaker, in appre- 
hensions of insecurity on the part of the stronger, and in the demoralization 
of portions of both ; in frauds at elections, and fraudiilent proceedings 
under the naturalization laws. The policy and measures which I have 
recommended have heretofore had for their object the elevation of the social 
condition of emigrants, and tlie assimilation of their habits, principles, and 
opinions with our own. 

Not much, however, can be accomplished by legislation to affect the rela- 
tions between masses of adult citizens, and the change desired in this respect 
must be left chiefly to time and the operation of our institutions. But it is 
not so in regard to the rising generation. The census of the United States 
is said to show that there are forty-three thousand eight hundred and sev- 
enty-one white persons in this State who have passed the age of twenty-one 
years without having learned to read and write. Let us make any allow- 
ance for any portion of adult foreigners, and there yet remains a large num- 
ber of uneducated native citizens. The number of children now growing 
up in the same manner does not fall short of thirty thousand. These are 
the offspring, not of prosperity and affluence, but of poverty and misfor- 
tune. Knowing, from the records of our penitentiaries, that, of this neg- 
lected class, those are often most fortunate who, from jsrecocity in vice, secure 
admission into the House of Refuge or the State Piison, through the ways 
of crime ; and knowing, too, that almost every application for pardon is 
urged on the ground of neglected education, I have felt it an imperative 
duty to appeal to the Legislature to render our system of education as com- 
prehensive as the pur^joses for which it was established. Of one thousand 
and fifty-eight children in the Almshouse of the city of New York, one 
sixth part is of American parentage, one sixth part was born aljroad, and 
the remainder are the children of foreigners ; and of two hundred and fifty 
children in the House of Refuge, more than one half v.ere either bom 
abroad, or of foreign jjarents. The poverty, misfortunes, accidents, and 
prejudices to which foreigners are exposed, satisfactorily account, to my 
mind, for the undue proportion of their children in the neglected class to 
which the attention of the Legislature was called. Although the excellent 
public schools in the city of New York are open to all, and have long 
afforded gratuitous instruction to all who seek it, nevertheless the evil there 
■exists in its greatest magnitude. Obviously, therefore, something more is 
necessary to remove it than has yet been done, unless we assume that society 



GOVERNOE SEWAEd's MESSAGE. 355 

consents to leave it without a remedy. These circumstances led me to the 
reflection, that possibly a portion of those whom other efibrts had failed to 
reach might be brought within the nurture of the schools, by employing for 
their instruction teachers who, from their relations toward them, might be 
expected to secure their confidence. When the census of 1850 shall be 
taken, I trust it will show that, within the borders of the State of New 
York, there is no child of sufficient years who is unable to read and write. 
I am sure it will then be acknowledged, that when, ten years before, there 
were thirty thousand children growing up in ignorance and vice, a sugges- 
tion to seek them wherever found, and win them to the ways of knowledge 
and virtue by persuasion, sympathy, and kindness, was prompted l)y a sin- 
cere desire for the common good. I have no pride of opinion concerning 
the manner in which the education of those whom I have brought to your 
notice shall be secured, although I might derive satisfaction from the reflec- 
tion that, amid abundant misrepresentations of the method suggested, no 
one has contended that it would be ineffectual, nor has any other plan been 
proposed. I observe, on the contrary, with deep regret, that the evil remains 
as before : and the question recurs, not merely how, or by whom, shall in- 
struction be given, but whether it shall be given at all, or be altogether 
withheld. Others may be content with a system that erects free schools and 
offers gratuitous instruction ; but I trust I shall be allowed to entertain the 
opinion, that no system is perfect which does not accomijlish what it pro- 
poses ; that our system, ftierefore, is deficient in comprehensiveness in the 
exact proportion of the children that it leaves uneducated ; that knowledge, 
however acquired, is better than ignorance ; and that neither error, acci- 
dent, nor prejudice, ought to be permitted to deprive the State of the edu- 
cation of her citizens. Cherishing such opinions, I could not enjoy the con- 
sciousness of having discharged my duty, if any cflFort had been omitted 
which was calculated to bring within the schools all who are destined to 
exercise the rights of citizenship ; nor shall I feel that the system is perfect, 
or liberty safe, until that object be accomplished. Not personally concerned 
about such misapprehensions as have arisen, but desirous to remove every 
obstacle to the accomplishment of so important an object, I verily declare 
that I seek the education of those whom I have brought before you, not to 
perpetuate any prejudices or distinctions which deprive them of instruction, 
but in disregard of all such distinctions and prejudices. I solicit their edu- 
cation less from sympathy, than because the welfare of the State demands it, 
and cannot dispense with it. As native citizens, they are born to the right 
of suffrage. I ask that they may at least be taught to read and write ; and, 
in asking this, I require no more for them than I have diligently endeavored 
to secure to the inmates of our penitentiaries, who have forfeited that inesti- 
mable franchise by crime, and also to an unfortimatc race which, having 
been plunged by us into degradation and ignorance, has been excluded from 
the franchise by an arbitrary property qualification incongruous with all our 
institutions. I have not recommended, nor do I seek, the education of any 
class in foreign languages or in particular creeds or faiths ; but fully believ- 
ing, with the author of the Declaration of Independence, that even error 



356 THE PnBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

may be safely tolerated wliere roasou is left free to combat it, and tberefore 
indulging no apjjrebensions from tbe influence of any language or creed 
among an enlightened people. I desire tbe education of tbe entire rising 
generation in all the elements of kuowledge we possess, and in that tongue 
which is the common language of our countrymen. To me, the most inter- 
esting of all our republican institutions is the common school. I seek not 
to disturb in any manner its peaceful and assiduous exercises, and, least of 
all, with contentions about faith or forms. I desire the education of all the 
children in the commonwealth in morality and virtue, leaving matters of 
conscience where, according to tbe principles of civil and religious liberty 
/established by our 'Constitution and laws, they rightfully belong. 

On February 24th, the President laid before the Senate a 
remonstrance from citizens of New York, against any diversion 
of the school fund from its legitimate objects, whicli was read, 
and laid on the table. 

Petitions were put in circulation among the citizens of New 
York, by those favorable to an alteration of the school system, 
and, a respectable number of signatures having been obtained, 
the memorial was forwarded to Mr. Verplanck, who presented 
the same to the Senate, on the 29th of March. The paper was 
read, and referred to the Secretary of State, Hon. John C. Spen- 
cer, who was also at that time, by law, Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools. 

The Secretary gave immediate attention to the important 
subject committed to his care, and, on April 26th, his report was 
laid before the Senate, read, and refeiTcd to the Committee on 
Literature. The folloAving is the report : 

In SENiTf, Ajiril iC, 1341. 
KEPORT 
Of the Secretary of State upon Memorials from the City of New Yorl; respect- 
ing the Distribution of the Common School Moneys in that City, referred to 
him T)y the Senate. 

To the SbnoraWe the Senate : 

The Secretary of State, to whom have been referred by the Senate, during 
the last and present sessions, numerous petitions on the subject of the appli- 
cation of that portion of the public school moneys which is distributed in 
the city of New York, respectfully KEroKTS : 

The memorials presented at the present session represent, that the legis- 
lative enactments on the subject of public instruction in the city of New 
York require a fundamental alteration to bring the benefits of common 
school education within the reach of all classes of the population ; that the 
original intent of these enactments was to enable every school, which should 



ME. spencer's eepoet. 357 

comply with the law, to share in the common school fund ; that this design 
has been defeated by the construction jjut upon the statutes by the Common 
Countiil of the^ city, in designating the Public School Society to receive 
nearly the whole amount of the fund belonging to the city ; that this Soci- 
ety, being a corporation, has acquired the entire control of the system of 
public education ; that the taxpayers, who contribute to the fund, have no 
voice in the selection of those who administer the system, or control over 
the application of the public moneys. They deprecate the influence of such 
a corporation, and consider it dangerous and detrimental to the public inter- 
ests, while it is wanting in responsibility to the peoiile. They complain also 
of injustice to those whose conscientious scruples they allege have been dis- 
regarded in the system of instruction adopted by that Society. They repre- 
.sent that there are other schools in the city equally entitled to pai'take in 
the bounty of the State, but which, with nearly eight thousand children, 
are excluded from any of its benefits under the present system. They pray 
that every school established by the taxable inhabitants of the city may be 
entitled to a distributive share of the public school moneys ; and that the 
persons to control and administer the system of public instruction in the 
city may be appointed by the electors and taxable inhabitants. 

At the last session, memorials of a similar character from a large number 
of Roman Catholic citizens of New York were referred to the undersigned, 
upon which he was unable, during that session, to report. Although these 
citizens have the same equal and common rights with all other citizens to 
submit their grievances to the Legislature and ask for redress, yet the cir- 
cumstance of presenting themselves in the character of a religious denomi- 
nation is, in itself, unfavorable to that impartial consideration of the subject 
which its importance demands. The hazard is incurred of giving to a ques- 
tion broad as the whole territory of our State, and comprehending all its 
inhabitants, an aspect of peculiarity, as if it concerned only those who pre- 
sented their complaints. But great injustice would be done to the subject 
by this mode of considering it. It embraces interests vital to the well-being 
of the whole community ; it involves the destiny of thousands upon thou- 
sands of the children of the republic, who are hereafter to take their share. 
in the management of its affairs, and are to become good citizens or miser- 
able outcasts — who are to sustain the laws and assist in the preservation of 
peace and good order, or to fill our dungeons and prisons, and occupy our 
scafiblds. In the contemplation of such results, the denominations and par- 
ties into which society is divided cannot be regarded, except so far as a just 
and well-ordered government is bound to protect, equally and impartially, 
the civil and jiolitical rights of all. 

It is essential to the proper consideration of the subject, to understand 
the history of the legislation that has been had in I'cference to it ; and par- 
ticularly in relation to the Public School Society of the city of New York. 

The first law relating to that portion of the school moneys apportioned 
to and raised in the city of New York, was passed in 1813, and will be 
found in the first volume of the Kevised Laws of that year, at p. 367. It 
directed those moneys to be distributed " to the Trustees of the Free-School 



358 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Society, tlio Orphan Asylum Society, the Economical School, the African 
Free School, and the trustees of such incorporated religious societies in said 
city as now support, or hereafter shall establish, charity schools -within the 
said city, who may apply for the same." 

The act dii'ected that the sum thus distributed should be applied to the 
payment of the wages of the teachers, and to no other purpose whatever. 
As these were all charity schools, it is obvious that the Legislature intended 
that the school moneys apportioned to the city, as well as those raised by 
tax, should be consecrated to the education exclusively of the indigent, 
under this act, apportionments were annually made to the schools enume- 
rated, and to those established by some eight or ten of the religious denomi- 
nations, until the year 1834. By chapter 276 of the Session Laws of that 
year, the above-mentioned act was repealed, and the Common Council of tin; 
city was authorized to designate " the societies or schools which should be 
entitled to receive a share of the school moneys, and prescribe the rules and 
restrictions under which such moneys shall be received by such societies or 
schools respectively." Pursuant to this act, the Common Council have 
designated the schools of the Public School Society, and six or eight other 
scbools, to which all the public moneys have, since 1826, been distributed, 
with some variations in different years as to the other schools. From the 
annual reports and other documents, a statement has been compiled, from 
which it appears that more than one million dollars has been paid to the 
trustees of the Society, under its different names, since 1813, out of the 
public moneys appropriated by the State, and raised by ta.K on the city for 
school purposes, and that $135,248.57, have been paid to the other schools 
before mentioned. 

The Public School Society was originally incorporated in 1805, by chap- 
ter 108 of the laws of that session, which is entitled " An Act to Incorporate 
the Society instituted in the City of New York, for the establishment of a 
free school for the education of poor children who do not belong to, or are 
not provided for by, any religious society." In 1808, its name was changed 
to " The Free-School Society of New Tork,'' and its powers were extended 
" to all children who are the proper subject of a gratuitous education." By 
chapter 25 of the laws of 1826, its name was changed to "The Public 
School Society of New York," and the trustees were authorized to provide 
for the education of all children in the city of New York not otherwise pro- 
vided for, " whether such children be or be not the proper subjects of gra- 
tuitous education ; " and to require from those attending the schools a 
moderate compensation; but no child to be refused admission. on account 
of inability to pay. 

Thus, by the joint operation of the acts amending the charter of the 
Society, of the statutes in relation to the distribution of the school moneys, 
and of the ordinance of the Common Council, designating the schools of 
the Society as the principal recipients of those moneys, the control of the 
public education of the city of New York, and the disbursement of nine 
tenths of the public moneys raised and apportioned for schools were vested 
in this corporation. It is a perpetual corporation, and there is no power 



ME. spencek's report. 359 

reserved by the Legislature to repeal or modify its ebarter. It consists of 
members who have contributed to the funds of the Society ; and, according 
to the provisions of the last act, the payment of ten dollars constitutes the 
contributor a member for life. The members annually choose fifty trustees, 
who may add to their number fifty more. 

lu the last report of the Commissioners for School Money in the City 
and County of New York, dated in July, 1840, it is stated that " the num- 
ber of schools subject to the visitation of the commissioners has increased to 
one hundred and fifteen ; of these, ninety-eight are under the direction of 
the Public School Society."' The same report states that the average num- 
ber of scholars on the registers of these schools during the year was 23,955, \ 
and the average number of scholars attending them during the year was 
13,189. This great dissparity betweeu the number registered and the num- 
ber attending is accounted for by the absences and irregular attendance of 
the pupils. 

Although the undersigned cannot find any provision by which the 
schools of the Society are placed under the visitation and supervision of the 
Superintendent of Common Schools, yet he would have undertaken a per- 
sonal examination of them, if the pressure of his public duties and other 
circumstances beyond his control, would have permitted. 

Several gentlemen of the city, eminently qualified, were, however, select- 
ed for that purpose ; and they have diligently conducted a laborious inquiry, 
and submitted to the undersigned a mass of valuable information. The 
results of these examinations show very satisfactorily that commodious 
houses and good teachers are provided by the Public School Society ; that 
the system of instruction, is well devised and faithfully executed ; that an 
efiicient plan of visitation and inspection is prescribed by the trustees ; and, 
although he has not positive information on the subject, he has no reason to 
doubt that such plan is carried into practical execution. Certain it is, that 
the trustees of the Society have exhibited the most praiseworthy zeal and 
devotion in the discharge of the great trast devolved on them ; and many, 
if not all of them, have spared no exertions to bring into their schools the 
destitute children of the city. 

The undersigned has supposed that, for the purpose of this report, this 
general view of the condition of the schools of that Society would be more 
useful than to encumber it with the large amount and great variety of de- 
tails which have been collected. To the gentlemen who visited the schools 
and obtained the desired information, and to the officers of the Society, 
who have cheerfully rendered every assistance, he would take this occasion 
to express the obligations of the public, and his own. 

Notwithstanding these favorable results of the efforts of the Public 
School Society, the memorials referred to the undersigned complain of the 
operation of a system which, in fact, devolves upon any private corporation 
the discharge of one of the most important functions of the government, 
without that responsibility to the people which is provided in all other 
cases. They allege that, in its administration, the conscientious opinions 
and feelings of large classes of citizens are disregarded ; that other schools. 



360 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

uiaintaiued for the same objects and accomplisliing the same benevolent 
results, are arbitrarily excluded from all participation in a common fund 
collected by the joint contributions of all ; and that a fearfully large portion 
of the indigent children are not reached, or in any way benefited by the 
system of public education which now jDrevails. These are objections of the 
most weighty character, and cannot be overlooked by those whose duty and 
inclination alike prompt them to regard the greatest good of the greatest 
number. The merits of the Public School Society, the devotion and energy 
of its trustees, and the success of its schools, cannot and ought not to prc- 
ivent an investigation to ascertain whether it is necessarily limited in its 
operation ; whether it accomplishes the main purposes of its organization ; 
or whether its continuance violates essential and fundamental principles, aijd 
thus presents a perpetual source of irritation and comiDlaint. The question 
to be determined is far more broad and comprehensive than the merits of 
any particular society. It involves the inquiry whether the intentions of 
the Legislature have been fulfilled, to furnish the means of education " to 
all those who are destined to exercise the rights of citizenship." 

There are numerous other schools in the city of New York, founded by 
voluntary associations, in which many thousands of the children of poverty 
;u)d distress receive their education, imperfect and deficient as it may be in 
many instances. By a participation in the funds intended for the benefit of 
all, thoii' means of extending the sphere of their usefulness will be aug- 
mented ; and by extending to aii who desire to exercise it, the right of par- 
ticipating in the same means, new schools may be established, and temples 
of education made as numerous as the nurseries of vice. 

It can scarcely be necessary to say that the founders of these schools, 
and those who wish to establish others, have absolute rights to the benefits 
of a common bm'den ; and that any system which deprives them of their 
just share in the application of a common and public fund, must be justi- 
fied, if at all, by a necessity which demands the sacrifice of individual rights 
for the accomplishment of a social benefit of paramount importance. 

It is presumed no such necessity can be urged in the present instance. 
On the contrary, the views which will be subsequently presented, afford 
strong ground for the belief that the education of a much larger number 
than now are, or under any circumstances may be expected to be, provided 
for by the Public School Society, or any one society, will be secured by in- 
viting the cooperation and stimulating the exertions of all who are disposed 
to engage in the enterprise. 

The complaint that, in the schools of the Public School Society, the 
conscientious opinions and feelings of large classes of our fellow-citizens 
are disregarded, may, at first, appear unreasonable. But when it is con- 
sidered that the best of men adhere, with a tenacity proportioned to the 
strength and sincerity of their convictions, to those principles of religious 
faith upon which, in their estimation, their present and eternal welfare de- 
pends, and that they regard as the most sacred of duties the inculcation of 
those principles in the minds of their children, we ought not to be surprised 
at their anxiety to exclude all that is hostile to their views from the estab- 



ME. spencer's eepoet. 361 

lishmeuts to wliose care they are invited to commit the education of theiij\ 
offspring. With many, the transmission of their own creeds to these objectai 
of their affection is a part, and a most essential part, of their own religiousvi 
professions ; and any influences which interrupted it, would be deemed by | 
such an invasion of their most sacred rights. 

Some of the memorialists complain' that the tendency of the instruction 
received in the schools of the Public School Society is unfavorable, if not 
hostile, to those principles of faith which they hold dearer than life itself; 
and they allege that, consistently with their views of religious duty to their 
children, they cannot send them to such schools. 

On the other hand, those who oppose any change in the present system 
express their apprehensions that, by allowing to all schools a free and equal 
participation in the school moneys, the public funds will be applied indi- 
rectly, if not directly, to the inculcation of religious dogmas of all descrip- 
tions ; and some are peculiarly apprehensive of the possible extension of 
certain doctrines which they deem erroneous and injurious. Thus the ques- 
tion of sectarian influences is mutually raised, with its usual aggravations. 
This is a question from the consideration of which some may feel disposed 
to shrink, from a vague and indefinite terror of the consequences of its dis- 
cussion. But it is believed there is a mode of considering it without par- 
ticipating in the feelings of any side, but viewing all as having common and 
equal rights, and animated by the same sjjirit of beneficence, which will 
avoid conflict with every thing but prejudice, and conduct to safe and salu- 
tary conclusions. 

According to the principles of our institutions, no one has the authority 
to determine whether the religious doctrines and sentiments of any class of 
our citizens be right or wrong. The immunity of the Constitution, and of 
an unequivocal public sentiment, is thrown around " the religious faith and 
profession " of all our citizens ; and whether a particular creed is professed 
by a humble minority, or a powerful majority, can make no other difference 
than to excite, in the first case, the generous forbearance of those who may 
temporarily have the physical power to oppress, and to animate them to the 
strictest fidelity to their obligations. The only object which our fellow- 
citizens can have, is the education of all the children of the commonwealth, 
in literature, morality, and virtue. " No system is perfect, nor can liberty 
be safe, until all who are destined to exercise the rights of citizenship, are 
brought within the schools." " Knowledge, however acquired, is better 
than ignorance ; and neither error, accident, nor prejudice, ought to be per- 
mitted to deprive the State of the education of her citizens." 

These principles, recently promulgated by the highest executive authority 
in our State, have received the cordial approbation of our fellow-citizens. 
In approaching the subject in the same spirit which dictated them, and in 
endeavoring to reconcile prejudice, we must not ourselves commit the error 
of ascribing improper designs or erroneous principles to others. If there be 
error, let reason be enlightened to combat it ; if there be prejudice, let the 
humanizing and liberalizing influences of education be brought to beat 



362 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

upon it. Let not error and prejudice be perpetuated, by being shut up and 
exchided from the light of science. 

The object, then, being to procure education at all events — if not the 
best we could desire, at the &st, yet to have education extended to all 
classes, in the assured hope of its continual improvement — we are to main- 
tain the perfect equality of all our citizens in the enjoyment of their rights 
in determining the religious character of such instruction. Hence, the first 
inquiry to be made is, whether these rights can be maintained under a sys- 
tem which rests in any permanent body, or set of men, the control of the 
education of a city ? 

The great object to be attained is the education of the greatest number 
possible. If we cannot at once have that education in the most perfect 
form, or in the highest degree, still much is accomplished in having the 
good seed sown. It will not only fructify, ripen, and expand, but it will 
enrich the soil in which it is cast, and each successive harvest will be more 
rich and abundant than its predecessor. If the alternative be presented of 
having a limited number of scliools, in which instruction of the highest 
grade is imparted, but from which one half the proper subjects of educa- 
tion are absent, or of having a large number of lower pretensions and less 
efficiency, but so organized and situated that all may attend, and affording 
strong grounds for the belief that nearly all will be gathered within them, 
it would seem that there ought to be no hesitation in the choice, and that 
the portals of knowledge ought to be at once thrown open as widely as pos- 
sible, with the certainty that improvement will follow the very first elements 
of instruction. 

It is very true that the Government has assumed only the intellectual 
education of the children of the State, and has left their moral and reli- 
gious instruction to be given at the fireside, at the places of public worship, 
and at institutions which the jiiety of individuals may establish fur the pur- 
pose. But it is believed that, in a country where the great body of om' 
fellow-citizens recognize the fundamental truths of Christianity, public 
sentiment would be shocked by the attemjit to exclude all instruction of a 
religious nature from the public schools ; and that any plan or scheme of 
education, in which no reference whatever was had to moral princijjles 
founded on these truths, would be abandoned by all. In the next place, it 
is believed such an attempt would be wholly imijracticable. No books can 
be found, no reading-lessons can be selected, which do not contain more or 
less of some principles of religious faith, either directly avowed or indirectly 
assumed. Religion and literature have become inseparably interwoven, and 
the exj)urgation of religious sentiments from the i)roductious of orators, 
essayists, and poets, would leave them utterly barren. 

Viewing the subject, then, ijractically, it may bo regarded as a settled 
axiom in all schemes of education intended for the youth of this country, 
that there must be, of necessity, a very considerable amount of religious in- 
struction. The trustees of the Public School Society have 23robably no 
more in their schools than could be well avoided, while they profess — and 
doubtless sincerely — their readiness to omit every thing that may be justly 



MK. spencee's eepokt. 363 

regarded as offensive, tliey yet maintain — and properly — that education is 
imperfect, without inculcating moral and religious principles ; and hence 
they allow the reading of the Scriptures, or portions of them, and inculcate 
the leading pi-inciples of Chi'istianity. But it is impossible to conceive how 
even those principles can be taught, so as to be of any value, without incul- 
cating what is peculiar to some one or more denominations, and denied by 
others. For it unfortunately happens that, in the infinite diversity of opin- 
ion among those claiming to be Christians, there are but few articles of faith 
received by one denomination which are not rejected by another. Even the 
reading of the text of our common translation of the Scriptures is objected 
to by many, on account of its being, as they allege, erroneous and imperfect i 
while others deem its perusal by children, without explanation, positively 
injurious. Even the moderate degree of religious instruction which tlie 
Public School Society imparts must, therefore, be sectarian ; that is, it must 
favor one set of opinions in opposition to another, or others ; and it is be- 
lieved that this always will be the result in any course of education that the 
wit of man can devise. 

If these views are sound, this dilemma is produced : that, while some 
degree of religious instruction is indispensable, and will be had under all 
circumstances, it cannot be imparted without partaking, to some extent, of a 
sectarian character, and giving occasion for offence to those whose opinions 
are thus impugned. But, fortunately, there is a mode of escape from the 
difficulty. That mode will be found in a recurrence to the fundamental 
principles engrafted on our constitutions, by which no law can be passed 
" respecting an establishment of religion or ijrohibiting the free exercise 
thereof," and by which " the free exercise and enjoyment of religious pro- 
fession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be 
allowed in this State, to all mankind." Those by whom our governments 
have hitherto been administered, have found that practical effect could be 
given to these principles only by scrupulously abstaining from all legislation 
whatever on those sulyects which involved, or were in any way connected 
with, religious faith, profession, or instruction ; and in this course of pro- 
ceeding the people have found such a safeguard against oppression, such a 
security against the dissensions and animosities of intolerance and bigotry, 
and such a guarantee of peace and tranquillity, that it has been constantly, 
and under all vicissitudes, unanimously approved by them. 

On this principle of what may be termed absolute non-intervention, may 
we rely to remove all the apparent difficulties which surround the subject 
under consideration. In the theory of the common school law which governs 
the whole State, except the city of New York, it is fully and entirely main- 
tained ; and in the administration of that law, it is sacredly observed. No 
officer, among the thousands having charge of our common schools, thinks 
of interposing by any authoritative direction, rcspecliug the nature or extent 
of moral or religious instruction to be given in the schools. Its whole con- 
trol is left to the free and unrestricted action of the people themselves, in 
their several districts. The law provides for the organization of districts, 
the election of officers, and the literary and moral qualification of teachers, 



/ 



364 • THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

and leaves all else to the regulation of those for whose benefit the system is 
devised. The practical consequence is, that each district suits itself, by 
having such religious instruction in its school as is congenial to the opinions 
of its inhabitants ; and the records of this department have been searched 
in vain for an instance of a complaint of any abuse of this authority, in any 
of the schools out of the city of New York. To those who will reflect on 
the multitude of denominations in our State widely difiering from each 
other on subjects of such exciting interest, this result will not be more 
astonishing, than it will be convincing, of the wisdom of the principle of 
non-iutervention by the State or its agents. 

It is manifest that the great source of the difficulties in the city of New 
York arises from a violation of this principle. The practical operation of 
the school laws is to constitute the trustees of the Public School Society the 
officers and agents of the Government in the administration of the system 
of primary instruction in that city. That Society, in eS'ect, engrosses the 
public education of the city ; and instead of operating on small masses, as 
in the interior, embraces the whole. In such a system the principle of non- 
intervention can be applied only by the total abandonment of all religious 
instruction. For, as is supposed to have been already shown, it is impossi- 
ble to prescribe any amount of such instruction for a poijulation of three 
hundred and thii-teen thousand souls, without offending the religious princi- 
ples of many. But if the degree and kind could be left to the choice of 
parents, in small masses, then the object would be obtained, with the con- 
currence of all, religious instruction would be imparted to the young, with- 
out encountering the feelings, prejudices, or conscientious views of any. 
The defect is one which, so far from being peculiar to the Public School 
Society, is necessarily inherent in every form of organization which places 
under one control large masses of discordant materials, which, from the 
nature of things, cannot submit to any control. If that Society had charge 
of the children of one denomination only, there would be no difficulty. It 
is because it embraces children of all denominations, and seeks to supjsly to 
them all a species of instruction which is adapted only to a part, and which, 
from its nature, cannot be moulded to suit the views of all, that it fails, and 
ever must fail, to give satisfaction on a subject of all others the most vital 
and the most exciting. If there is not entire fallacy in all these views— if 
the experience of twenty-five years, derived from the school districts of the 
interior, is not wholly worthless, then the remedy is plain, practical, and 
simple. It is by adopting the principle of the organization that prevails in 
the other parts of the State, which will leave such parents as desire to exer- 
cise any control over the amount and description of religious instruction 
which shall be given to their children, the opjjortunity of doing so. This 
can be efifected by depriving the present system in New York of its 'charac- 
jter of universality and exclusiveness, and by opening it to the action of 
ismaller masses, whose interests and opinions may be consulted in their 
schools, so that every denomination m^y freely enjoy its "religious profes- 
jsion " in the education of its youth. 

To this plan objections have been made, that it would enable different 



Mij. spencer's kepokt. 365 

religious denominations to establish schools of a sectarian character, and 
that thereby religious dissensions -would be aggravated, if not generated. 
The first objection has already been partially considered. It is believed to 
have been satisfactorily shown, that there must be some degree of religious 
instruction, and that there can be none without partaking more or less of a 
sectarian character ; and that even the Public School Society has not been 
able, and cannot expect to bo able, to avoid the imputation. In this respect, 
then, matters cannot well be in a worse condition than they are at present. 
The objection itself proceeds on a sectarian principle, and assumes the 
power to control that which it is neither right nor practicable to submit to 
any denomination. Religious doctrines of vital interest will be inculcated, 
not as theological exercises, but incidentally, in the course of literary and 
scientific — and who will undertake to prohibit such instruction ? 

It is not perceived how religious dissensions will be aggravated. The 
objection supposes a particular school to belong to a jjarticular denomina- 
tion ; of course, it will be in unison with it. The founders, teachers, and 
pupils of the different schools will act separately and independently in their 
respective spheres, and will not come in contact or collision with each other. 
A rivalry may, and probably will, be produced between them, to increase 
the number of pupils. As an essential means to such an object, there will 
be a constant effort to improve the schools in the mode and degree of in- 
struction, and in the qualifications of the teachers. Thus, not only will the 
number of children brought into the schools be incalculably augmented, but 
the competition anticipated will produce its usual efl'cct of providing the 
very best material to satisfy the public demand. These advantages will 
more than compensate for any possible evils that may be apprehended from 
having schools adapted to the feelings and views of the difierent denomina- 
tions. The undersigned cannot but think those evils are magnified, and 
that the experience derived from the operation of the system in the other 
parts of the State eflfectually disjjels all apprehensions of that nature. Be- 
sides, a peculiar remedy will be found, in the city of New York, from the 
proximity of the schools, and the opportunity thus aflbrded to become 
acquainted with any abuses by which the public moneys should be pervert- 
ed to theological instruction, in place of those literary studies which should 
be pursued during the hours allotted to common school education. The 
watchfulness of those who apprehend the abuse may be relied on to detect 
it promptly, and to seek the needful remedy, by application to those having 
the power to apply it. 

It is believed to be an error to suppose that the absence of all religious 
instruction, if it were practicable, is a mode of avoiding sectarianism. On 
the contrary, it would be in itself sectarian, because it would be consonant 1 
to the views of a particular class, and opposed to the views of other classes. 
Those who reject creeds, and resist all efforts to infuse them into the minds 
of the young before they have arrived at a maturity of judgment which 
may enable them to form their own opinions, would be gratified by a system 
which so fully accomplishes their purposes. But there are those who hold 
contrary opinions, and who insist on guarding the young against the influ- 



3G6 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ences of their own passions, and the contagion of vice, by implanting in 
their minds and hearts those elements of faith which are held by this class 
to be the indispensable foundations of moral principles. Tbis description 
of persons regard neutrality and indifference as the most insidious forms of 
hostility. It is not the business of the undersigned to express any opinion 
on the merits of these views. His only purpose is, to show the mistake of 
those who suppose they may avoid sectarianism by avoiding all religious 
I instruction. 

But the schools and houses of the Public School Society ought not to be 
abandoned ; and the inestimable benefits of its admirable arrangements and 
constant supervision should not be lost. Let them also be retained, and 
placed on the same footing with other organized schools, and allowed to 
particii^ate in the public contributions in the same ratio. The character of 
their schools will secure them a preference with an intelligent public where 
no obstacles of a religious character interpose ; and if all their houses can- 
not be filled, under teachers of their own selection, it cannot be doubted 
that the same benevolent spirit which has hitherto actuated the trustees, 
would induce them to permit their occupation by others, for a reasonable 
rent, or to transfer them to such associations as should desire to purchase 
them. The precious gems which now stud the city would thus be multi- 
plied to an extent that can scarcely be calculated ; all conscientious objec- 
tions would be removed ; the people themselves would become interested in 
the subjects of their own care and protection ; a iiubllc spirit in the cause 
< f primary education, and a desh-e for its improvement, would be excited 
and extended; a generous rivalry would be promoted; while the Public 
School Society would find ample scope for its benevolence in educating the 
children of those who approve its system, and in pursuing the original 
object of its institution — the gathering into its schools those who were not 
otherwise provided with the means of instruction. 

Another prominent objection made by the memorials referred to by the 
undei-signed is, that the existing system in New York devolves upon a pri- 
vate corporation the discharge of an important function of government, 
without a direct and immediate responsibility to the people. It is certainly 
an anomaly wholly unknown in any other department of the public service, 
that a private corporation, existing independently, not amenable in any form 
to the laws or to the Legislature, should be charged with what those laws 
(regard as a part of the functions of the Government — the disbursement of 
\the public moneys at its own will and pleasure, the selection of teachers, of 
Iwhose qualification it is the sole judge, and the establishment and mainte- 
/nance of a system of public education according to its own ideas of pro- 
/priety. It is not subject to the supervision of the State authorities, to whom 
/ all other parts of the system of i^ublic instruction are committed. Educa- 
J tion cannot be considered a subject of local interest in the city of New York 
more than in any other part of the State, although it has come to be so 
\ regarded by many, in consequence of the Legislature having devolved its 
I own power upon the Common Council. But it is a public and common cou- 
) cern, of which the Government has taken cognizance, and which, for the 



ME. spenceb's eepoet. 3G7 

common good of all, it is bound to see equally and fairly administered. The 
interest of the State is not only pecuniary, arising from the expenditure of 
more than $34,000, annually contributed from its own funds, but it is of a 
high social and political character ; and every reason which should induce 
its guardianship and care over other portions of its territory, apply with 
equal force to the city of New York. Experience has shown the necessity 
for its interposition heretofore, without the application of the local authori- 
ties, to prevent the misapplication and waste of the school moneys. 

The only species of control to which the Public School Society is sub- 
ject, is that which may be found in the power of the Common Council to 
omit the designation of the schools of the Society to receive the funds raised 
for common school purposes. But, in the present condition of things, this 
power can, probably, never be exercised. That Society owns in fee, or has 
perpetual leases of, the numerous school-houses erected by means of the pub- 
lic school moneys, and the contributions, comparatively unimportant, of its 
members. If these houses should not be occupied, there would be a total 
want of the accommodations necessary for the jiublic schools. The abuses 
must be flagrant, and wholly intolerable, which would justify the Common 
Council in driving into the streets the multitude of children who now 
occupy these houses, by withholding the public school moneys from the 
Society ; and it may well be considered not the least among the evil conse-i 
(luences of the present system, that a private corporation should thus have 
acquired the title of what is substantially public funds and should be pub- 
lic property, and thus be enabled effectually to prevent the exercise of eveu 
the only semblance of control over its proceedings provided by law. 

However acceptable the services of such a Society may have been in the 
first imperfect eflbrt to establish common schools, however willing the peo- 
ple may have been to submit to an institution which promised immediate 
benefit, and however praiseworthy and successful may have been its efforts, 
yet it involves a principle so liostile to the whole spirit of our institutions, 
that it is impossible it should be long sustained amid the increased intelli- 
gence which its own exertions have contributed to produce, especially when 
other and more congenial means of attaining the same objects have been 
pointed out, and when, therefore, the necessity which called it into existence 
has ceased. The public attention is now roused to the subject, and many 
thousands of the citizens of New York demand the right of controlling, 
through responsible public agents, the education of their children, and the 
application of common funds to which they have contributed for a common 
object. We must forget that we live under a government of the people, 
before such a demand can be effectually resisted. Procrastination and delay 
will only increase its urgency, render it more exacting, and multiply the 
difliculties of satisfying it consistently with a just regard to the useful pur- 
poses to which the Public School Society may be applied. It must succeed, 
sooner or later ; and it is the part of wisdom and duty to yield to that 
which is just in itself, promptly, and before agitation and excitement de- 
prive acquiescence of all merit. We are not at liberty to say that our fel- 
low-citizens who make this claim are incapable of performing the duty 



868 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ivliich they would undertake. Our constitutions admit their competency to 
manage all the aflfairs of government ; and the foundation of our -whole sys- 
tem must be overturned, before wc can deny to them the capacity to deter- 
mine on the mode, maimer, and extent of instruction to be given to their 
offspring. Besides, the example of a sister city — Boston — where the man- 
agers of the public schools are, and for years have been, elected by the peo- 
ple in their respective wards — whose schools are equal, if not superior, to 
any others in our country — furnishes the most effectual answer to any appre- 
hensions that might be indulged, from trusting the people with the selection 
of the agents to administer a system that so nearly concerns them. And yet 
in this, as in every other public business, the energies of the people require 
a system to regulate and conduct them to the best results. Such a system, 
emanating from agents of their own selection, and maintained, controlled, 
and superintended by them, will command the confidence and invite the 
cooperation of the constituents. This may be accomplished by the choice 
of commissioners of common schools in each ward of the city, who should 
form a board, to which some degree of permanency may be given by allow- 
ing the election of one third each year, which board should take the entire 
charge of the common schools of the city, receiving and disbursing the 
public funds, establishing schools and a system for their government and 
inspection, and providing the means of testing the qualifications of teach- 
ers. They might be aided by a city superintendent, with such compensa- 
tion as should secure the best talent and the whole time of the incumbent ; 
and then leave the schools to the management of trustees chosen by those 
who established them, and to the general laws of the State. 

Considering the various feelings and interests that would be called into 
action by such a system, there can be little doubt that one of its immediate 
effects would be, to bring into the schools a large portion, if not the whole, 
of those who are now utterly destitute of instruction. With all the com- 
mendable and vigorous efforts of the trustees of the Public School Society, 
it cannot be denied that less than one half the children between 4 and 16 
years of age, in the city of New York, are receiving the benefits of any edu- 
cation whatever. From the statements in the annual report of the Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools for the jDresent year (Assembly Document No. 
100), it appears that the whole number of white children in New York, in 
1840, over 5 and under 16 years of age, was 03,952, and that 30,758 only are 
returned as attending some school, leaving 33,194 who were not in attend- 
ance on any school whatever. In a memorial of the Public School Society 
presented to the Legislature at its present session, it is stated that " multi- 
tudes are entirely destitute of the necessary means of acquiring the first 
rudiments of education, and must, unless specially provided for, grow up in 
gross ignorance." In the same memorial, it is alleged " that the whole ex- 
tent of existing accommodations for the purpose of imparting school learn- 
ing is sufficient for but about 35,000, as well in private as in public schools." 
The fact seems, then, undeniable, that the paramount obligation of impart- 
ing instruction to the mass of children has not been accomplished in the 
city of New York. That accommodations exist for a larger number than 



ME. spencee's eepoet. 369 

nttcnd tlic schools, may be inferred from tlie fact already mentioned, that, 
while the Public School Society has registered on its books the names of 
children -who have entered its schools to the number of 33,955, the average 
actual attendance of pupils amounts only to 13,189. The same inference 
may be dravni from the fact of the efforts made by the trustees to bring in a 
larger number of children than those who were registered — eflbrts which 
could not have been made if there were no room for their accommodation. 

A comparison of the results obtained from statistical returns, between 
the numbers educated in New Torli and those instructed in the schools in 
the other parts of the State, will exhibit in a more striking manner the 
lamentable deficiency of the former. It appears, from the reirort of the 
Superintendent before referred to, that, while there are 593,000 children out 
of the city of New York between the ages of 5 and 16, there are 549,000 
returned as attending the common schools. In the city of New York, the 
proportions were, as before stated, 63,953 children between the same ages, 
and 30,758 attending all schools, public as well as private. In that city, less 
than one tenth of the pojjulation are receiving the benefit of any instruc- 
tion ; while in the interior, more than one fourth of the whole populatiop 
are returned as being in the public schools, without any enumeration of 
those placed in select schools. The like proportion must exist in the city 
and in the interior, of those who have already received all the education 
they or their parents desire, or who are engaged as apprentices, or in other 
employments preventing them from attending at any place of instruction. 
It is obvious, therefore, that the number not receiving education in the city 
cannot be accounted for in that manner. The probability is, that the num- 
ber of those under 5 and over 10 who attend the schools, both in the city 
and out of it, is very nearly, if not quite, equal to the number between those 
ages who have received all the education they intend to attain. 

With these facts befoi'c us, it must be admitted that the Public School 
Society has not accomplished the principal purpose of its organization, and 
for which the public funds have been so -freely bestowed upon it — the edu- 
cation of the great body of the children of the city. From the remarks 
alieady made, it would seem to be manifest that the cause of this failure is 
not to be ascribed to the want of accommodations for the pupils ; and there 
certainly has been no lack of exertion to induce their attendance. The trus- 
tees personally, and visitors appointed by them, have repeatedly traversed 
the city, to seek out the jiarents of the neglected children, and persuade 
them to avail themselves of the benefits of the schools. Tracts have been 
circulated, and handbills posted in every direction, for the same purpose. 
The city authorities have passed resolutions urging this imperative duty 
upon parents, and declaring that those who neglected to send their children 
to the schools at least some portion of the time, could not be considered 
projicr objects of public charity. And yet the result is the same ; the streets 
are infested with vagrant children, and " multitudes " of the youth are 
brought up in ignorance, and probably in vice. That there is a defect some- 
where, is certain. In addition to the causes of dissatisfaction already men- 
tioned, particularly that arising from religious feelings, it is believed that a 
24 



370 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

great obstacle to tlie efforts of the Society is to be found in the idea preva- 
i lent among the people, that an attempt is made to coerce them, directly or 
indirectly, to do something which others take a great interest in having 
done. They are not left, or called on, to act spontaneously — to orie/inate any 
thing, or take any part in matters which they are told most deeply concern 
themselves. It is not a voluntary system, in the fullest and broadest meaning 
of the term. To illustrate the idea intended to be communicated, the pres- 
ent system may be compared to the religious establishments formed and 
suijportcd by the governments of EuroiJC, upon the jilea that they are neces- 
sary to the moral instruction of the people ; and that, without them, their 
subjects would degenerate into heathenism. It was reserved for the Ameri- 
can people to prove the fallacy of this position. An experience of fifty 
years has shown that religious worsliip has been better provided for, and 
attendance upon it has been more general, by being left to the free and vol- 
untary action of the people, without the aid of any legal establishment ; in 
•other words, without any attempt to coerce the su^jport of religious institu- 
tions, or to compel any one to particijjate in their advantages. This remark 
is equally true of the city and of the country. 

It is not intended to assert that the system of the Public School Society 
is like the religious establishments of Europe ; but the comparison between 
those establishments and the practical operation of our principle of non- 
intervention, is instituted for the jjurpose of exhibiting clearly and distinctly 
the advantage of a voluntary system, particularly among a people governed 
by republican institutions. The plan of the Public School Society is, in 
some measure, antagonist to this system. It j)rovides an educational estab- 
lishment, and solicits the charge of children, to be placed under its exclu- 
sive control, without allowing to the parents of the pupil the direction of 
the course of studies, the management of the schools, or any voice in the 
selection of teachers ; it calls for no action or cooperation on the part of 
those parents, other than the entire submission of their children to the gov- 
ernment and guidance of others, probably strangers, and who are iii no way 
accountable to these parents. Such a system is so foreign to the feelings, 
habits, and usages of our citizens, that its failure to enlist theii" confidence, 
and induce a desire to place their children under its control, ought not to 
excite surprise. 

Since, then, the experiment which has been made for fifteen years, under 
such favorable auspices, has not accomplished its main purpose, of bringing 
under the control of any one private corporation the great mass of the indi- 
gent children of the city ; and since it is obvious there are inherent dilBcul- 
ties, which will constantly accumulate, to prevent the success of such an 
experiment, is it not the dictate of wisdom, if not of duty, to vary the 
mode, and ascertain whether, by engaging the people themselves, actively 
and personally, in the care of the schools, a deeper and more extensive inter- 
est may not be awakened, and a larger number of children brought to the 
school-room ? This, it is conceived, may be effected by the plan already 
suggested, of having schools organized, wherever required, under the juris- 
<liction of elected commissioners, authorized to participate in the public 



MR. spencer's kepoet. 371 

contributions in a just proportion. Por reasons heretofore given by tlie un- 
dersigned, in his reports as Superintendent, he thinks these schools ought to 
be deemed public charities ; and least of all should they have the character 
of a forced or compulsory charity. The same pi-inciple of apportionment 
which exists generally, may safely be applied to them, in proportion to the 
actual number of children between 5 and 16 years of age. As, in a city 
without regular territorial districts, that number could be ascertained only 
from the attendance at the schools, let such actual attendance form the basis 
of distribution. Let the schools be considered, like those of the State at 
large, as furnishing a just equivalent for moderate charges, adequate for the 
expense incurred beyond the public contributions ; and apply the same prin- 
ciple which prevails in them, of authorizing the exemption from the ex- 
penses of the schools of those whose circumstances render it proper. 

From the inquiries made by the gentlemen appointed for that purpose, 
the undersigned is satisfied that a large proportion — probably more than one 
half — of the pupils attending the schools of the Public School Society are 
childi'en of those who are as able to pay for tuition as those i^ersous who 
generally send to schools in the interior of the State. Mechanics, men who 
live by their daily labor, farmers, and others of very moderate proijerty, con- 
stitute the great majority of those who pay the rate-bUls for teachers' wages 
in the common schools. It may be justly urged as a cause of complaint, 
that, in the city of New York, the funds destined particularly for the benefit 
of the indigent are applied to the education of the children of those who 
are able to pay it themselves. The trustees of the Public School Society 
have made the effort to obtain from these persons payment of tuition 
charges. In the ojjinion of the undersigned, the principal reason for their 
failure is, that, with them, payment is an excejition to the rule, instead of 
being the rule itself. Being declared to be free schools and charities, or 
being understood to be such, the individual called on for payment considers 
himself oppressed, in being singled out from- others, whom he regards as 
equally bound to pay. It is probable, also, that an impression prevails that 
an adequate fund is provided by the State, and by city taxation, for the 
education of all. It is believed that, if the schools of the Society are placed 
on the footing already indicated, their superiority over most, if not all, of 
those that may be established by other associations, will enable the trustees 
to supply any diminution in the number of pupils caused by the establish- 
ment of other schools, from those classes of citizens who are able, and 
would prefer, to pay for the instruction of their children ; and thus would 
the whole number of instructed children in the city be multiplied, and the 
funds of the Public School Society would, in all probability, be augmented, 
and rendered adequate to the highest grade and the most approved methods 
of instruction. If, however, contrary to those expectations, it should be 
found that the pay system cannot be relied on for the support of the schools, 
there can be no reason to doubt that the same liberal and enlightened sjJirit, 
which has heretofore induced the citizens of New York, and the Common 
Council, voluntarily to add to their public burdens for the great purposes 
of education, would continue to influence them, and would provide all the 



372 THE FDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

means necessary to render that city as distinguislied for its care of the intel- 
lectual condition of its children, as for its -wealth, enterprise, and beneyo- 
lence. 

The outlines of the plan submitted are as follows : 

1. The election of a commissioner of common schools in each ward of 
the city. 

2. The extension of the general school laws of the State to the city, with 
the modifications herein mentioned. 

3. The commissioners to adopt and take under their charge the schools 
of the Publfc School Society, and the schools of the other associations and 
asylums now receiving the public money, as schools under their general 
jurisdiction, leaving the immediate government and management of them 
to their respective trustees and directors. 

4. The commissioners to organize and establish schools in other parts of 
the city, wherever they can find a sufficient number of inhabitants to main- 
tain them, as district schools, with the usual officers, to be chosen by such 
inhabitants, and with the usual power of districts, to hire school-rooms, pro- 
vide teachers, and defray expenses by rate-bills. 

5. The public school moneys to be paid du-ectly to the commissioners by 
the Chamberlain of the city. Out of the amount, the compensation of a 
city superintendent, and of a clerk to the commissioners, and their necessary 
expenses, to be paid, the balance to be apportioned and distributed to the 
different schools under their jurisdiction, and to be applied esclu sively t p 
the payment ofj^achefsljjvages ; such apportionment to be made upon accu- 
rate lists, verified by oath, of the whole number of children between the 
ages of 5 and 16 actually attending the schools, to be ascertained by keep- 
ing an exact account of the number of pupils present the whole day, which, 
being added together and divided by 261— the number of school-days in a 
year, excluding Saturdays and Sundays— shall be deemed the average of 
attending scholars. The number of children exempted from paying tuition 
money and school expenses to be reported to the commissioners, with their 
average attendance, ascertained as before mentioned, and a sufficient sum to 
be apportioned in the first instance to the school in which they have attend- 
ed, to make up to them respectively the amount of such exemistion, if the 
funds be sufficient for that puqiose ; and if not, then such funds to be ap- 
portioned wholly among the exempt pupOs, in proportion to their attend- 
ance. If there be a surplus, then to apportion it among the remaining 
pujjils not included in the ffi'st distribution. Provision to be made to detect 
and prevent improper exemptions ; against which, however, an effectual 
safeguard will be found in the desire of the trustees to diminish the amount 
chargeable to pay scholars. If the public money appropriated in the first 
instance to the education of the indigent should not be adequate, there can 
Ije little doubt that the citizens of New York would consent to raise the 
additional sum required ; and, at all events, the paramount object of pro- 
viding for the destitute to the greatest possible extent will have been 
attained. 

If, after all that has been urged, the apprehension should still be in- 



SPEECU OF ME. KETCHTJM. 373 

dulged that any schools would be perverted to the jDurposes of a narrow and 
exclusive sectarianism during the hours allotted to instruction, instead of 
the proi^er subjects of a common school education, a remedy may be found 
by giving authority to the Board of Commissioners to investigate complaints 
of such an abuse, and, upon satisfactory evidence, dissolve the otiending 
school, or withhold from it any share in the public school moneys. 

The undersigned has thus endeavored to perform a duty unsought by 
him, and of which the diflBculty and delicacy were fully appreciated. In its 
discharge, he is conscious of no other motive or object than the promotion, 
to the utmost possible extent, of that cause which, by official obligations as 
well as personal feeling, he is bound to promote. Much of time and anxious 
consideration have been bestowed, in the hope of presenting the subject in 
such a manner as should, at all events, place its prominent features in full 
view of the Legislature, and thus assist in arriving at such conclusions as 
may secure the rights of all, maintain existing institutions in all their vigor 
and usefulness, enlist the jDublic feeling in the success of schools, and open 
them to the destitute of all classes. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

John C. Spencer, Secretary »/ State. 

Albany, April 2C, 1841. 

After the report liad been referred to the Committee on Lit- 
erature, Governor Seward and Mr. SjDencer visited the city for 
the purpose of personal consultation with the trnstees of the 
Public School Society, and their opponents, on the subject of the 
proposed alteration in the system. Several interviews were had, 
at which the bill was made the subject of earnest discussion. 

The Committee on Literature, in the Senate, appointed a 
meeting for the purpose of hearing the contending parties, and 
affording them an opportunity to present their view. James W. 
McKeon and Wright Hawks appeared for the Catholics, and 
Hiram Ketchum for the Society, May 8th. 

Mr.' Ketchum rose, and addressed the committee as follows : 

Mr. Chairjian and Gentlemen op the Committee : As a member of 
the Board of Public Schools of the city of New York, and in behalf of the 
Public School Society, I now appear here ; and I will, by leave of the com- 
mittee, make a few remarks upon the rejiort which has been referred to it. 
The subject discussed in this report is one of great interest to the city of 
New York. It affects the cause of education, and especially of the educa- 
tion of the poor ; and as the Public School Society has long had the jirinci- 
Ijal charge of that matter, and as they believe that the statements, the infer- 
ences, and the reasoning contained in this report of the Secretary of State, 
are calculated to affect injuriously that cause, they have prayed that their 
views might be laid before the Senate, and sent in their memorial to that 
effect. The Senate having appointed a committee to hear the Public School 



374 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Society, I uow apjjear to make such remarks as occur to me ; premising 
that, probably, at no very late day, the Society, by way of memorial or re- 
monstrance, will lay their objections to this report before the Senate and the 
public in a more permanent form, than they will now be presented to the 
committee. 

In this report, drawn up with great ability, as every paper and docu- 
ment emanating from the Secretary of this State is drawn up — in this report, 
I say, there is contained a brief history of the legislation ujjon the subject 
of the distribution of the school moneys in the city of New York. As this 
passage occupies but a short space, I will take leave to read it. At page 2, 
the Secretary says : 

It is essential to the proper consideration of the subject, to understand 
the history of the legislation that has been had in reference to it ; and par 
ticularly in relation to the Public School Society of the city of New York. 

The iirst law relating to that portion of the school moneys apportioned 
to and raised in the city of New York, was passed in 1813, and will be 
found in the first volume of the Revised Laws of that year, at page 267. It 
directed those moneys to be distributed " to the trustees of the Free-School 
Society, the Orphan Asylum Society, the Economical School, the Afi-ican 
Free School, and the trustees of such incorporated religious societies in said 
city as now support, or hereafter shall establish, charity schools within the 
said city, who may apply for the same." The act directed that the sum 
thus distributed should be applied to the payment of the wages of the 
teachers, and to no other purposes whatever. As these were ail charity 
schools, it is obvious that the Legislature intended that the school moneys 
apportioned to the city, as well as those raised by tax, should be consecrated 
to the education exclusively of the indigent. Under this act, apportion- 
ments were annually made to the schools enumerated, and to those estab- 
lished by some eight or ten of the difi'erent religious denominations, until 
the year 1834. By chapter 276 of the Session Laws of that year, the above- 
mentioned act was repealed, and the Common Council of the city was au- 
thorized to designate " the societies or schools which should be entitled to 
receive a share of the school moneys, and prescribe the rules and restric- 
tions, under which such moneys shall be received by such societies or schools 
respectively." Pursuant to this act, the Common Council have designated 
the schools of the Public School Society, and six or eight other schools, to 
which all the public moneys have, since 1836, been distributed, with some 
variations in ^iflerent years, as to the other schools. From the annual re- 
ports and other documents, a statement has been compiled, from which it 
appears that more than one million of dollars has been paid to the trustees 
of the Society, under its different names, since 1813, out of the public 
moneys appropriated by the State, and raised by tax on the city for school 
purposes, and that $125,248.57, have been paid to the other schools before 
mentioned. 

The Public School Society was originally incorporated in 1805, by chap- 
ter 108 of the laws of that session, which is entitled, " An Act to Incorpor- 
ate the Society instituted in the City of New York, for the establishment of 
a free school for the education of poor children, who do not belong to, or 
are not provided for by, any religious society." In 1808 its name was 
changed to " The Free School Society of New York," and its powers were 
extended " to all children who are the proper subjects of a gratuitous edu- 
cation." By chapter 25 of the laws of 1826, its name was changed to "The 
Public School Society of New York," and the trustees were authorized to 
provide for the education of all children of New York, not otherwise pro- 
vided for, "whether such children be or be not the proper subjects of 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHUM. 375 

gratuitous education ; and to require from those attending the schools, a 
moderate compensation ; but no child to be refused admission on account 
of inability to pay." 

This brief history of the distribution of the school moneys in the city 
of New York (continued Mr. Ketchum) is accurate so far as it goes ; but 
the Secretary has left out some particulars which we deem of some import- 
ance in this discussion. 

In the first jilace, these moneys were originally appropriated to the pay- 
ment of teachers, and to no other purpose ; but after the Lancasterian sys- 
tem of education had been introduced into the city of New York, and the 
Free-School Society had been established, it was found that, under the 
monitorial system, so great was the number of children attending these 
schools, that a larger amount of money was drawn from the public school 
fund than was necessary to jjay the teachers ; and in the year 1817, the 
surplus was jjermitted by the Legislature to be appropriated by the Public 
School Society for the purchase of books and stationery, and other inci- 
dental expenses attending the education of children ; so that, from that 
time, the Public School Society drew its quota, and applied it 'not only to 
the payment of teachers, but also to those other purposes which I have 
named. This privilege was at that time enjoyed exclusively by the Public 
School Society; and I suppose that the principle upon which the exclusive 
privilege was granted, was, that the Free-School Society — for so it was then 
called — was incorporated exclusively for the pui'poses of education, and of 
educating poor children ; and there was, therefore, in the constitution of 
the Society itself, in the act of its incorporation, no inducement or motive 
for mal-application or misappropriation of the funds ; and hence it was, I 
presume, that the Legislature, in its wisdom, saw no danger in trusting 
whatever funds were drawn by that institution, to be applied not only to 
the payment of teaeliers, but for the general purposes of education. 

This, then, is one omission which the Secretary has made. 

The second omission is, that the Secretary has not attempted to account 
(as I think he should have done) for the reason why the public school 
moneys in the city of New York were diflferently applied from those in the 
country. In the country, as the committee well know, the amount, as in the 
city, received from the common school fund is paid over to the proper otBcer 
in the comity. The county has to raise by tax an amount equivalent to the 
sum thus received, and then it passes into the hands of commissioners chosen 
by the people in their respective districts. In the city of New York, how- 
ever, no legislation of that description was provided. The money was paid 
over to the chamberlain, and the chamberlain was directed to pay it to cer- 
tain designated societies — of which the School Society was one, and all 
religious societies maintaining charity schools ; the Orphan Asylum and 
some others being specified. 

Now, it seems to me that, in order to have presented the subject fairly 
and fully, the Secretary should have accounted for this difi'erence. I will 
attempt to account for it now. In the country, that portion of the com- 
mon school fund which goes to each county, is paid as a sort of premium, 



376 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

or cvdmiwe, to induce the establishment and maintenance of common schools. 
The State says to the resijective counties, We -will give you so much ; and 
this is given as an advance, or premium, or bonus, for the establishment and 
maintenance of these common schools throughout the country. In the 
country, the schools so established and so participating in this fund are the 
schools in -which the children of the county — the children of the poor of 
the county — as well as the offspring of persons of property, generally re- 
ceive their elementary education. The tax-paying part of the community 
— those who are called uj^on to raise this equivalent tax (in the first place, 
in order to receive the fund from the State, and, in the second jjlace, to 
provide for the erection of school-houses in the respective school districts) 
— this tax-paying part of the community, I say, have, for the most part, 
their own sons and daughters educated in these very schools which are es- 
tablished and maintained by this money. Therefore, it will be plainly seen 
that this tax-jaaying community which, and which alone, elects the com- 
missioners in towns — which alone elects the trustees in districts, have a 
direct personal interest in electing suitable persons ; because those very per- 
sons are to take charge of the education of their children. There is ijrob- 
ably very little danger that any thing like party politics will mingle up in 
■ the election of these officers ; because these very officers are to perform a 
most important and interesting duty to the children of the very men who 
are called upon to pay the tax. Not so in the city of New York. There, 
by the law enacted in the year 1813, this fund was originally expressly ap- 
propriated to the education of the indigent — of the poor — of the children 
of those who do not pay tax — to those who are ilie pi-opcr subjects of gratui- 
tous educaiwn ; and none but charity schools, none but the children of the 
poor, none but the proper subjects of a gratuitous education, were to be 
benefitted at all by this portion of the fund so received from the State, and 
by the equivalent portion so raised by tax. To tliis the tax-payers in the 
city of New York consented ; because, if the first objection to such a law 
had been made on the part of that city, it would not have passed in this 
form. This was undoubtedly a matter made to fall in or acquiesce with the 
wishes of the delegation from the city of New York ; because the Legisla- 
ture never would have undertaken, without such acquiescence, to have made 
that distinction ; therefore I say, that the citizens of New York, through 
their representatives here, consented that the bread which the State had 
provided for their own children should be given to the poor ; they volun- 
tarily parted with it, and gave it to the indigent among them. 

Thus, then, we sse that the fund was given to the indigent by those who 
spoke for the people of the city of New York in the Legislature ; and I 
have but this hour heard that a man, whose name is dear to us all — ^De 
Witt Clinton — was the man who princi])ally represented the wishes of the 
city of New York at that time. It was De Witt Clinton that spoke in be- 
half of the city of New York — who made this provision. 

And inasmuch as this was a gratuity, a charity for the poor peojjle of 
that city, she chose that the money should jiass through the hands of cer- 
tain almoners of her own choice. She chose that the Free-School Society, 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCUUM. 377 

the Oi-phan Asylum Society, the religious bodies wliich maintained schools 
there at that time, should be her almoners. Suppose, at that day, it had 
been proposed, as it is now proijosed by the Secretary, that the people 
should choose commissioners — that the tax-paying portion of this people 
(because none others then -were, or now are, entitled to vote on these mat- 
ters in the country) should choose commissioners, there was lacking that 
powerful motive which would influence ireeholders, and the tax-jjaying 
portion of the community, to elect proper men for the performance of this 
duty — the motive 'R'hich w.is to be found in the fact that their own children 
were to be educated by these very persons. This probably may account 
very sensibly for the fact that, in the city- of New York, the portion of the 
school fund allotted to her was to be distributed by those almoners of her 
charity whom her representatives thought proper to designate. Now, I ask, 
"Was there any thing inconsistent with sound principle in this ? Is there 
any thing in it which violates the principle of the largest liberty and the 
purest democracy, of which w-e hear something in this report ? In the city 
of New York, as I shall have occasion to show by and by — and more or less, 
I sujapose, it is so in all the States of Christendom — there are voluntary 
associations, charitable associations, associations composed of men, incor- 
porated or otherwise, who are willing to profler their services to feed the 
hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the destitute, and to see to the applica- 
tion of funds set apart for thetr relief Such men are always to be found 
in largo cities — men of fortune, men of leisure, men of benevolence, who 
are willing to associate together for benevolent objects, and who are usually 
made the almoners of the charity of others. Such is the case in the city 
of New York. That is- the usual mode— (as I shall have occasion to show, 
though it can scarcely be necessary to do it before this intelligent com- 
mittee) — that is the usual mode of distributing funds there, and experience 
has demonstrated that it has been attended with good and wholesome re- 
sults. The city of New York chose, therefore, to adopt this mode of dis- 
tributing her moneys ; and this, iH'obably, is one of the reasons why this 
distinction between the city and the country was incorjjorated in the act of 
1813. Another reason undoubtedly was, that, in a city such as New York, 
there is more or less political excitement mingling in every public measure. 
All who have lived there know that, especially within a few years piast, we 
have had a degree of political excitement which has been very inconvenient ; 
and that at all times, in a close and dense population, more of that excite- 
ment and heat are felt than prevails amongst the more sparse population of 
the country, and, probably, i)ossibly it entered into the consideration of the 
wise men (for, if they were like him whom I have named, they deserve that 
appellation in its highest sense) in the Legislature of that day, that, for the 
purpose of keeping this matter out of the vortex of party and political ex- 
citement, this money should be paid over to, and distributed under, the 
superintendence of agents consisting of these respective societies. This, 
then, it seems to me, is another omission in this report of the Secretary. I 
Bpeak with deference. And the third omission is, that the Secretary has 
failed to tell us why the act of 1834 was passed, which gives the money 



378 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

provided by the State to the Common Council of the city of New York, to 
be distributed by them as they might think jjroper. I TviU supply the 
omission. 

Anterior to the year 1834, the Legislature designated the institutions and 
schools -which should participate in this fund. These ■were, the Free-School 
Society, and religious societies supporting charity schools, and some others. 
About the year 1833 — (I would premise, however, that the religious societies, 
and all except the Public School Society, were restricted in the use of these 
funds to the payment of teachers) — about the year 1833, a society, called 
the Bethel Church of the City of New York, obtained a privilege similar 
to that which had been granted to the Public School Society, and applied 
the surplus, after the payment of teachers, to the purchase of stationery 
and tlie erection of buildings. The operation of that plan was this : in- 
asmuch as that society, m common with all others, drew jier head for the 
number of children taught in the schools, or, rather, for the number of chil- 
dren placed on the register of the schools, to be taught, this Bethel Church, 
under the direction of Johnson Chase, at that time their pastor, gave small 
presents and rewards, to induce children to come in. They came in, and 
their names were put on tlie register; and when the yearly account came 
to be m'ade out, they drew for the number of children on the register, and 
the consequence was, that a large portion of the fund was appropriated to 
the erection of buildings belonging to the -Bethel Church ; .thus using the 
common school fund of the city of New York, and the equivalent tax paid 
there, to the erection of religious temples to be used by a particular de- 
nomination of Christians. Before this law of 183? was passed, and while 
the sum received was specifically ajipropriated to the payment of teachers, 
the Bethel Church, or, rather, their pastor, evaded the law in the following 
manner : The teacher was employed at a large salary ; he received the salary 
with the understanding that, while he received it in one hand, with the 
other he should make over a piortiou to the church ; so that the church 
received, after all, a portion of the funds paid to teachers. 

This alarmed the Public School Society and the community of the city 
of New York, and the Society and the Corporation immediately sent a 
memorial up here, jDraying that the provision of the law giving peculiar 
privilege to the Bethel Baptist Church might be repealed. Hence ensued 
a contest which lasted two or three years before the Legislature, in which 
the people of the city of New York took great interest, and which was a 
very exciting contest even here, in the city of Albany. Here was seen to be 
an attempt made to take away the public school fund of the city of New 
York for the purposes of the Bethel Church ; and the city authorities, and 
the associations participating in the fund, all became alarmed. 

We came here and discussed this matter ; and our proposition was, then, 
to restrict these religious societies to the poor children of parents statedly 
worshipping with those societies. This was thought to be a fair proposal. 
The subject was discussed on various successive occasions, until, at length, 
it was seen, by those who examined it, that this matter of paying the school 
fund to religious societies, whereby the doctrines of particular religious 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCnUM. ' 379 

sects sliould be sustained and sujiportcd by this fund, was a violation of a 
great fundamental principle. It was the union of Church and State, which 
the laws and the institutions of this country abhor. It was taking the funds 
of the people — the tax received out of the pockets of the people — and ap- 
plying it to the establishment and promotion of religious societies. Well, 
although it is a good thing to have these religious societies, yet it was seen 
that a vital principle was here violated. Hence, after many discussions in 
tlie Assembly chamber (discussions at which all the members were invited 
to attend— and almost all of them did attend, foi- we had generally a quorum, 
although it was before a committee night after night), the committee of the 
Assembly at length made a report favorable to the prayer of the memorial ; 
but suggesting, in that very report, whether even so much as was gi-anted in 
the proposition referred to was not a violation of sound principle ; wheth- 
er, in fact, religious societies ought to participate in the enjoyment of the 
fund at all, because, by such participation, the Jew might be made to sup- 
port the doctrine of the Christian ; and, vicc-versd, the Christian that of the 
Jew, the Catholic of the Protestant, the Protestant of the Catholic, and so 
on. After much discussion, after the subject had been agitated before the 
Legislature week after week — (as a member cf the Public School Society, I 
attended here six weeks) — after a great contest, in which we had to contend 
against the Bethel Church, the Episcopal Church, the Dutch Church, the 
Methodist Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, the bill came from the 
other House to the Senate, and there was discussed before a committee by 
the gentleman who is now Bishop of the State — Dr. Onderdonk— , on the one 
side, and a member of the Board of Public Schools on the other. This was 
at the adjourned session of the Legislature, in the fall of 1824, the session 
having been continued over from the spring to the fall. In this fall session 
of 1834, I say, it was that this discussion was had. The committee of the 
Senate, seeing that the subject was involved in difficulties, and that it re- 
quired a knowledge of local feelings which they did not, and could not, 
possess here in the Legislature, inserted an amendment in the bill of the 
House, declaring that they would refer the matter to the city of New York, 
and that the Corporation should dispose of the school fund apportioned to 
that city as they might please. And here I ask leave to say to the commit- 
tee, that this power never had been asked for by the Corporation— that it 
never had been asked for by the Public School Society ; but that the com- 
mittee of the Senate — (and a most intelligent committee at was : 1 do not 
recollect all the names at the moment, but I know that Mr. Suydam was 
one) — that committee decided that they were so ignorant of the peculiarities 
of the New York population with reference to this question, that they were 
incompetent to decide it rightly ; and they therefore, of their own motion, 
incorporated this section in the act, giving power to the Corjjoration of the 
city of New York to dispose of this fund as they thought best. Thus the 
power was granted. Now, the proposition of the Secretary in this report is, 
that the Legislature shall resume this power ; that that which the Legisla- 
ture of 1834 thought proper to give of their own motion, as I have said — 
for in behalf of the Public School Society no such grant was asked ; and I 



l^'-< 



380 THE PL-BLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

felt great hesitation on the part of the Common Council, -whose memorial I 
bore, whether we should accept the grant — whether it v.-oukl not be bettei 
to leave the disposition of the school fund here. We were fearful of local 
difficulty. We did not want the "[jower vested in the Corjioration ; the Cor- 
poration did not want it ; and I never gave my consent to it until after con- 
sultation with the President of the Free-School Society at that time, De 
Witt Clinton, then residing here, and who said it was more proper that the 
Corporation should exercise this power. It was then accej)tcd. Now, I 
maintain, that if the proijosition of the Secretary, that the Legislature 
should resume this power, is to be adojited, it is incumbent on him to show 
that the power thus delegated to the Corporation has been abused. I say, 
it is incumbent upon him to prove this fact. Here is the Legislature dele- 
gating a power — granting it to agents selected by the people, composed of 
the Common Council of the city of New York. Before this grant, the rep- 
resentatives of the people of the city of New York in this Legislature un- 
questionably had the sole power of indicating the course of legislation as to 
the disposition of the fund apportioned to that city. The Legislature never 
would have undertaken to say that these funds should be used in one way 
in the city of New York, and in another way in the countiy, except so far 
as they were authorized to say it by the consent of members rejjresenting 
the city and country respectively. 

This is according to the usual course of legislation — local iu its opera- 
tion. " Well, then," said the committee of the Senate, in 1824, " instead of 
having this matter indicated to us by twelve or thirteen gentlemen who rep- 
resent the city of New York in the Assembly, and one or two that may rep- 
resent them in this body, wo will say to the Common Council of that city, 
selected by the people — the chosen agents of the people— that they may dis- 
tribute this fund as they think proper ; and the question now is. Have these 
agents abused that power so as to make it requisite that the Legislature 
should resume it ? " Sir, I submit, with great deference, whether, in this 
matter, the onus of proof does not lie upon those who ask the Legislature to 
resume it ? I submit if the burden of showing that there has been an 
abuse of power — that the agent has been an unfaithful agent — does not 
devolve upon those who desire to take the jjower away ? Now, has it been 
abused ? I ask, has the Corporation abused the power thus voluntarily — 
without any request on their part — granted to them ? That is a question 
which I now jiropose to discuss. 

Immediately after the passage of this act, or as soon as, in the course of 
public business, it could be attended to — namely, on the 11th of April, 1825 
(for it was anterior to that that the committee was ajjpointed) — this matter 
was taken up by the Common Council of the city of New York, it was 
referred by them to the Law Committee, and this is the preamble to the 
report made on the day above mentioned : 

The Committee on Laws, to whom were referred the 4th section of the 
act of the Legislature of this State relating to common schools in the city 
of New York, passed the 19th of November, 1824 ; the memorials of the 
trustees of the Charity School attached to the Reformed Protestant Dutch 



SPEECH OF MR. KETCHUM. 38] 

Church of the city of New York ; of the trustees of the First Protestant 
Episcopal Charity School in the city of New York, and of the trustees of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church, praying respectively for a participation in 
the common school fund ^ and also the report of a committee of the trus- 
tees of the Free-School Society, on the distribution of the said fund, pro- 
posing a change in the constitution of that Society, so as to admit children 
of all classes to their schools, for a compensation not exceeding fifty cents 
per quarter, with power to remit in proper cases, Report. 

The committee consisted of Samuel Cowdrey, Elisha W. King, and 
Thomas Bolton, Esqs. 

They patiently heard all parties (continued Mr. Ketchum). I believe the, 
hearing occupied one or two evenings. The Methodists were represented, 
the Dutch were represented, the Episcopalians were represented, and the 
Public School Board was represented. The whole matter was fully and frank- 
ly discussed, and this principle : whether or not religious societies ought to 
participate in this fund, was fully gone into ; and so far as the churches 
were represented, and so far as my learned associate was concerned (the 
Hon. Peter A. Jay), these various questions were discussed with great 
ability. 

The report of the Law Committee is long ; it sets forth the arguments 
on both sides, and the conclusion contains the following passage : 

In the performance of this duty, they have felt all the importance and 
responsibility of the task assigned to them ; and while they would will- 
ingly have retired from the appointment, and do each individually wish 
that the Legislature had passed the necessary law on this subject, on the 
recent application to them for that pui-pose, yet your committee cannot per- 
mit themselves.to hesitate or falter in the course of public duty, when that 
course is plainly manifest to their understandings. Your committee will not 
conceal either their own private and personal wishes, at the commencement 
of their duties, that the well-organized churches and religious societies in 
our city might be permitted to continue in the reception of a part of this 
fund, as heretofore. But the weight of the argument as urged before them, 
and which they have endeavored to condense in this report, and the estab- 
lished constitutional and political doctrines which have a jjcaring on this 
question, and the habits and modes of thinking of the constituents at large 
of this board, require, in the opinion of your committee, that the common 
school fund should be distributed for civil pui-poses only, as contradistin- 
guished from those of a religious or sectarian description. 

This report was adopted by the Common Council with entire unanimity, 7 
it is believed. > 

That conclusion was ratified by their constituents ; and I believe that 
every one of the religious societies, or nearly so, excepting the Roman Cath- 
olics, acquiesced in that decision. But that society, year after year, has 
come before the Common Council, and renewed their request for a separate 
portion of the school fund. With the best feelings for the applicants, in a 
spirit of kindness, with every disposition to do whatever could be done for 
them, year after year, and without respect to politics, whether the one party 
was in the ascendant or the other party was in the ascendant, the Common 
Council have, with almost entire unanimity, disallowed that request ; and I 
believe that never, in either board, since the division of that body into two 



382 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

boards, has there been but one dissenting voice raised against the ratifica- 
tion of that decision. Now, if the committee please, who have complained? 
The Roman Catholics. Our fellow-citizens, the Roman Catholics, are as 
much entitled to be heard there, and here, as any other citizens ; for, when 
actipg in a political capacity, we know no difference of religion. The re- 
quest which was made and urged by them, conjoined with many powerful 
Protestant sects and denominations of Christians, and which was refused to 
them jointly, has been over and over again refused to them separately. 

No disrespect was intended then. The Common Council, and every per- 
son engaged in the discussion of the question on behalf of the Common 
School Society, took great care to say, " We do not reject you because you 
are Roman Catholics ; and, as evidence of this truth, we give you the fact 
that we have rejected similar applications from powerful Protestants ; but 
we reject your request because we believe that a sound general principle will 
not allow us to grant it." 

I say, that the Corporation have been desirous, so far as that body possi- 
bly could, so far as they felt themselves at liberty, consistently with the 
maintenance of a sound general principle, to accommodate those parties. 
They have granted a privilege out of this fund to the Roman Catholic de- 
nomination, which has not been granted to any other. The Sisters of Char- 
ity, so called, under direction of the Roman Catholic Church, and connected 
with it (I believe I am right ; if not, I should be happy to be corrected), 
established a most benevolent institution in the city of New York, called 
the Orphan Asylum — the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. They took into 
this institution poor and destitute orphans. They fed them and clothed 
them most meritoriously, and they thus relieved the city of New York of 
the maintenance of many who would otherwise, probably, have been a 
charge upon it. After long discussion, and with some hesitancy, yet over- 
come by the desire to oblige, and aware of the limitation arising from the 
very nature of that institution, the Corporation did permit the Catholic 
Orphan Asylum to receive money from this fund ; and, during the last year, 
it received some $1,463 for the education of about one hundred and sixty- 
five children — in common with the Institution for the Blind, and the Deaf 
and Dumb, and those other benevolent and Christian institutions which are 
altogether of a Catholic character, in the most comprehensive acceptation 
of that term, as they are under no sectarian influence or government. Thus 
this society, under the direction of the Sisters of Charity — ladies devoted 
to the Roman Catholic Church, who are themselves Roman Catholics, and 
given up to the service of that Churcli — this society, I say, has been permit- 
ted to draw this sum of $1,463 in one year. But when the question came, 
" Shall their schools be permitted to draw from the fund ? " the Corporation 
had to say — and they have said, over and over again, though most reluc- 
tantly — " We cannot grant you that." UiJon the last application made for 
this purpose, the subject underwent thorough and prolonged discussion 
before the Board of Aldermen, and the argument was conducted, on the 
side of the Roman Catholics, with signal ability, by the Right Rev. Bishop 
Hughes, of that Church. The hall of the Common Council was crowded 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHTJM. 383 

to overflowing ; the avenues were crowded, and crowded, I believe I may 
say, without any intention of saying what is erroneous, by persons belong- 
ing to that denomination. 

The subject, I repeat, underwent a very full and free discussion ; and, 
after that had terminated, the Board of Aldermen gravely considered and 
discussed the subject, and at length, after some delay, came to the conclu- 
sion that they would go and visit the schools. Some of the members of the 
Board of Public Schools, feeling sensibly alive on the subject, expressed to 
me an apprehension that this was a mere evasion, and they feared that the 
question had now become mingled with politics. But I said, " Wait, gen- 
tlemen ; let them go and see your schools ; it is a natural desire. They 
ought to go. It is a great and delicate question, and they ought to be ac- 
quainted with it in all its details." They went and visited the public 
schools and the Roman Catholic schools, and they incorporated the result of 
their deliberations in a report which I have before me, and from which I 
shall quote by and by. It is drawn up with great ability, and the decision 
was, with but one dissenting voice, that the prayer of the petition should 
be rejected ; and it was rejected. Who, then, complain of the operation of 
this system ? Our fellow-citizens, the Roman Catholics. Failing to accom- 
plish their iDurpose through the Common Council of the city of New York, 
they come and ask it here. Failing in their application to a body of repre- 
sentatives to whom they have applied year after year, and who rejorcsent a 
population in which is intermingled a greater mass of Roman Catholic 
voters than in any other district of the State of New York — failing to get, 
from the hands of a body thus constituted, the redress for the grievance 
which they complained of, they come here and ask it of you. I say, they 
come here, because I will presently show you, from their memorials, that 
none l)ut they come here. 

Now, I beg leave again to refer to the report of the Secretary. He says : 

The memorials presented at the present session represent that the legisla- 
tive enactments on the subject of public instruction, in the city of New 
York, require a fundamental alteration to bring the benefits of the common 
school education within the reach of all classes of the population ; that the 
original intent of those enactments was to enable every school, which should 
comply with the law, to skare in the common school fund ; that this design 
has been defeated by the construction put upon the statutes by the Common 
Council of the city, in designating the Public School Society to receive 
nearly the whole amount of that fund belonging to the city ; that this Soci- 
ety, being a corporation, has acquired the entire control of the sj-stera of 
public education ; that the taxpayers who contribute to the fund have no 
voice in the selection of those who administer the system, or control over 
the application of the public moneys. 

That is to say (continued Mr. Ketchum), that, at the last session, memo- 
rials were presented by the Roman Catholics, as such. The present, we are 
left to infer, are presented by citizens generally, not as Roman Catholics. 
Let us see how the truth of the matter stands. Here is the first memorial : 

To the HonoraUe ths Legislature of the State of New Yorh : 

The memorial of the undersigned, residents of the city of New York, 



38i THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

respectfully sliowcth : That your memorialists, being members of the Catho- 
lic Church, and connected with the several Catholic congregations in the 
city of New York, would respectfully represent to your honorable body, &c. 

This (continued Mr. Ketchum) is from the first memorial presented by 
them as Catholics. It was presented in the session of 1840, and referred to 
the honorable Secretary last year. He did not think proper to make a 
report upon that ; but then comes a second memorial from citizens generally, 
and on that lie makes a report. The second is a memorial presented the 
22d of February, 1841. It says : 

That your memorialists are deeply interested in extending the advan- 
tages of education to every child in the commonwealth, regarding it as the 
best means of perpetuating the blessings of our republican institutions, and 
of correcting those evils in society which are beyond the sphere of legisla- 
tion. 

It is alleged by thousands of our population, that their conscientious 
.scruples have been disregarded in the formation of the system of instruction 
adopted by the Public School Society. The confidence of this class of our 
citizens has been entirely withdrawn from the institution, and they com- 
jilaiu of the severity of tiie oppression which coniiaels them to submit to 
the decision and government of agents irresponsible to the public, and in 
whose appointment the electors are not permitted to participate, &c. 

Among the first signatures to this memorial (remarked Mr. Ketchum) are 
those of Joseph O'Connor, James B. O'Donnell, Patrick Leach, and others. 
I never saw this memorial until this morning, but I perceive one name 
attached to it, as a sort of family name — Pateick Faehell — three times in 
succession ; and, what is very singular, the handwriting seems to bo very 
much alike. Be that as it may, I am satisfied, from what I have seen, that 
this is as much a memorial from Roman Catholics as the other was. The 
Secretary, in his report, in the passage which I have read, admits that the 
first memorial came in a shape not calculated, probably, to be \evy impres- 
sive. He says : 

At the last session, memorials of a similar character from a large number 
of Roman Catholics, citizens of New York, were referred to the undersigned, 
upon which he was unable, during that session, to report. Although these 
petitioners have the same equal and common rights, with all other citizens, 
to submit their grievances to the Legislature and ask for redress, yet the 
circumstance of presenting themselves in a character of a religious denomi- 
nation is, in itself, unfavorable to that impartial consideration of the subject 
which its importance demands. 

Probably (continued Mr. Ketchum) that circumstance was discovered by 
the Secretary's sagacity, between 1840 and 1841 ; and this second memorial, 
therefore, is from citizens of New York. But I believe I may safely afiirm 
that, if not exclusively, it is almost altogether signed by Roman Catholics. 
As the Secretary justly remarks, however, they have a right to apply here ; 
they have a right to ask the Legislature to overrule the deciiion of the Coi>- 
poration, although it may be supposed that in that Corporation they would 
have as fair a chance of being heard, and of having the merits of the con- 
troversy rightly adjudicated, as here; still, they have the right to come. 



SPEECH OF MR. KETCHUM. 385 

Now, wbat do they comiilain of? Oue of their compUiints is, that the pcci- 
ple are not represented in this Public School Society ; that here is an agency 
used for a great public purpose which the people do not directly choose ; 
and they complain of the Public School Society being a close corporation. 

I suijpose that, if the Corporation had granted the prayer of their me- 
morial, to allow their societies — that is to say, St. Patrick's Church, and all 
such churches as belong to the Eoman Catholic denomination in the city of 
New York — to participate in this fund, I suppose they would not have seen 
precisely that such great evils and dangers to liberty were to be apprehend- 
ed from the distribution of the funds to these churches and the Public _ 
School Society. I think it fair to conjecture, that if their corporations, be 
they close or be they open, could have ijarticipated in that fund, we should 
not have heard any thing of their extreme regard for the liberties of the 
people. But, no matter whether we should or should not, they have a right 
to be heard, whatever their motives may be ; no matter what might have 
deterred them from coming here, they have a right to be heard, and their 
arguments must be met and answered here, or else they must receive the 
action of the Legislature in their favor. All that I admit. But what is 
their complaint ? As will appear by these memorials, and from the sum- 
mary contained in the report of the Secretary, they complain that this 
money is paid to a close corporation — that the religious scruples of a large 
portion of our fellow-citizens are violated by this distribution of funds. 

Now, I wish to call the attention of the committee to the fact now to be 
stated : there is no complaint in these memorials, nor will you hear any from 
any source, that the Public School Society does not furnish, to all the chil- 
dren who attend theii- schools, a good literary education ; there is no com- 
plaint that, in these schools, children are not taught to read, write, and 
cipher; that they are not taught the elements of geography, astronomy, 
and of English grammar, as well as they could be taught. There is, I say, 
no complaint of that description ; and, with the excejition of complaints 
about the taidcncics of the institution, there are no complaints against its 
actual operation ; but the complaint is, that some of the citizens cannot, 
from conscientious scruisles, send their children to these schools. Now, I 
invite the particular attention ©f the committee to this, which I deem most 
important : that, whatever may be said of the tendencies of these institu- 
tions, whatever may be said of the evil of the general principle contained in 
the alleged fact that these agents are not chosen directly by the people, nor 
responsible to them, yet, in the long lapse of thirty-five years of the opera- 
tion of this Society, and from the year 1813 to the present time, during 
which these common school moneys have been received, there is no com- 
plaint that they have ever failed to give a good education. There is no com- 
plaint that the system has so far operated injuriously, excepting that such 
is the course of religious education, or, more properly speaking, the want of 
religious education, that the Roman Catholics cannot conscientiously send 
their children to our schools. But they do object that they cannot send 
their childi'en to these schools ; that those children, many of them eminent- 

25 



386 THE I'UBUC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ly the subjects of a gratuitous education, cannot partake of tlie benefits of 
the fiind on account of conscientious scruples. 

Kow, this is the very point which, year after year, has been discussed 
before the Common Council, and which, year after year, has been decided 
by that body. What is it ? The Roman Catholics complain, in the first 
place, that they cannot conscientiously send their children to the public 
schools because we do not give religious instruction in a definite form and 
of a decided and definite character. They complain, in the second place, 
that the school-books in common use in the Society contain passages reflect- 
ing upon the Koman Catholic Church. And they complain, in the third 
place, that we use the Bible without note or comment ; that the school is. 
opened in the morning hy calling the children to order and reading a chap- 
ter in the Bible — our common version. These are the three grounds on 
which they base their conscientious scniiiles. Now, I propose most respect- 
fully to consider them. In the first placcj our books contain occasional pas- 
sages reflecting on the Roman Catholics. It is true that, in our ordinary 
school-books, the most approved of the day, there is an occasional passage 
which may be considered as reflecting injuriously on the Roman Catholic 
Church. We have all read, I suppose, as children — and I do not know but 
that this description may be one of those contained in these books — of the 
martyrdom of John Rogers, in the reign of Queen Mary. That reflects on 
the Roman Catholic Church ; and there is an occasional passage which 
speaks of the Roman Catholic Church as Protestant divines, essayists, and 
orators sometimes allow themseh'es' to speak of that Church. The Public 
School Society have olfered, if the Catholics will point out these oflFensivo 
passages, to erase them all from the books. They have said to the bishop 
of that Church, and to a committee of that Church, " We can find passages 
enough of good English for our reading-books without these ; and if you 
will have the goodness to take these books and point out these offensive 
passages, we pledge ourselves to have them erased." 

Now, all this matter was gone into by the intelligent committee of the 
Board of Aldermen to whose action I have referred — and I have their report 
before me. They called for a distinct -and definite proposition from the 
Common School Society as to what they would do. I will read a few pas- 
sages from the report : 

PROPOSITION ON BEH^VLP OP THE SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

In compliance with the request of the committee of the Board of Alder- 
men, the undersigned committee of the New York Public School Society 
submit the following propositions as a basis of a compromise with their 
Roman Catholic fellow-citizens on the subject of the public schools ; which 
propositions they are willing to support before the trustees of the Society, 
and which they believe will be sanctioned by that board. 

The Trustees of the New York Public School Society will remove from 
the class-books in the schools all matters which may be jjointed out as ofl'en- 
sive to their Roman Catholic fellow-citizens, should any thing objectionable 
yet remain in them. 

They will also exclude from the school libraries (the use of which is per- 
mitted to the pupils, but not required of them) every work written with a 



SPEECn OF MR. KETOHUM. 387 

view to prejudice the mind of the reader against the tenets or practices of 
the Roman Catholic Church, or the general tendency of which is to produce 
the same eifect. 

They will receiYC and examine any books which may be recommended 
for the use of the schools ; and should such books be adapted to their sys- 
tem of instruction, and void of any matter offensive to other denominations, 
they shall be introduced so soon as opportunity may be aflbrded by a call 
for new books. 

Any suggestions in reference to alterations in the plan of instruction or 
course of studies, which may be offered, shall receive prompt consideration ; 
and, if not inconsistent with the general system of instruction now prevail- 
ing in the schools, nor with the conscientious rights of other denominations, 
they shall be adopted. 

The building situated in Mulberry street, nojv occupied by Roman Cath- 
olic schools, shall, if required for the use of the Public School Society, be 
purchased or hii'ed, on equitable terms, by the trustees, should such an 
arrangement be desired. 

Every effort will be made by the Trustees of the Public School Society 
to prevent any occurrence in the schools which might be calculated to 
wound the feelings of Roman Catholic children, or to impair their confi- 
dence in, or diminish their respect for, the religion of their parents. 

Anxious to keep open every avenue to such an aiTangement as will lead 
to a general attendance of the Roman Catholic "children at the public 
schools, and fully aware that some things may have escaped their observa- 
tion which might be modified without violation of the conscientious rights 
of others, the undersigned wish it to be distinctly understood that, in offer- 
ing the foregoing propositions as the basis of an arrangement, it is not in- 
tended to exclude other propositions which the Roman Catholics may make, 
provided they do not interfere with the principles by which the trustees feel 
themselves bound. 

This portion of the report (said Mr. Ketchum), as will be seen, has refer- 
ence to these offensive passages. Now, every body will say that is a fair 
offer— we will strike them out. But, gentlemen of the committee, 1 submit 
■whether here, in this counti-y, we must not, in matters of conflicting opin- 
ions, give and take a little ? I have no doubt that I can find something in 
any public school-book, of much length, and containing much variety of 
matter, reflecting upon the Methodists — upon the heated zeal, probably, of 
John Wesley, and his followers ; reflecting upon the Episcopalians, the Bap- 
tists, and Presbyterians. Occasional sentences will find their way into pub- 
lic discourses, which, if viewed critically, and regarded in a captious spirit, 
rather reflect upon the doctrines of all those churches. 

Now, I submit, with great deference to the committee, whether this is a 
fair subject for conscientious scruples ? As I have had occasion to illustrate 
heretofore, we find something in relation to politics, too, about which we 
may disagree. There are some very elegant passages from Thomas Jeffer- 
son's works which have found their way into our public school-books. 
Some man, imbued with strong prejudices against Thomas Jefferson, may 
say, " I cannot go Thomas Jefferson ; my children shall never be instructed 
to read what Thomas Jefferson has said." On the other hand, there are 
many passages from the speeches of Mr. Webster which have found their 
way into school-books ; and a Democrat may say, " I cannot go Mr. Web- 
ster ; my children shall not be taught to admire him." And thus, if we are 



3S8 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

captious, we can find conscientious scruples enough. However, if it is bond 
fide a conscientious scruple, there is the end of it ; we cannot reason with it. 
But, in the judgment of the Common Council, and as I think must be the 
case in the judgment of every man, the difficulty is got over by the proposi- 
tion which has been made. 

The next complaint is, that we do not give religious education enough. 
The memorials, all of which are public — and the speeches and documents 
which have been employed, and which, if necessary, can be furnished to the 
committee — all go conclusively to demonstrate that, in the judgment of those 
who spoke for the Roman Catholic Church, we ought to teach religion in 
our public schools — not generally, not vaguely, not the general truths of 
religion, but that si^ecific teligious instruction must be given. Now, I 
hardly suppose that tliis deficiency can be made the subject of conscientious 
objection. 

The third and last comj)laint is, that our Catholic brethren cannot con- 
sent to have this Bible read in the hearing of their children. Now, on 
every one of these points the trustees have been disposed to go as far as 
they possibly could in the way of accommodation ; but they never yet con- 
sented to give up the use of the Bible to the extent to which it is used in 
the schools. I say, the trustees have never yet consented to this surrender. 
But if they can have good authority for doing it, they will do it. 

If this Legislature, by its own act, will direct that the Bible shall be ex- 
cluded, I will guarantee that it shall be excluded. Thus much for these 
consoientfous scruples ; and, having these scruples, the Roman Catholics say 
they cannot come in. They, however, are in favor of this bill, the outline 
of which is given in the report of the Secretary. They are here, from the 
Catholic Board of Trustees, in strong force, to aid the passage of some bill 
founded on the Secretary's report. They will be satisfied with it ; it will 
give them what they ask. Now, let us see Iwio. There is no proijosition 
contained in this reijort, that religious societies, as such, shall participate in 
this fund — none. It is too late in the day for any man to make that propo- 
sition. Anxious as the Secretary is to accommodate this matter, he does 
not say that religious societies shall participate in the fund. But what does 
he say ? He says that the trustees of districts shall indicate what religion 
shall be taught in those schools. That is to say, that you shall have small 
masses ; that these small masses shall elect their trustees ; and as the major- 
ity of the people in those small masses may direct, so shall be the character 
of the religious instruction imparted. He assumes that there must be reli- 
gious instruction in the schools ; that, although the law makes no provision 
for it, yet that it is left practically with the people themselves, through their 
trustees, to indicate the religious instruction that shall be given. I will read 
what the Secretary says, at page 11 of his report : 

It is by adopting the principle of the organization that prevails in the 
other parts of the State, which will leave such parents as desire to exercise 
any control over the amount and description of religious instruction which 
shall be given to their children, *he opportunity of doing so. 

Now (continued Mr. Kctchum), let us see how the argument stands. The 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHUM. 389 

complainants here are the Roman Catholics. They cannot conscientiously 
have their children taught in these schools, because religious instruction, in a 
definite form, is not given, and because the Bible is read. But when U 
school is formed in the Sixth Ward of the city of New York, in which 
ward (for the sake of the argument we wiU assume) the Roman Catholics 
have a majority in the district, they choose their trustees, and these trustees 
indicate that a specific form of religion — to wit, the Roman Catholic reli- 
gion — shall be taught in that school ; that mass shall be said there, and that 
the children shall cross themselves with holy water in the school, having the 
right to do so according to this report, the Catholics being in a majority 
there. Then, and not till then, can these Roman Catholics conscientiously 
send their children to school. That is to say, their objections to this system 
are to be overcome by having a school to which they can conscientiously 
send their children ; and that school must be one in which religion is to be 
taught according to their particular views. Now, suppose that, in any given 
district, there should be about five hundred Roman Catholic children, and 
two hundred Protestant childi-en. These Protestant children are compelled 
to worship according to the opinions of the majority ; that is to say, they 
are compelled to be taught religion according to the doctrines of the Roman 
Catholic Church. I ask you, gentlemen, if that is not the tyranny of the 
majority ? The Secretary admits that a majority of the people, in a given 
district, has a right to indicate what religion shall be taught in the district 
school ; and to that religion, or that form, whatever it may be, the minority 
must submit. Thus, in a given district, the Protestant shall be taxed for 
the support of the Rftman Catholic religion ; or, on the other hand, the 
Roman Catholics shall be taxed for the support of definite Protestant reli- 
gion ; and thus, by abandoning the present system, We are to form and cre- 
ate a system which will overcome the difficulty. Is this reasoning like an 
American statesman ? 

I deny the Secretary's proposition. I aifirm that it is false and eiToneous 
from beginning to end. This school fund can never, under any circum- 
stances, be made use of or employed in teaching the particular doctrinea or 
particular dogmas of any religious denomination. If there were five hun- 
dred in one district, and but one man in that district that protested, he 
would have a clear right to do so. Ho has a right to say, " I will not pay 
my money to teach the Roman Catholic religion ; I will not pay my money 
to teach the Protestant religion ; I will not pay my money to teach the 
doctrines of Tom Paine ; I will not pay my money to teach the doctrineof 
those who affirm that my Saviour was an impostor." Imagine a district in 
the city of New York where there is a majority of persons of this descrip- 
tion, and where they shall teach their own doctrines (for, if the Secretary is 
right, these, being in the majority, have a right to teach what religion they 
please). I am supposing an extreme but possible case. Is this the scheme 
by which we are to get over the objections of those who alone complain of 
this system ? No, sir. I affirm that the religion taught in the jjublic 
schools is precisely that quantity of religion which we have a right to teach. 
It would be inconsistent with public sentiment to teach less ; it would be 



390 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

illegal to tcaoli more. And, on this point, I am liappy to see that the Secre- 
tary has one passage in liis report which expresses my views most fully, and 
which is couched in much better language than any which I could employ. 
He says : 

It is very true that the Government has assumed only the intellectual 
education of the children of the State, and has left their moral and religious 
instruction to be given at the fireside, at the places of public worship, and 
at those institutions which the piety of individuals may establish for the 
purpose. But it is believed that, in a country where the great body of our 
fellow-citizeus recognize the fundamental truths of Christianity, public senti- 
ment would be shocked by the attempt to exclude all instruction of a reli- 
gious nature from the public schools : and that any plan or scheme of educa- 
tion, in which no reference whatever was had to moral principles founded 
on these truths, would be abandoned by all. In the next place, it is be- 
lieved such an attempt would be wholly impracticable. No books can be 
found, no reading-lessons can be selected, which "do not contain more or less 
of some principles of religious faith, either directly avowed, or indirectly 
assumed. Religion and literature have become insei^arably interwoven, and 
the expurgation of religious sentiments fi-om the productions of orators, 
essayists, and poets, would leave them utterly barren. 

Now (continued Mr. Ketchum), we have a right to say this. When the 
late head of this nation (so suddenly, under the providence of God, taken 
from us) declared, as others, his predecessors, had declared before him, that 
he bore his testimony in favor of the Christian religion as receiveil in»this 
land, he spoke as the representative of the American people. I am proud to 
say here, as an American, that there is no party in that ; that, whatever 
difference of ojjinion might have existed politically as to the merits of that 
distinguished 'man, the sentiment thus uttered by him was an American 
sentiment, which will be responded to by a vast majority of the people of 
this country — for, thank God, this is a Christian land. 

We belong to different deuominatious ; indeed, we are Episcopalians, we 
are Roman Catholics, we are Baptists, we are Methodists ; but there are 
great truths of Christianity which, as a people, we coincide in. And 
although the law cannot point out precisely what those principles are, yet 
we can all feel them and judge of them. We have a right to teach our chil- 
dren, as we do teach them,' that there is a God whose eye sees us — who 
penetrates the thoughts of our hearts — and that we are accountable beings. 
We have a right to inculcate these great religious principles, as the sanctions 
of that morality which we are bound to see enforced in these schools. The 
Legislature has nothing to do with religion specifically ; but so far as, by 
common consent, religion mingles itself with the aisproved literature of the 
country, and so far as it deals with great general principles from which 
morality derives its sanctions, the Legislature, and the schools, and every 
one under the patronage of this Government, has a right to recognize it. 

Beyond that, no such right exists ; because, the moment you go beyond 
that, you tramjale upon the conscience of this or that man, whose conscience 
you are bound to respect. But these general principles, as properly stated 
here, must be recognized, and are recognized, in this land. In the schools 
we go thus far : we neither say nor do any thing to interfere with the pecu- 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHOM. 391 

liar sentiments of any sect or denomination. Our trustees are, and always 
have been, composed of persons of all denominations. We have had, in 
our number, more than one excellent Roman Catholic, from time to time. 
We have had Episcopalians, we have had Baptists, we have had Universal- 
ists, we have had respectable men of all sects — men who are willing to de- 
vote themselves, without fee or reward, to the service of their fellow-men. 
Precisely that amount of religion which would be approved and taught by 
a board thus constituted — that, I say, and these general truths only, have we 
a right to teach in institutions under the direction of the Legislature. 

The next objection to this system, as a system — and this is not an objec- 
tion to existing schools — is, that it does not reach all the children who are 
the proper subjects of a gratuitous education. And here I will take leave 
to read an extract from the report of the Secretary. He says : 

Considering the various feelings and interests that would be called into 
action by such a system, there can be little doubt that one of its immediate 
effects would be, to bring into the schools a large portion, if not the whole, 
of those who are now utterly destitute of instruction. With all the com- 
mendable and vigorous efforts of the trustees of the Public School Society, 
it cannot be denied that less than one half the children between four and 
sixteen years of age, in the city of New York, are receiving the benefits of 
any education whatever. Prom the statements in the annual report of the 
Superintendent of Common Schools for the present year (Assembly Docu- 
ment No. 100), it ap])ears that the whole number of white children in New 
York in 1840, over 5 and under 16 years of age, was 63,953, and that 30,758 
only are returned as attending some school, leaving 33,104 who were not in 
attendance on any school whatever. 

Now (continued Mr. Kctchum), I grant most freely that, if there is this 
number of children iu the city of New York who do not attend the schools 
on account of the defects in the system, the system ought to be cither 
amended or improved, or, if not susceptible of amendment, abolished, and a 
new system substituted. But let us for a moment inquire into this matter. 
There is some mistake in this census calculation. There must necessarily be 
a mistake, because it makes out the number of 33,194 children who are not 
in attendance on any school whatever. We report the number of children 
on our books for the last year at 33,000 ; and it is stated by the Eoman 
Catholics that there are about 8,000 in their schools ; making an aggregate 
of 31,000 in the public and Eoman Catholic schools. Deduct this from the 
aggregate census number, and the number remaining is 31,053. From this 
number no deduction is made for the children attending pay schools in the 
city ; this nmjiber is large iu the ward in which I reside (7th). I have 
heard a computation made, that there are over one thousand pay scholars in 
this single ward ; although this is more than the average in all the wards. 
There must, therefore, be some mistake ; the fact cannot be as it is here 
represented. I doubt whether the persons who took the census were re- 
markably accurate or particular in obtaining information respecting the 
attendance of children on schools. 

Error there manifestly is, somewhere. TJiJon a given day many children 
may not have been at school. There may have been a vast number of these 



392 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

cbildren actually attending school, and yet Tvlio were absent on tbat jiarticu- 
lar day. 

The ditFerence between the nuniljor of those who actually attend our 
schools and the number ott the register, is twenty per cent. ; that is to say, 
twenty children out of one hundred do not attend the schools daily. These 
children may be taken from school by their parents for various reasons : 
they may be wanted, in the season, to sell radishes, or for one operation or 
another, by which their parents can realize a little prolit from their labor; 
and thus, at a given time, there may not be more than two-thirds of the 
twenty-three thousand children above named in actual attendance. If, then, 
the inquiry is made on a given day, What is the number of children who go 
to school to-day ? the answer would be given in that form ; and, therefore, 
you cannot thus arrive at just conclusions as to how many children are edu- 
cated, and how many are left uneducated. The inquiry is supposed to be, 
How many children attend school ? Many jiarents -will not send their chil- 
dren when under sis years ; and, after that age, many of them are not kept 
at school more than three or four years. By the time they are ten or twelve 
years old, they will have acquired a knowledge of reading, writing, and 
ciphering, and other branches of education — which, their parents think, is 
all that is needed to prejDare them for some emijloyment. Therefore there 
may be many children between five and six not sent to scliool ; and there 
are many between that age and the age of ten or twelve, who have received 
what is supposed by their friends to be a competent education ; and a vast 
number between 13 and 16 arc taken out, because, before the latter age, they 
can be made the instruments of profit to their parents. So that, in this 
calculation, you do not arrive at a result which shows you the number of 
children actually left uneducated. It is difficult to decide this point. The 
Public School Society made an investigation into the subject, with a view 
of making an application to the people for an additional tax : this, I think, 
was in the year 1839, when the population of the city of New York was 
about two hundred thousand. They made the investigation in the best 
manner they could, and arrived at the conclusion that there were about ten 
thousand children in the city who did not attend school. 

The chairman of the committee here made the following inquiry : 

In these 33,000 thus returned, are there any returns of children at select 
schools, or boarding-schools ? 

Mr. Ketchum. Yes, sir. 

The Chairman. The number, then, includes those who arc returned 
from your Society, and are returned from other societies. 

Question by Mr. Vbrplakck. In this 33,000 who are educated at the 
public schools in New York, are not children of ages between four and five 
years included ? 

Mr. Ketchuji. The city of New York limits the age of children to 
between four and sixteen. 

Mr. Verplanck. Therefore there must be a number of children under 
five years not educated. 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHUM. 393 

Mr. Kbtchum here stated that there was .1 gentleman present (Mi-. Seton) 
who had in his possession all the statistical iutbrmation requisite to answer 
any inciuiries that might be put. That gentleman had long been a visitor 
engaged in the service of these schools. He was more intimately acquainted 
with all the details than he (Mr. Ketchum) could be, and would be happy 
to answer all inquhies. He had, indeed, come here for that puqjose. 
Mr. Ketchum then proceeded in his argument, as follows : 
Well, now, here is shown to be a large non-attendance. There is no 
doubt of the fact ; we cannot deny it, and we do not wish to deny it. But 
does this non-attendance result from this system ? I say not. There is no 
non-attendance, save from the children of our Roman Catholic fellow-citi- 
zens, that can be pointed out on account of prejudice against the schools. 
There is non-attendance, as you will be told by gentlemen of great practical 
knowledge on the subject, because parents will not send their children to 
school, or Ijccausc the children will not go. There is a want of parental 
authority which leaves the children to say they will not go, and hence they 
grow up in idle and vagrant habits. They would not go to any other 
school sooner than to this. The objection is not to the school itself, but to 
the confinement. They will not go to school, and they cannot be made to 
go. What can we do ? The gentleman upon my left (Mr. Seton) was em- 
ployed many years in visiting — in going round from house to house, for the 
purpose of inducing children to come in. We have now thirteen gentlemen 
employed to I'isit one day in each week, from house to house, to induce and 
persuade these children to come in — to overcome objections, and to get them 
in. That matter is imder the charge of a committee of the board, and the 
result of their experience has been given. I believe that their exertions, 
during the last year, were the means of getting in about nine hundi'ed chil- 
dren ; but of this number, from the want of jjarental control, a small por- 
tion only remained more than a short time. Now, what system could bring 
in these children to a greater extent ? There is no prejudice against the 
schools : there cannot be any. No one who visits the schools, and who 
observes the cheerfulness and the hajspiness which there prevails, can fail to 
see that there is not any ground of prejudice. Tou cannot have more 
attractive schools than these. But the great difficulty is, that the children 
will, not be persuaded to come. Nothing but legal provision can make 
them, and, probably, we are no|; prepared for a resort to force. But our 
Common Council have been very accommodating on this subject ; they have 
gone hand in hand with the Public School Society ; they have acted on the 
most friendly terms, and, on one occasion, they passed an ordinance (how 
long it remained in force I cannot say), providing that parents who did not 
send their children to some school should not receive bounty, in the winter 
season, from the Almshouse. That mode Jins been resorted to. There has 
been perfect cooperation between the two bodies; yet, notwithstanding this, 
and all other attempts, there are children whom we could accommodate, and 
who do not come ; but I am bound to say, that our accommodations in 
some parts of the city are not such as will allow all to partake of the bene- 
fits of the schools. That is no fault in the system,- but arises from the fact 



394 THE PPBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

that the system itself is not carried out to the extent it ought to be. I 
believe that the ti'ustces of the Society have asked the Legislature to help 
them to funds, to enable them to build additional school-houses. Our great 
difficulty arises from the cost of school-houses and the purchase of lots ; for, 
as you, gentlemen, well know, there is a great diiFereiice between the cost 
of a lot of land in the city and a lot in the country. 

The amount of money which would be required in the city of New 
York, for the purchase of a- lot, or lots, of land proper for the erection of a 
building (to be tliree stories high, with a basement), which would accom- 
modate our children under the Laucasterian system, and in which five or six 
hundred are educated, would be as much as all the school-houses in a single 
county, and the lots, too, would cost in the country. The great difficulty 
lies in getting the money. We have asked aid, and we shall undoubtedly 
have to ask aid again, to enable us to build school-houses. In this way we 
could accommodate more children, and could get more to attend. But this, 
gentlemen will at once perceive, is not the fault of the .system, but results 
from the fact that we are not able to carry it out to the extent necessary. I 
have not considered this last jjoint as fully as I could othci'wise have wished, 
because the figures and statements of those who are personally acquainted 
with it will be at the service of the committee ; and the committee will no 
doubt prefer to have the information directly from that source. I have thus 
considered the objections, not to the principle, but to the actual operation 
of this system. 

I come, now, to consider the olyections to the principles as set forth in 
these memorials. AYhat are they ? They represent, in the first place, that 
the original intention of the enactment which gave this fund to the Com- 
mon Council, was, " to enable every school which should comply with the 
requirements of the statute to share in the cgmmon school fund." 

That is an assertion ii'om which, as a matter of fact, I dissent. I have 
said before, I was here at the time the act was passed. Gentlemen of the 
committee can only judge of the intention from the act itself; but I believe 
I know pretty vrell what the intention of the Legislature was on the points 
that were mooted ; and I am persuaded that the Legislature intended to 
give full power to the Corporation of the city of New York to distribute 
this money among such institutions as they should select. The Corporation 
had the right to adopt or reject any of these institutions. 

The memorialists say that " it is dangerous and detrimental to the public 
interest to pour into the coffers of this institution the public money, or its 
influence and authority, while it is wanting in that high and requisite attri- 
bute of a public agent — responsibility to the people." 

Now, I admit that," although no evils have yet, in practice, resulted from 
the operations of tliis Society ; although the evil tendencies which are 
charged upon it have not, after a lapse of thirty years, developed them- 
selves, yet, if the mode of employing the school fund contains within itself 
a principle which is unsound, which is inconsistent with our institutions, 
which is inconsistent with the spirit of the law and the Constitutiim under 
which we live, I admit that the Legislature is bound to correct that princi- 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHUM. 395 

pie. It is stated here, tliat nearly the wliole education of tlie poor of the 
city of Kew York is under the control of this Society. I refer to page 1 of 
the Secretary's rejjort, -where it is said (as part of the substance of the me- 
morials) : 

That this Society, being a corporation, has acquired the entire control of 
the system of public education ; that the taxpayers, who contribute to the 
fund," have uo voice in the selection of those who administer the system, or 
control over the apiilication of the public moneys. 

And, at page 11, the Secretary says : 

The practical operation of the school laws is, to constitute the trustees 
of the Public School Society the officers and agents of the Government in 
the administration of tlie system of primary instruction in that city. That 
Society, in effect, engrosses the public education of the city ; and, instead 
of operating on small masses, as in the interior, embraces the whole. 

Now, let us consider these assertions. Is it true that, in the proper sense 
of the term, all education in the city of New York is under the control of 
the Public School Society ? How — from what source — does the Public 
School Society receive the funds by which alone they maintain these schools 
from day to day 2 From the hands of the Corporation of the city of New , 
York — from the hands of the representatives of the people chosen at the 
ballot-boxes. They have a right to indicate the institution and the 'schools 
that shall receive this fund, and to impose what restrictions they please. 
This Public School Society receives its daily sustenance from the representa- 
tives of the people ; and the moment that sustenance is withdrawn, it dies 
— it cannot carry on its operations for a day. 

How is this matter guarded ? Here is a Corporation chosen by the peo- 
ple. The law provides that this Corporation shall appoint one school com- 
missioner for each ward, upon whom it imposes the duty of visiting, exam- 
ining, and inspecting every one of the schools participating in the school 
fund. It is made their duty, twice at least in a year, to visit the schools ; 
and it is also made their duty to report to the Corporation ; and the Society 
is bound yearly to report to the Corporation and to the Legislature. The 
members of the Corjjoration themselves are ex-officio members of the Soci- 
ety, and the Mayor and Recorder are ex-officio members of the Board of 
Trustees. This Society or corporation, called the Public School Society, is 
the almoner of this public bounty ; for although it was originally designed 
for those who were the proper subjects of a gratuitous education exclusive- 
ly, yet it is not now thus restricted. But now, those who participate in this 
fund are mainly such as are the proper subjects of gratuitous education. 
These agents of the people — first, the Corporation, and, secondly, the School 
Commissioners — are to supervise and direct and control and give daily 
bread to the Public School Society, whom they make their almoners to do 
this work under their eye. Now, what sound principle is violated here ? 
What principle of republicanism dear to the heart of any man is violated 
by this ? 

Here are agents of the people-^men who, having a desire to serve man- 
kind, associate together ; they offer to take the superintendence of particu- 



f y ".. ner? 
[J\ r thirt 



396 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

lar works ; tbey offer themselves to the jiublic as agents to carry out certain 
benevolent purposes ; and, instead of paying men for the labor, tbey volun- 
teer to do it for you, " without money and without price," under your direc- 
tions — to do it as your servants, and to give an account to you and an 
accoimt to the Legislature. Again, then, I ask, what principle is violated ? 
Mr. Chairman, voluntary public service is always more efficient than labor 
done by servants chosen in any other way. I resert to the experience of this 
Society, and to the experience of "all other kindred societies, to demonstrate 
the truth of this assertion ; and I say that all that experience iciU demon- 
strate, that public objects are better accomplished by these voluntai-y ser- 
vants, than they arc usually accomplished by persons chosen directly by the 
people ; not, however, independent of the people — far otherwise ; but 
agents acting as the voluntary servants of the people, under the direction 
of the people, for the accomplishment of objects dear to the people. The 
Secretary tells you that, since the year 1813, there has been expended the 
sum of one million of dollars. If the fact is so — and I have no doubt that 
the Secretary states it upon authority — he should have accomjianied it with 
the information that, in the expenditure of this money, not a single cent has 
been found deficient. He ought to have stated — and would, I have no 
doubt, if it had occurred to him at the moment, when he paraded here, or 
stated here, this sum of one million dollars which the Society had expended 
since the year 1813— he ought, I say, to have added that, like faithful ser- 
vants, the Society had accounted for evei^ cent ; because the reports on the 
files in his own office will show that such an account has been given. Now, 
Mr. Chairman, I submit that the real question which, as citizens, we ought 
to discuss, is, not what prejudice we shall ajJijeal to on this side or that, but 
what way will you have a great public duty performed in the best man- 
Will you have it done by volunteers, who, from the experience of 
thirty years, have proved themselves faithful, honest, and efficient, and who, 
during the last year, according to a report now on the files, themselves vis- 
ited the schools eleveji tlioumncl times f Point out to me your school com- 
missioners who, receiving pay, have done such service. Again, I ask, is not 
the question really, how^ you will have this duty best jjerformed ? In sparse 
populations, most men are occupied, and cannot volunteer for a sciTice of 
this kind ; they have not the leisure ; it is too troublesome ; but in large 
cities — in this city, probably, and in the city of New York — there always 
will be a class of men having leisure, and full of benevolent feelings, who 
may not wish to mingle in the contests of politics or of jjublic life, in any 
manner, but who desire to devote themselves to some good and benevolent 
object that may be efl'ective, and in a quiet way accomplish something for 
the benefit of mankind. Will you, as wise men, say we shall avail ourselves 
of these voluntary services, or shall we mingle every thing in the turmoil of 
politics ? Will you say, that every thing shall be discussed on party princi- 
ples ? and will you have the question discussed at the polls, whether this 
man or that man is a Whig or a Democrat, so that the trustees may be cho- 
sen according to their politics ? It has not yet come to that here ; but in 
Philadelijhia, I am informed, party politics have reached the suiJerinteudents 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHUM. 39? 

of common schools ; and, by and by, tlie politics of the teachers will be 
inquired into before they can be elected. Do you desire to bring every 
thing within this angry vortex ? Is it wise ? Is it judicious ? Is it consci- 
entious ? Can we not let this " well enough " alone ? 

Why, I ask, when you can avail yourselves of such services — when there 
are men who love to serve you in this way, why wUl you not accept their 
services ? Is there any danger to democratic principles in this ? What is 
your Hospital, but a corporation acting as almoners of charity ? What is 
your House of Refuge ? I can speak nnderstandingly about it, for I was 
connected with, and of it, from the start. Benevolent men looked abroad 
over that great city, and saw children taken up for crimes, associated with' 
felons, and there joined with the school of vice, to be made perfect in its 
tortuous ways, without redemption or hope of redemption. Their hearts 
bled over the spectacle, and they met together and consulted as to what 
could be done. They held a public meeting and took up a subscription, 
amounting, on that night only, to the sum of sixteen hundred dollars. In 
less than tlii'ee months, this sum of sixteen hundred dollars was increased, 
by voluntary contributions, to the sum of sixteeen thousand. And then, 
what did they say ? " We cannot get on with this matter ; we cannot carry 
out our benevolent object of taking these young culprits, who, if left to the 
• law, are certain to occupy our bridewells and our houses of correction ; we 
cannot do any thing for them without corporate powers ; and we must, 
therefore, ask the Legislature to give us a part of the sovereign power of 
the State." 

We came to the Legislature, and the Legislature gave us a part of the 
sovereign power. They are now a corporation of which, if any of you were 
in a foreign land, you would be proud and hapjiy to boast. It is one of the 
jewels of the country. It has gone on ; it has received the bounty of this 
Legislature ; it has received from it its daily bread and support, and yet the 
directors are not chosen by the people. They are chosen by their associates, 
and experience proves that it is a good mode of carrying out the contem- 
plated objects ; and yet, if we are to have this doctrine all at once estab- 
lished, that nothing is consistent with republicanism or democracy that docs 
not come directly from the people, the House of Refuge must be destroyed ; 
we must next have the schoolmaster elected by the people. Sir, let us act 
like men of sense. We must use the advantages we have, and keep our eye 
steadily ujion the great end we have in view — to wit, the amelioration of 
society, the education of the children of the State ; and it is surely wise to 
employ the best means we have for the accomplishment of this object. 

Look at the Institution for the Blind ; look at the Institution for the 
Deaf and Dumb. The name is legion of those associations and corpora- 
tions, composed of philanthropic individuals, to which a part of the power 
of the people is granted. I would not enter the arena here to declaim 
against or to advocate corporations. I have nothing to say about moneyed 
corporations ; I have nothing to say as to the cry against those corijorations, 
whether it is right or wrong. That is not the question ; but I am here to 
contend that men have the right, and that it is their duty, to associate to- 



398 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

getber, and tliat, if they cannot carry out the objects of their association 
without coi'porate powers, it is wise and projier that the Legislature should 
impart those powers. Yo'ur churches, your every thing whicli comforts, and 
heals, and blesses the land, are in this sense corporations, and the Public 
School Society is among the number. 

But it is said that one million of dollars have been expended. AVell, 
now, iu si^eaking of the manner in which this money has been appropriated, 
the Secretaiy might have shown, if he had inquired or looked into the 
reports, that about three hundred thousand dollars of tlic amount is in 
property now held for the purposes of common school education, consisting 
of buildings and other property, in real and personal estate. It may be 
said that it is dangerous for a corporation like this to hold a large amount 
of property. If the committee jjlease, this is a danger of which the Society 
has been sensible, and, years ago (as the record on their minutes will show), 
they offered to deed all this projaerty to the Common Council, and to take a 
lease from them, to use it for special purposes of education. The Society is 
willing at this moment to execute such a deed ; but the Cor2ioration of the 
city of New York have uniformly said : " Gentlemen, you manage your 
property better than we manage ours. "We have business enough. Keep 
it." We have pressed the matter upon them. It is now an offer before 
them, which they can accept at any time. But the confidence which that 
Corpoi'ation, from year to year, and without respect to the politics of the 
members composing it, has had in this, institution, has induced them not to 
:iccept the offer. And I am here on the part of the Society to say, that they 
;irc willing to submit to any legislation or restriction upon this subject 
wliicli, upon consultation, shall be deemed wise and beneficial, and calcu- 
lated to promote and secure the grand object of universal common school 
education. This is a matter about which there can be no difficulty ; and if 
the Secretary of State, or if this committee, will sit down with a committee 
of the board, and regulate this matter, it can be put in the same shape 
(whatever that may be — and I do not jirecisely know what it is) as the asy- 
lum for the blind, the asylum for the insane, or any other institution having 
buildings or property, toward the purchase or erection of which the State 
has contributed. 

I do not know how the property of these institutions is fixed or lield ; 
but any mode whicli the Legislature, or the Corporation of the city of New 
York, may designate, and which is applied to other institutions for kindred 
objects, will be acquiesced in by the Public School Society. 

I have spoken of the fact that there have been no objections made to the 
schools ; but if there are dangers to be apprehended, it is wise in the Super- 
intendent to discern them from afar. He stands as a sentinel on the. watch- 
tower, and it is his duty to look ahead and to see what dangers may come. 
I have spoken of the consequences which may possibly grow out of the sys- 
tem, but I repeat that, as yet, nothing of an injurious character has been 
discovered. There has been no complaint made of the actual operation of 
the schools, but something has been said iu their favor ; and 1 propose Jiow, 



SPEECH OF ME. KETCHUM. 399 

by the leave of the committee, to submit from public documeiits some of 
these favorable things which have been said. 

The School Commissioners are a body of men chosen one for each ward 
A ( by the Corporation, whose business it is to visit these schools and report 
' 1 upon them. The law of 1824 makes it necessary that these school commis- 
' Isioners shall not belong to the Public School Society, the object being to 
have an impartial board. And I may say of the present school commission- 
ers, that there are no gentlemen more respectable, and these gentlemen were 
com23ctcnt to judge of such matters. They do visit the schools, and I will 
now read a short paragraph from their report of July 37th, 1840. They 
say: 

The qualifications and efforts of the teachers employed, and the course 
of literary instruction in the schools, contmuc to deserve the api^robatiou of 
the commissioners. Without intending to detract from the acknowledged 
merits of the many worthy individuals who devote themselves to the educa- 
tion of youth in the numerous pay schools scattered throughout the city, 
the commissioners may be allowed to express their belief that, generally, the 
schools supported from the school money will not, as regards the progress 
of the pupils in the several branches taught there, nor on the score of legiti- 
mate discipline, suffer by a comparison with any others in this metropolis. 

■I have mentioned that the committee of the Corporation of the city of 
New York,- when they had this matter under investigation, thought it their 
duty, before they reported, to visit the schools ; they did so, and this is 
what they say : 

The different classes examined in several schools by your committee ex- 
hibited an astonishing progress in geography, astronomy, arithmetic, read- 
ing, writing, &c., and indicated a capacity in the .system tor imparting 
instruction far beyond our expectations ; and, though the order and arrange- 
ment of each school would challenge comparison with a camp under a rigid 
disciplinarian, yet the accustomed buoyancy and cheerfulness of youth and 
childhood did not appear to be destroyed in any one of them. Such were 
the favorable impressions forced upon our minds by a careful examination 
of the public schools. It is due to the trustees to add, that not one of our 
visits was anticipated, and no opportunity was afforded to any of the teach- 
ers for even a momentary preparation. 

Again : 

The puljlic school buildings are constructed upon a uniform model ; the 
books used are the same in all the schools, and the classes and departments 
in each are so similarly constituted and provided, that the removal of a 
pupil from one school to another will not interrupt his studies or retard his 
progress. 

Now here is an advantage which those who live in the city of New York 
understand and appreciate, and which a system contemplating the formation 
of schools by small masses, never can have. Here is a system suited to a 
migratory population. All the books, all the forms, all the lessons, are the 
same ; and if a child removes from one ward to another, he can be jjut in 
the class coresponding to that which he left, and he stands upon the same 
footing. The blackboard is the same, the exercises arc the same. Every 
one knows the advantage of continuing on the same course of education 



400 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

wliich lias been begun, if it was judicious in the first instance. But what 
does this new system contemplate ? It contemplates the destruction of this 
peculiarity ; and this report of the Secretary goes on to speak of the advan- 
tages of the system pursued in the country. Gentlemen, the poorest child in 
the city of Neic Tori has advantages in the way of edncatioti — of elementary 
education — which are denied to nine tenths of the sons and daughters of the 
farmers of the State of Nexo Tori: 

I challenge an investigation on this point ; and I maintain that no com- 
mittee of this, or of the other House, can act understandingly until they 
have visited these schools. They must do as the committee of the Common 
■ Council did — go and see for themselves. Why, then, should we change the 
system ? 

But it is said — and said, too, in this rejDort of the Secretary — that he 
proposes to retain. these public schools. How retain them? One of the 
features of the proposed new law is, that all school moneys shall be paid to 
the teachers. Under such a law we cannot live a day — not a day. We have 
to buy stationery and books ; we have to build school-houses. We have 
large schools, and the surplus, after the payment of teachers, goes to the 
erection of school-houses, and the purchase of books and stationery. What 
do you think is the expense, in the city of New York, of educating a child ? 
— not alone the expense of which I have spoken, but of furnishing books, 
slates, and other stationery, and of fuel and repairs — not rent — but repairs 
of school-houses. The expense for one year is less than five dollars a scholar. 
For five dollars a whole year, this education, with all the necessary station- 
ery, books, slates, and fuel, is furnished. I say, if we are only to receive 
pay for our teachers, we cannot exist a day. 

There is another point. After the passage of the law of 1824, upon an 
investigation made at the time as to the condition of some of the destitute 
part of our ijopulatiou, a representation was made by the Public School 
Society, and, after the Corporation had excluded religions societies, the 
Public School Society exerted themselves in behalf of the cause of educa- 
tion, and induced a large number of the most considerable property-holders 
of the city of New York to isetitiou to be taxed for the purjiose of carrying 
out this system, and of extending it. 

They petition the Corporation to te taxed. Sir, if ever there was a people 
borne down by taxes, it is the people of the city of New York who have 
property ; and yet, strange to say, men who paid from one hundred to two 
thousand dollars annual taxes, confiding in these trustees, and desirous of 
carrying out this system of education under the direction of these trustees, 
came forward at their instance, and prayed the Corporation to tax them 
more. A memorial for which I sought in vain with a view of bringing it 
here, but which could not be found, shows the names of these petitioners — 
names which will be familiar to some of the members of this committee. 
Here you have a perfect anomaly ! You can hardly produce a similar case 
in any country. The petitioners, I say, came forward and prayed to be 
taxed, at the instance of the Public School Society, for the purpose of carry- 



SPEECH OF MK. KETCHCM. 401 

ing out the system — men who could not look to secure any person a benefit, 
because they did not send their own children to these schools. The conse- 
quence was, that the tas was laid, and it produced the sum of $73,000 annu- 
ally. Only half that amount, however, was raised by our Common Council 
last year under that head. 

Since (excepting in the year 1840, as above stated) this tax was imposed, 
it has yielded annually the sum aforesaid of $73,000. Now, if we are to 
adopt this plan of election by the people — if the system is to be so expended 
as to be made like that which prevails in the country, we must adopt the 
whole, and not a part only of that system ; we must have all, if we have 
any of it ; and this sum of thirty-six thousand dollars, thus raised by this 
tax, must be cut off. These petitioners have a right to say, " Gentlemen, the 
contract is violated ; for although you may anticipate great evil in trusting 
this money to this Corporation, yet it was by reason of our reliance upon 
this Public School Society as our almoners, that we asked to be taxed. Now, 
off with the tax ; let us have the system as it is in the country, and see what 
will become of the public schools." 

The amount received from special tax was, during the last year, $36,075 ; 
and if we are to have the country system, that tax is relinquished, and then 
the money is to be given out to commissioners, for school districts in the 
small mass, to use the language of this report. For instance, we are to have 
commissioners elected in each ward ; they are to partition the ward out into 
school districts. These districts are to elect trustees. If there is not money 
enough received from the State, and fund enough added to that which is 
laid by the general tax, then these small masses must be taxed to build ujj 
school-houses and to make up the deficiency. This I understand to be the 
operation of the system in the country. These trustees are to lay a tax (to 
make up the deficiency) upon the property-holders, and in this way we are 
to have small masses governed by these trustees. We are to have such 
religion as the majority may choose, and such books as the majority may 
choose, and the whole of this system, which has been so well tried, and has 
been productive of such good fruits, is to be exchanged for a new one. For 
I maintain that, unless there is some very special provision not contemplated 
on the face of this report, the public school system of the city of New York, 
as now constituted, cannot stand. You must either have the system as it is 
in the country, or our system as it exists at present in the city. 

Now, is the committee prepared to report, and will the Senate be pre- 
pared to adopt such a report — one that shall cast off this system which has 
been tried and apjiroved, and that we shall " fly to something that we know 
not of 1 " Will they decide that the agents to whom the city of New York 
gave this power, some sixteen years ago, have been faithless to their trust, 
and that the power shall be restored to the Legislature ? Will they decide 
that they have now leisure to bestow more attention on this subject, and to 
look more into the details than their predecessors had ? It was an argument 
which forced itself strongly on the consideration of the Legislature of 1834 : 
" We cannot understand this matter ; it is local ; it is different, in some 
26 



402 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

respects, from any tiling we have in the country. We cannot ■well judge of 
it, and Tve will leave you to settle it among yourselves." But if the Legis- 
lature of the present day has discovered a new mode of doing business, so 
that it can take upon itself a little more legislation for the city of Kew 
York, very well ; I shall be glad to find that it is so. I shall be glad to find 
that this Legislature does not feel the same pressure of business that its 
predecessors felt in 1824, and that it can enter into these matters more 
minutely. Ty'"e had no disposition to take the subject into our hands then, 
and we have no disposition that the Legislature should take it back now. 
The people in New York understand the subject, and the Roman Catholics 
cannot say that they will not be heard as well there as here. Why not leave 
the matter to us, the peojjle of the city of New York 2 If you choose to 
have commissioners elected by the people, instead of being chosen by the 
Corporation, I say, " Amen ; very well ; enlarge their powers, if you choose ; 
have the inspections and examinations more frequently if you choose, by 
the agents of the jDeople, chosen by the direct votes of the people." But let 
us not disturb a system more healthful, and beautiful, and effective, as a 
system, than any other where the English language is spoken. There is 
nothing to be compared to it. If it shall be destroyed — if our Catholic 
brethren, of whom I wish to speak with great respect, have found so pow- 
erful an auxiliary in the honorable Secretary of State, that they shall be able 
to carry out their purposes here, and these schools should, in consequence, 
be destroyed, that officer will gain a renown which will go down through 
all time. But I should prefer the renown of him who fired the Ephesian 
■dome to that renowu. 

Mr. Chau'man, the Public School Society have come here once more to 
plead for the seminaries of elementary instruction under their charge. Si.v- 
teen years gone by they passed through one trying scene. They contest was 
long, arduous, and severe, and their hearts began to fail, and their hands to 
tire, but they succeeded then. Now, the contest is renewed, and the trustees 
engage in it with extreme reluctance ; they have no personal interests to 
advance, and they are very unwilling to be put in hostile array against any 
of their fellow-citizens. They are men of peace ; their ends and purposes 
are all peaceable ; they desire, as servants of the people, to do some good to 
the rising generation, if permitted ; they are willing to visit the schools, to 
foster them, to collect in them the destitute and the outcast, but they abhor 
controversy. If the Public School Society shall be permitted to go on, as in 
former years it has gone on, I cannot doubt there will always be found a 
class of citizens who, competent and efficient, are willing to volunteer their 
services in advancing the cause of education ; and, under the careful and 
searching supervision of agents chosen by the people, I hope the trustees, 
and their successors, may be permitted, for ages to come, to continue their 
benevolent labors. 

The committee proceeded with the consideration of the ques- 
tion, and, on the lltli of May, Mr. Eoot, the chairman, intro- 



MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE. 403 

duced a bill, which was passed by unanimous consent to its 
second reading, and ordered to the Committee of the Whole. 

On Thursday, May 20th, Mr. Yerplanck moved that the bill 
be made the special order for the next day, which was agreed to. 
The special order was not moved on Friday, bnt a remonstrance 
from the Public School Society, in reply to Mr. Spencer's report, 
was laid before the Senate. It is as follows : 

In Senate, Muy 21, 1S41. 
MEMORIAL AND REMONSTRANCE 

OF THE TKUSTEE8 OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY OF THE CITT OF NEW 
YORK. 

To the Senate of the State of New YorTc : 

The memorial and remonstrance of the ti'ustees of the Public School 
Society of the city of New York, respectfully befresent : 

That they have had under consideration the report of the Superintendent 
of Common Schools, in relation to public instruction in the city of New 
York, which was presented to your honorable body during the present ses- 
sion, and have given to it the careful and deliberate consideration which the 
high importance of the subject demands. 

Having, during many years, devoted much time and labor in promoting 
and conducting public education in this city, your memorialists trust that it 
will not be considered obtrusive in them to present to the Senate the results 
of their observations and practical knowledge of the subject, as well as the 
facts and arguments on which they rely in justitication of then- remonstrance 
against the propositions contained in the report referred to. In doing so, 
your remonstrants feel relieved from the necessity of adducing any new or 
additional evidences of the quality and efficie'ncy of the numerous schools 
under their charge. The annual returns of the Commissioners of School 
Money (a board of seventeen citizens, appointed by the Common Council), 
under whose supervision the 'Schools are conducted, furnish decided evidence 
of their good quality ; and, very recently, a special committee of the Board 
of Aldermen, after having visited and examined the schools, in company 
with a jealous and watchful delegation from the citizens, whose memorials 
gave rise to the report now under review, bore the most ample testimony to 
the excellency of the schools and efficiency of the system, and gave it as 
their opinion that, if " any portion of the children should be left unedu- 
cated, it cannot be justly chargeable to a want of comprehensiveness in the 
system, but is more fairly attributable to imperfections which human legis- 
lation cannot remedy." (See Document ISio. 40 of the Board of Aldermen, 
p. 560.) 

Buring the past summer, the public scliools were also inspected by a 
commission appointed for that purpose by the Superintendent, and your 
memorialists venture to appeal to their report to sustain the good character 
which is claimed for the schools. The report now under review has, how- 
ever, so fully and frankly assumed the correctness of this position, that com- 



404 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ment on this head might, perhaps, have been spared. If, then, it be admit- 
ted that the system of public instruction which now exists in this city is 
good, and is acceptable to the municipal goveniment and to the citizens 
generally, the question presents itself. Why should the Legislature of the 
State interpose its authority for the purpose of altering or changing that 
system ? The reasons assigned in the report of the Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools may be arranged under four principal heads : 

1st. That public education in the city of New York is now chiefly under 
the control of a private coiiDoration, which receives nearly all the money 
raised by a general and indiscriminate tax, and that those who pay the tax 
have no voice in the selection of those who administer the system, nor con- 
trol over the application of the public moneys thus ajipropriated. 

2d. That, in the management of the existing public schools, " the con- 
scientious opinions and feelings of large classes of citizens are disregard- 
ed ; " that the system is " unfavorable, if not hostile, to those principles of 
religious faith," held by some of the memorialists " to be dearer than life 
itself;" and that they "cannot, consistently with their views of religious 
duty to their children, send them to such schools." 

3d. That " there are numerous other schools in the city of New York, 
founded by volrmtary associations, in which many thousands of the children 
of poverty and distress receive their education," and that these schools are 
arbitrarily excluded from all participation in a common fund collected by 
the joint contributions of all. 

4th. That the present system of public instruction has failed to accom- 
])lish the purpose for which it was organized. 

The prominent objections urged in the report are here, it is believed, 
fully and fairly embraced ; and your remonstrants will proceed to consider 
them in the order in wliich they occur. In estimating the validity and force 
of the first objection, it is important to bring into view the probable mo- 
tives that induced the Legislature to exempt the city of New York from 
laws applied to every other jiart of the State. The enlightened men who 
originated our general system of common school education must have seen, 
or thought that they saw, something so peculiar in the population of a large 
city, something so different from the more homogeneous and less changeable 
population of other parts of the State, as to demand special legislative pro- 
visions. When attention was directed to this city, it was found that several 
religious societies and churches supported charity schools for the education 
of the children of their indigent members, and that a number of philan- 
thropic individuals had anticipated the action of the State, and had been 
for nearly ten years associated under a charter, for the purpose of educating 
those poor children who were not provided for in the Church schools. The 
Legislature, therefore, in 1813, when the first distribution was made, very 
naturally appropriated the amount apportioned to this city to these schools, 
in the ratio of the number of children taught in each. This mode of dis- 
tribution continued until 1834, when the subject was again brought before 
the Legislature by the jealousies, disputes, and difficulties which had arisen 



MEMORIAL AND EEMONSTKANCE. 405 

amongst the recipients ; and the conilicting parties presented themselTea at 
Albany, for the purpose of sustaining their respective claims. 

In the progress of the inquiries and discussion which ensued, it became 
manifest that moneys raised by a general and indiscriminate tax could not 
be given to any religious society or association, without a flagrant violation 
of one of the most prominent conditions of our political compact. That 
this obvious truth did not present itself to the notice of the Legislature, 
when provision was first made for the distribution in this city, can be ac- 
counted for only on the supposition that the small amount to be distributed, 
and the intrinsic difficulty of making suitable provision for a large, dense, 
and mixed population, induced a temporary resort to the readiest exjiedient 
that presented. 

The report of the committee of the Assembly which was charged with 
the duty of assembling the claimants referred to, contains the following pas- 
sages : 

It appears that the city of New York is the only part of the State where 
the school fund is at all subject to the control of religious societies. 

Your committee forbear, in this place, to enter fully into this branch of 
the subject ; but they respectfully submit, whether it is not a violation of a 
fundamental principle of our legislation to allow the funds of the State, 
raised by a tax on the citizens, and designed for civil purposes, to be subject 
to the control of any religious corporation. 

Still, no plan adaj)ted to the wants of the city was suggested. But the 
manifest propriety of referring the subject to the immediate, exclusive, and 
local representatives of its inhabitants, forced itself upon the Legislature. 
A belief that the municipal government would better understand the feel- 
ings and necessities of the local population, in its several parts and condi- 
tions as well as a whole, and be thereby better enabled to reconcile conflict- 
ing interests and opinions, doubtless induced the Legislature to delegate the 
power to the Common Council of the city. 

Accordingly, in the session of 1824, as stated in the report of the Super- 
intendent, a law was passed vesting in the Common Council the right to 
designate " the institutions and schools " which shall be entitled to receive a 
share of the school moneys, and jirescribe the rules and restrictions under 
which such moneys should be received by such institutions or schools 
respectively. 

It is here worthy of remark, that this act repealed the act of 1813, which 
expressly enumerated " religious societies " among the recipients ; and yet, 
in transferring the power, no mention is made of such societies ; but the 
parties designated as those among whom it might be divided was made to 
embrace all the other parties included in the act of 1813, viz., "institutions 
and schools." 

If this may not be considered of binding obligation on the Common 
Council, it is certainly indicative— particularly when taken in connection 
with the language of the report of the committee of the Assembly, above 
quoted — of the feeling which prevailed on the subject of " religious socie- 
ties," and at least lent the sanction of the Legislature to the continued use 



400 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

of private incorporations for purjioses of common education. However this 
may be, tlie conflict was renewed in this city, and, after a patient hearing of 
the parties and a full investigation of the subject, religious societies were 
excluded ; and your remonstrants were made, as stated in the report, the 
chief agents in disbursing the school money, and in carrying out the vieivs 
of the Government in relation to common schools. 

This duty they have continued to discharge with untiring industry and 
7.eal from that time to the present ; with what degree of abilty and success, 
will appear in the progress of this remonstrance. 

After nearly forty years, the question is now for the first time raised in 
the Legislature, Shall a private corporation, the membere of which are not 
elected by, nor directly resi)onsible to, the pcoijle, be permitted, however suc- 
cessfully and judiciously, to disburse moneys raised by a general tax ? It 
will readily be seen that, if a negative answer must be given upon the mere 
aljstract projiosition, and without regard to the checks and safeguards which 
may have been thrown around the trust, or to the length of time it has 
faithfully performed its functions and sustained a jealous and searching 
scrutiny, it will be a first step in a radical system of reform which, if car- 
ried out, can scarcely stop short of remodelling the organization of civil 
society. Our hospitals, our asylums for the insane, for the blind, for the 
mute, our dispensaries and houses of refuge, &c., must all fall before it, 
because all and each of these receive and disburse the people's money ; and 
in none of them are the trustees or managers elected by, or immediately 
responsible to, the people. Indeed, the above institutions are in several 
respects more obnoxious to the objections urged in the Superintendent's 
report than is the institution now attacked. To several, if not all of them, 
the Legislature has secm'ed the annual payment of large sums of public 
money, to be continued twenty, twenty-five, and thirty years, and without 
any direct or fixed system of supervision on the part of the people or their 
representatives. As regards the House of Refuge of Juvenile Delinquents — 
an institution which that eminent philanthropist and enlightened statesman, 
De Witt Clinton, declared to be " the best penitentiary institution ever 
devised by the wit and established by the beneficence of mau " — the com- 
parison does not stop here. This "private coi-poration " is not only en- 
trusted with public money, but is permitted to exercise a " function which 
emphatically belongs to the Government "■ — that of carrying out the sen- 
tence of courts of criminal jurisprudence. Now, what are the cir-cumstances 
under which your remonstrants are permitted to provide for public educa- 
tion ? — a duty which some governments have never assumed, and which 
some of the most enlightened have, until very recently, entirely neglected. 

They are under the supervision of a Board of Commissioners, consisting 
of seventeen citizens appointed by the immediate representatives of the peo- 
ple, and without whose certificate of a2)proval they cannot draw a cent from 
the public purse. Should this Board neglect or refuse to discharge its duty, 
it is competent for the appointing power to strike your remonstrants from 
the list of recipients, and destroy at once their capacity for evil. 

The Mayor and Recorder are cx-officio members of the Board of Trustees, 



MEJIOKIAL AND EEMONSTEANCE. 407 

and tlie board is required by law " to make a report, during tlie montli of 
May in each year, to the Superintendent of Common Schools, and also to the 
Common Council of this city, containing a particular account of the state 
of their schools, and the moneys received and expended by them during the 
preceding year, so as to exhibit a full and perfect statement of the property, 
funds, and affairs of said Society." (See 4th section. Law of Common Coun- 
cil, March 7, 1834.) 

lu addition to those salutary provisions of law, the Superintendent of 
Common Schools, although he docs not claim to be authorized, he very pro- 
perly did, within a year, appoint a commission to visit and examine the 
schools under the charge of your remonstrants, and report their condition to 
him ; a duty which they performed, and the result is stated in his report to 
your honorable body, which is now under consideration. 

These are facts accessible to all whose duty or inclination might prompt 
them to make the inquiiy ; and yet, as your remonstrants perceive with sur- 
prise and regret, the Superintendent has overlooked them, and avers that the 
Public School Society is " an anomaly wholly unknown in any other depart- 
ment of the public service," and that it is " not amenable in any form to the 
laws, nor subject to any supervision by the government of its oflicers ; " and 
finally, that its existence " involves a i^rinciple so hostile to the whole spirit 
of our insitutions, that it is impossible it should be long sustained." 

The strong and pointed terms in which the Superintendent deprecates 
the agency of persons who are not elected by the people in carrying out the 
intentions of government in relation to education, contrasts strangely with 
the facts that, at his suggestion, a law was passed, in 1839, authorizing him 
to appoint county visitors ; aud in his last annual report he announces a 
material improvement in the discharge of duty on the part of commissioners 
and inspectors who are elected liy the peoiile, and attributes it chiefly to the 
diligence, advice, and stimulating example of the county visitors, who are 
not elected by, nor are they responsible to' the people. 

In a report made to the Legislature, in 1840, transmitting abstracts of the 
reports of the county visitors appointed by the Superintendent, it is stated 
that " they concur in representing the inspectors chosen at the town meet- 
ings as being generally not well qualified for that particular duty, and as 
being very remiss in its performance ; " " that the examinations of the 
inspectors are slight and superficial, and that no benefit is derived from 
them ; " and the Superintendent remarks : " It has already been shown to 
the Legislature from the ofiicial returns, that at least one half of all the 
schools in the State are not visited at all by the inspectors." 

The practice of conferring on private corporations some of the functions 
of government, and entrusting them with public money, obtained in the 
earliest period of our existence as an independent nation, at a time and with 
a population as vigilant and as jealous of their own rights as can be justly 
claimed for those of the present day. Your remonstrants are fully aware 
that the trite political maxims which are arrayed against them in the report 
of the Superintendent of Common Schools exert a powerful influence on the 
public mind, and that those who would oppose their ajiplication, in any 



408 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

given instance, must encounter a strong current of popular prejudice. But 
it is respectfully submitted to your honorable body, whether the position in 
which the public schools of this city are placed by legal enactments does 
not render them as safe as other institutions incorporated for purposes of a 
kindred character, and afford as ample security against abuse ? 

Your remonstrants will now precced to consider the objections classed 
under the second head, viz. : 

That, in the management of the existing public schools, the conscientious 
opinions and feelings of large classes of citizens are disregarded ; and that 
the system is unfavorable, if not hostile, to those principles of religious faith 
held by some of the memorialists to be dearer than life itself; and that they 
cannot, consistently with their views of religious duty to their children, send 
them to such schools. 

These declarations, so far as the trustees have any agency or control, are 
entirely erroneous, and your remonstrants cannot withhold an e.xpression of 
their surprise that the Superintendent of Common Schools should have been 
so inattentive an observer of events connected with the subject of education 
within this State, as not to be aware of their incorrectness ; and that he 
should, even indirectly, lend to them the high sanction of his official 
signature. 

The first open attack upon the j)ublic schools of this city was commenced 
by those whose charges gave rise to this inquiry some years since, and they 
have been made to assume various and ojjposite forms. When disproved in 
one form, they have been revived in another. 

At one time it was declared, " the public school system in the city of 
New York is entirely favorable to the sectarianism of infidelity, and opposed 
only to that of positive Christianity," that it " leaves the will of the pupil 
to riot in the fierceness of unrestrained lusts," and is " calculated to make 
bad and dangerous citizens." 

Now, it is contended that the conscientious opinions and feelings of large 
classes of citizens are disregarded, and that the system is unfavorable, not 
to religion or morals, but to the '■^ princijjks of religious fiiith " held by the 
complainants. 

The former high and most extraordinary charges were promj^tly met and 
refuted. It now remains to show that the latter are equally destitute of 
foundation. 

In the year 1834, an interview was had with the then acting Roman 
Catholic Bishop of this diocese, for the purpose of assuring him of the wish 
of your remonstrants to remove from the school-books every thing offensive 
to his Church, and to invite his active cooperation in attaining that end. 
More recently, the same overtures were made, verbally and in written com- 
munications, to dignitaries of various grades in the same Church. During 
the past year, a committee was appointed by the trustees of the Public 
School Society to examine the " books in use in the public schools, includ- 
ing those in the libraries, with a view to ascertain and report whether they 
contain any thing derogatory to the Roman Catholic Church, or any of its 
religious tenets, with power to communicate with such persons of that 



MEMORIAL AITD EEMONSTEANCE. 409 

Churcli as may be authorized to meet them in reference to such alterations." 
Conferences were accordingly had with Catholic priests, and the school- 
books were left with them for examination. These advances and proposals 
of the trustees were not, however, met in the spirit in which they were 
made. Those to whom the books were submitted, after detaining them 
some time, declined uniting in any examination of theh' contents. 

The trustees of the public schools nevertheless proceeded and completed 
the work of exiiurgation without the aid of those who had complained so 
vehemently of the injustice which had been done them. The evidences of 
the truth of this statement are contained in numerous written and printed 
documents ; they are spread on the minutes of the proceedings of your 
remonstrants ; they are contained in the iiles of both departments of the 
city Government, and have been widely circulated in printed statements, 
both official and unofficial ; and yet your honorable body is assured that the 
conscientious opinions and feelings of large classes of citizens (meaning 
Roman Catholics) have been disregarded. 

In relation to the second and third branches of the charges included 
under the second head, your remonstrants can only say that, so far as they 
were able to discover, the exceptionable passages in the school-books were 
such as occur in the histories commonly approved, or they were incidental 
remarks of frequent occurrence. It is admitted that the objectors have the 
exclusive right to judge, so far as regards the danger to theii' own offsijring. 
But iu the progress of these negotiations and expurgations, your remon- 
strants were driven by the force of circumstances into the conclusion, that 
the opposition to the public schools, and to the books used in them, had 
some ulterior object in view. This may seem illiberal, but frankness demands 
the avowal ; and a single fact will serve to show that the conclusion is not 
entirely without groimd to rest upon. 

During an examination of one of the Catholic schools, the committee of 
the Board of Aldermen, in company with a delegation from your remon- 
strants, found in use, as a class-book, the identical work to which exception 
had been taken, and the only one which, in the proceedings before that 
Board, was quoted from as evidence that Catholic children could not be sent 
to the public schools. Nor did the inconsLstency of the affiiir stop here. 
The exceptionable passage had long been erased from the copies in the pub- 
lic schools, while it remained unobscured in those attached to the Catholic 
churches. 

The propositions under the third head are : " That there are numerous 
other schools founded by voluntary associations, in which many thousands 
of the children of poverty and distress receive their education," and that 
these schools, maintained for the same olyects and accomplishing the same 
beneficial results, are arbitrarily excluded from all particiijation in a common 
fund collected by the joint contributions of all." 

"Without stopping to inquire whether the terms " voluntary associations " 
may be properly applied to a board of trustees of a Church-school, your 
remonstrants cannot withhold the remark that this part of the report would 
have been more explicit and better understood if it had stated the fact that 



410 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the- schools referred to are attached to, and are under the exclusive control 
of, Roman Catholic churches, viz. : " St. Peter's Church," " St. Mary's Eoman 
Catholic Church," " St. Patrick's," " Transfiguration Church," " St. Joseph's," 
" St. James'," and " St. Nicholas' Church." 

The citizens at large are not only shut out from the management of these 
schools by their organization, but the books used and the doctrines taught 
in them are so utterly exclusive and intolerant, as to forbid the attendance 
not only of the children of parents of every other religious sect, but of those 
of no sect. 

They are not merely the incidental remarks of the historian, or extracts 
tiom the Holy Scriptures, " without note or comment," to which such strong 
exception has been taken in relation to the public schools, but they are such 
as ever have, and, in the opinion of your remonstrants, ever must tend, if 
sustained by tax imposed upon the anathematized portion of the commu- 
nity, to destroy public harmony ; and such as would prove any thing rathei 
than a " social benefit." 

But your remonstrants deny that these schools are " maintained for the 
same object" as are the public schools ; or, rather^ they contend that objects 
are embraced in them, and are deemed of vital importance, which do not 
nor can they enter into the course of instruction in the public schools, 
because the conflicting oijinions of the trustees do not admit of it. It is 
true that, when the glaring inconsistency of asking for public aid in support 
of schools so managed was urged upon the applicants, they proposed that 
no religious instruction should be given " during the usual school hours." 
But having in view the stringency with which the same party insisted on 
the necessity of religious in juxtaposition with secular education, and the 
warmth with which they denounced the public school system when they 
saw fit to charge it with excluding religion, and particularly when reference 
is had to their avowed dogma that there is no hope of salvation to those not 
of the Roman Catholic Church, — ^which dogma is now taught in their 
schools — it should not be cause of surprise that doubts were entertained of 
a full compliance with the condition ; or, even if literally complied with, 
could it be considered such a separation of the two objects as the public 
might of right demand if taxed to support the schools ? 

The tenacity with which men adhere to " those principles of religious 
faith upon which, in their estimation, their present and eternal welfare 
depends," and which is so forcibly described in the report of the Superin- 
tendent, would seem to admonish legislators not to tax the whole com- 
munity for the support of educational establishments which are controlled 
exclusively by those professing the same faith. Jest the very sincerity which 
the reijort so justly attributes to persons of this class, should induce them to 
promote the religious at the expense of the literary education of the pupils ; 
which certainly was not the intention of the Legislature in establishing the 
system of common school education. 

Your remonstrants had supposed that the fact of the Public School 
Society being constituted of men professing every variety of religious faith, 
would neutralize sectarian tendencies and secure it against abuse. Whether 



MEMOEIAL AND EEMONSTKAJSTCE. 411 

a division of tlie city into small masses, under tlie immediate control of tlie 
people themselves, is better calculated to attain tliat end, will be considered 
in another place. 

The fourth and last division of the objections to the existing system of 
education which are presented in the report of the Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools, remains to be considered, viz. : 

That the present system of public instruction has failed to accomplish 
the purpose for which it was organized. 

In order to sustain this hypothesis, it is stated, and certainly on what 
might be considered good authority, " that more than one half of the chil- 
dren between four and sixteen years of age, in the city of Kew York, are 
not receiving the benefit of any education whatever." That the number of 
such children is very great, cannot be denied ; but there can be no doubt — 
and your remonstrants assert with confidence — that it is greatly overrated in 
estimates founded upon the returns of the United States marshals, and for 
reasons which, on reflection, are eutii"ely obvious. It is true, as stated in the 
report, that the trustees of the public schools drew the same conclusion from 
the data furnished in the census, in memorializing the Legislature for an 
appropriation of money for the erection of additional school-houses. The 
trath of the statement was questioned by some when the memorial was 
under consideration ; and subsequent reflection and inquiry have convinced 
all, that the actual number of uneducated children cannot be one third of 
that which is assumed in the report. 

It is well known that very many parents will not send their children to 
school until they are six years of age ; and thousands refuse to continue 
them there after they are eleven or twelve, because they can then be placed 
in situations to support themselves, or can be made available in contributing 
to the support of the family. Pending the preparation of this remonstrance, 
an inquiry has been instituted for the pui-pose of ascertaining what projjor- 
tion of the children who enter the public schools remain in them after 
twelve years of age; and it is found, by returns received from ninety-one 
out of one hundred and two schools, that it is only seven and two thirds 
per cent. In a family of sis children within the school age — say of the 
respective ages of five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, and fifteen — only half 
may be attending school ; and yet, none should be returned as being with- 
out the means of education, because the youngest may be kept at home in 
consequence of its age, and receive some instruction from the mother or 
older children, and the two oldest may have received as much education as 
the law contemplates or as the parents deem necessary. The youngest and 
the two oldest should, therefore, be excluded from the list of those who arc 
not " receiving the benefits of any education whatever." 

It is believed that the estimated number attending private schools is 
much too small, and the result of a partial inquky made in a single ward 
(the Seventh) would appear to sustain this view. There are, moreover, a 
considerable number of children belonging to this city who are sent for edu- 
cation to the numerous colleges, academies, institutions, and boarding- 
schools located in this and the adjacent States, and the number cannot be 



412 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

very small who are taught at home under governesses and other private 
tutors. Both these classes should be included in the number attending pri- 
vate schools. 

In connection with, and as having an intimate and most important bear- 
ing upon, this branch of the subject, your remonstrants ask attention to the 
facts derived from the report made by the Secretary of State (o the Legisla- 
ture during the present session (Document No. 377), by which it appears 
that the whole number of paupers supjjorted at poor-houses in this State is 
56,5G1 ; and that, of this number, 27,553, or nearly one half, are in the city 
of New York ; or that the number of paupers in the counties, exclusive of 
New York, is as 1 to 43 and a fraction to the whole population, while the 
number in New York is as 1 to 11 and a fraction. The comparison between 
the out-door paupers, or those relieved at their own residences, shows a still 
greater disparity between the metropolis and other parts of the State. Of 
this class of persons there are in the State, exclusive of this city, 29,008 ; 
and in the city, 37,553 ; or the out-door paui^ers in the State, exclusive of 
the city, is as 1 in 73 of the whole population, and in the city as 1 to 13. 
But the great disproportion of paupers between the city and country is not 
fully made out by this method of estimating ; for it is well known that, 
besides the thousands in the city who subsist by a practice but little known 
in the country (street-begging), there is a very large number who are 
indebted for permanent or temporary relief to private sympathy, and the 
benevolent institutions of which there are so many in the city. Could all 
these be added to the number contained in the official returns, it would be 
swelled greatly beyond the number in every other part of the State. 

Your remonstrants have not the means at hand of presenting a compara- 
tive view of commitments and convictions for vagrancy and crime, but it is 
confidently believed that they would present results equally unfavorable to 
the city. Now, if the Superintendent of Common Schools can furnish rea- 
sons for these discrepancies, he will at the same time account for your 
remonstrants having failed to induce all the poor children in the city to 
attend the public schools. 

This would seem a proper place to correct an error in the report, which 
states that there is not a " want of accommodation for pupils." The fact is 
far otherwise. The present school buildings are generally full, and some of 
them are crowded to a degree that is equally prejudicial to health and 
unfavorable to the acquisition of learning. 

How the Superintendent was led into this error, is not perceived, unless 
he inferred it from the efforts used to induce the attendance of children ; 
which is not improbable, from his adverting to those efforts in connection 
with the remark regarding accommodations. When a school is full, efforts 
in that vicinity are diminished, and they are directed to some other point. 
But the chief want of accommodation for pupils arises from the fact that 
there are jiortions of the city which have grown up within a few years, and 
in which there are no school-houses. This was explained in the memorial 
(refen-ed to in the report) asking for an appropriation of money to erect 
additional school bvuldings. 



MEMOEIAL AND EEMONSTEANCE. 4] 3 

Your remonstrants will now submit a few remarks in relation to the 
causes of the disparity between the registered number of children in the 
public schools and the average attendance to which reference is made in the 
report. 

Tlie irregular attendance of children who are entered on the registers of 
the public schools has ever been cause of serious regret to the trustees, and 
every thing has been done which ingenuity could suggest and zeal accom- 
plish in order to lessen this acknowledged evil — an evil which is found to 
arise from various causes, many of which are justified by necessity, and 
many more have their origin in indiflerence, or the want of vigilance and 
iirmness on the part of parents. All of them, it is confidently believed, are 
beyond the reach of any remedy proposed in the plan of the Superintendent 
of Common Schools. Among the justifiable causes, is the straitened circum- 
stances of a large proportion of the parents whose children enter the public 
schools. In a numerous class of cases, the mother " goes out to work " one 
or two days in each week, and is under the necessity of retaining the oldest 
child at home to take care of the younger ones. Very many married women 
are thus employed for the purpose of contributing to the support of the 
family ; and as there are more than one thousand four hundred widows 
whose children attend the public schools, it will be seen that this cause must 
embrace a large number ; and it is a cause which, if it exists at all, can only 
be to a very limited extent in country districts. 

Another most prolific cause of in'egular attendance, ranging under this 
liead, is the inability of many parents to furnish their children with suit- 
able clothing, and particularly shoes, to encounter the cold and storms of 
winter. It is customary for the teachers to note, on the registers of daily 
attendance, unusual cold and storms, and such days will be found to dimin- 
ish the attendance to the extent of one to two hundred in a single school- 
buUding ; and yet it is not unusual to see numbers come to school with 
naked feet in moderately cold weather, and when there is ice in the streets. 
Another cause which exists to a considerable extent, but which may not, 
perhaps, be so clearly classed among those that are justifiable, and which 
cannot prevail in country districts, is the fact that many families rely for 
fuel, to a considerable extent, on such as children can pick up in shijiyards, 
at buildings that are being torn down, &c. ; and this is accordingly assigned 
by parents as a motive for keeping their children from school a part of each 
week. Another cause which many parents consider justifiable, and which 
does not operate in the country, is the frequent military and civic parades 
incident to the metropolis of this State. 

Among the unjustifiable causes of iiTCgular attendance, truancy deserves 
a prominent place ; and it must be seen that this fruitful cause will prevail 
to a far greater extent in a large city than in country districts. In the for- 
mer, there is an almost infinite variety of exciting circumstances which 
induce this vicious habit, and which are unknown in the latter. It can 
scarcely be necessary to enumerate them. The occurrence, or even the 
alarm, of fire leads to the absence of hundreds from school ; and it is wor- 
thy of special remark that it can be induged in with greater impunity in a 



414 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

large and mixed population like this city, than in the more scattered and 
uniform population of the country districts. 

Having in view the fact that, If one hundred children are absent from 
school each twelve days during the year, it will reduce the average attend- 
ance twenty-four hundred, it should not be a matter of surprise, particularly 
when considered in connection with the causes and motives to absence 
which are peculiar to large cities, that the disparity is so great. It appears, 
from actual inquiry, to be even somewhat greater in Boston than in New 
York. It is estimated that the single fact that a large portion of the people 
whose children attend the public schools, move their places of residence in 
May of each year — a practice not known in any other city — causes the 
absence from school of one fourth of the children for two weeks. They 
are generally withdrawn several days before moving-day, and a greater num- 
ber of days are lost afterward, before they enter another school. These and 
other reasons why the disparity between the registered number of children 
attending the public schools and the actual average attendance, is greater 
than in other parts of the State, are, to your remonstrants, so obvious, that 
they are sui-prised they did not occur to the acute and observing mind of 
the author of the report. And it is equally matter of wonder that, in call- 
ing attention to this ditfercncc, he did not advert to the very important fact 
that the public schools of this city are kept open all the year, while in far 
the greater part of the countiy districts they arc kept open four, live, six, 
seven, eight, and nine months ; even including the cities of Hudson, Albany, 
Troy, Schenectady, Utica, Rochester, and Buffalo, in which they are open 
the whole year. The district schools of the State (exclusive of the city of 
New York) are open an average period of less than eight months in each 
year ; and in those which are strictly covmtry districts, not including the 
cities, the average is found to be less. It will hence be seen that even those 
pupils whose actual attendance at the public schools in this city average 
fight months in a year, are, for all practical and beneficial purposes, obtain- 
ing an amount of school-learning fully equal to those who attend the coun- 
try district schools ; and when the great and acknowledged superiority of 
the public schools over the district- schools generally is admitted into the 
estimate, it will be found that the balance is in favor of the public school 
system. 

Your remonstrants feel assured, however, that the percentage of absen- 
tees in the district schools is altogether erroneous. From observation and 
inquiry made recently, it is evident that in some, and probably in a large 
part, of the district schools, means are not even used to arrive at any thing 
like accurate knowledge on this subject. 

The report of the Superintendent of Common Schools supposes the con- 
tinued existence of the public schools as part of his system ; but in no part 
of the report is he more in error than in this. They could not endure a 
single year in connection with his system. 

The mode of instruction in the public schools is a modification of that 
which originated with the late Joseph Lancaster, and is made to depend on 
a large number of pupils under few paid instructors. In lessening the num- 



MJEMOEIA.I- AND EEMONSTEANCE. 415 

ber of pupils one half, the expense, as regards teachers, could not he dimin- 
ished. The opening of the district schools could not f;iil to divert pupils 
from the public schools, and thereby reduce the claims of the trustees on the 
school fund, without reducing the pecuniary demands upon them. The 
present expense of tuition in the public schools is reduced to the lowest pos- 
sible sum, and may safely challenge a comjjarison with that of equal qual- 
ity in any other place, or even with that of the district schools of this 
State. 

In the latter, as appears from the last annual report, the average cost per 
child for teachers' wages is $3.35 for less than eight months' tuition, one 
half of which is exclusively by females ; while the average cost in the pub- 
lic schools of this city for twelve months' tuition, under teachers of a qual- 
ity and grade unknown to the district schools, is $2,713. 

The sum now at the disposal of the trustees is barely sufficient to sustain 
the schools as they are ; any considerable reduction must close them. 

The report does, indeed, provide for the reduced income, by supposing 
it will be made up in the tuition fees which the contemplated system 
involves. But this has been fairly tried, and was found to fail, for reasons 
which will be stated hereafter. 

From an intimate knowledge of the subject, the trustees are persuaded 
that the public schools would be broken up by introducing the Suijerintcn- 
dent's mixed system into the city, and that the district system of the State 
would, as a necessary consequence, supersede it. 

The Superintendent himself evidently anticipates this result, and there- 
fore suggests that such public school buUdings as might not be wanted by 
the Society, undsr the new system, could be sold, or hired out. 

In considering the plan submitted to the Senate, your remonstrants will, 
therefore, confine their remarks and reasoning to the district system of the 
State. 

The objections to the introduction of this system into the city of New 
York may be ranged under the following heads : 

1. Its tendency to associate itself with party politics ; 

3. Its want of uniformity ; and 

8. Its incapacity to remove the difficulties alleged to be inherent in the 
present system. 

That it is obnoxious to the first objection, appears so evident, that it is 
matter of surprise that any intelligent person should entertain doubts upon 
the subject. 

The place of district school teacher, provided competent persons are 
employed and the character of the public schools is sustained, must be, in a 
pecuniary point of view at least, as desirable as very many offices which are 
now sought for with so much avidity by political jjartisans, and which are 
so often bestowed with little regard to the qualifications of the applicant. 
It is not perceived why the appointment of teacher will not be subjected to 
the same practice. 

If the practice has not obtained in the country districts, it is because the 
compensation does not hold out an inducement. Admit, then, that teachers 



416 THE PUBLIO SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

will be selected with reference to their political attachments, and all will 
agree that consequences the most disastrous to the cause of public education 
must ensue. 

A successful and judicious teacher of youth combines qualifications 
which are not, in very numerous instances, found in one person. 

It has presented one of the greatest difficulties which your remonstrants 
have had to encounter, and induced them, some years since, to open two 
normal schools for the purpose of training, ia connection with the monito- 
rial plan of the public schools, youug persons of both sexes to this impor- 
tant profession. These schools have been attended by more than three hun- 
dred pupils. 

The practice of conferring otfice as a reward for political services, is 
cause of deep regret to reflecting men of all parties, and a hope was in- 
dulged that the system of common school education would be exempted 
from its deleterious and blighting influence. 

To the second objection to the district system in this city,' viz., " Its want 
of uniformity," the attention of the Senate is particularly solicited, because, 
of itself, it is deemed a fatal objection to the plan of the Superintendent of 
Common Schools. It is well known that a large proportion of the children 
who attend the public schools remove from one locality to another almost 
eveiy year, and that many of them change more frequently. Under the 
present uniform system, these changes are attended by very little, if any, 
check to the progress of the pupil in his studies. On leaving one school, 
he is transferred, by certificate, to another, and enters a class of the same 
grade with the one he has just left, continues to use the same books, end is 
taught by the same method. The disadvantages which result to the pupil 
from frequent changes, where schools are under independent or adverse man- 
agement, is too well known and universally admitted to require illustration. 
Much of the time of children so cii'cumstanced, which is now devoted to the 
acquisition of learning, will then be thrown away in studying new methods 
of learning ; and the brief period of time that tlie children of persons in 
low and moderate circumstances are permitted to devote to school learning, 
strongly admonishes those who provide the means, to study an eiiicient and 
economical use of that time. 

Another and a most serious evil inseparable from the jsroj^osed system, is 
the diversity of books it renders necessary. The public schools of this city 
furnish books to their pupils without charge ; while in the district schools 
of the State the pupil is left to provide them for himself. The consequence 
is, that the use of uniform books cannot be secured, and hence, when a child 
removes from one school to another, he may have to use books not used by 
other pujjils in the same school, or the parent may, however poor, be com- 
pelled to procure new books as often as his child enters a new school. The 
expense would not, in very many instances, be submitted to, and confusion 
in the classes would be an inevitable consequence. 

This has been frequently referred to by different superintendents, as a 
serious evil in the district' schools in the country, where children seldom 
have occasion to leave one school for another ; and it would, of necessity. 



MEJIOEIAL AND REMONSTEANCE. 417 

be immeasurably enhanced under the same system in this city, where chil- 
dren so frequently change the place of residence. 

The third and last objection to the district system, as apj^lied to this 
city, is " its incapacity to remove the difficulties alleged to be inherent in 
the present system ; " and if this proposition can be sustained, the principal 
motives for hazarding the abandonment of a long-tried and well-proved 
plan, for the purpose of introducing one of doubtful expediency, and which, 
it has Ijeen shown, is liable to other very serious objections, will cease to 
exist. 

The report fully recognizes the propriety and necessity of " a very con- 
siderable amount of religious instruction," and very justly remarks, that 
" religion and literature have become inseparably interwoven." 

It is evident, therefore, that an education strictly and exclusively literary 
and scientific is not contemplated. But it is contended that, in the public 
school system, the conscientious opinions and " feelings of large classes of 
citizens are disregarded." It has been shown that this charge is so far from 
the fact, that strenuous and long-continued eflbrts have been used to recon- 
cile conflicting views, by sulijecting the school-books to expurgation. If, 
however, the charge was as well as it is ill-founded, the questions present 
themselves. What is the remedy proposed ? and. What is its character and 
means of efficacy ? 

The remedy is, a division of the city into school districts, or " small 
masses," under the general care and sujier vision of persons elected for the 
purpose in each ward, who are to be aided by a salaried superintendent ; but 
it leaves the " amount and description of religious instruction " to be deter- 
mined by the parents inhabiting the district. 

It will thus be seen that a cure is not even promised. The remedy can 
only scatter throughout the body a disease which is declared to be constitu- 
tional, and which now gives uneasiness to only one of the members. 

It is not perceived that the sclieme of the Superintendent sustains his 
own principles. The report very justly remarks, that, " according to the 
principle of our institutions, no one has the authority to determine whether 
the religious doctrmes and sentiments of any class of our citizens be right 
or wrong," and certainly no such authority has ever been assumed by your 
remonstrants. But what must be the practical elFect of the district system ? 
Every school district in this city would unquestionably contain persons pro- 
fessing a variety of religious opinions, and, as they are to determine the 
degree and kind of religious instruction to be given in the district school, it 
is inevitable that the majority will be enabled either to impose their owm 
religious opinions and dogmas on the children of the minority, or to drive 
them into the street. What is there m the composition of small masses, or 
districts, that can be relied upon to reconcile conflicting " modes of faith," 
or overcome religious jealousies and bickerings ? 

If men of enlightened and liberj.1 minds — if those to whom the people 

look for advice and direction in spiritual matters, and whose decisions 

would not be appealed from, cannot agi-ce upon religious reading which 

would silence sectarian jealousy, what can be expected of the " masses " of 

27 



418 THE ITBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

wliicU the school districts will be composed ? Or if — as would probably be 
the case in many districts — apathy and iudifFerence to the subject should 
leave religious instruction to accident or the taste of the teacher, would not 
the spirit of proselytism, which induces the missionary to visit the " utter- 
most parts of the earth," step in and disturb what all would consider a dan- 
gerous harmony ? and, whatever might be the good effects of such interpo- 
sition in stirring up the lukewarm, could it fail to produce fruits which 
would i)rove fatal to harmonious action in religious education ? These are 
grave questions, and demand — and, your remonstrants doubt not, will 
receive — mature and careful consideration. They did not eScapc the dis- 
cerning mind of the Superintendent, but he contends that the apprehended 
consequences will not ensue, because the records of his department do not 
afford evidence of any difficulty in relation to religious instruction in the 
district schools of the State. As regards the fact, he is doubtless correct, 
but the inference he draws is inconclusive and unsafe. The cause of diffi- 
culty is found, in this city, to an extent that is unknown elsewhere, but will 
most assuredly be felt, sooner or later, wherever its influence can be made to 
reach. Already the books in the district school libraries, which have been 
officially apjiroved by the Superintendent of Common Schools and his pre- 
decessors, are vehemently attacked, and for the reasons Tvliich are adduced 
against those used in the public schools of this city. 

The report concedes that the power of determining the kind and degree 
of religious instruction which shall be given in public seminaries, must rest 
with the majority, and that the only hope of the minority is in the "gener- 
ous forbearance of those who may temporarily have the physical power to 
oppress ; " and it is worthy of special observation, that this acknowledged 
principle is virtually, in substance if not in form, carried out in this city. 

A vast majority of the people are well satisfied with the system of pul)- 
lic education which now exists, as is abundantly evinced by the decided 
manner in which they sustain it through their immediate representatives, to 
which it has been subjected under every form of attack. The city, after all, 
is one large district, in which the majority prevails over the minority. It 
would be the same in the school districts : each would have its minority, 
who would be required to yield, and throw itself upon the " generous for- 
bearance " of the majority. 

No good reason occurs to show why a member of the minority in a small 
mass would be any better reconciled to his condition than if he belonged to 
the minority in the large mass. This difficulty is inseparable from any sys- 
tem of general edivcation so long as religious opinions are blended with it, 
and people continue to reside together without regard to religious profes- 
sions. 

In relation to the geaerous forbearance adverted to in the report, your 
remonstrants will take occasion to say, in addition to what has been before 
submitted, that the exertions which have been used and the overtures which 
have been made to protect the rights of the minority, by those to whom the 
majority have seen fit, however indirectly, to intrust the subject, may safely 
challenge a comparison with any thing on record. 



MEMORIAL AND EEMOSSTEANCE. 419 

The trustees of the public scliools yielded many points to the minority, 
and perhaps even more than public sentiment would have sustained them in. 

In relation to the last effort to reconcile the minority to tlie public school 
system, the committee of the Board of Aldermen, under whose mediation it 
was done, say, in tlieir report (Document No. 40, p. 568), that they are fully 
of the opinion that, to have yielded more, " would render the school system 
liable to the charge of violating the rights of conscience "' — a charge which 
would be fatal to the system, because it would invalidate its just claims to 
public patronage. 

The propositions of the committee who represent the Public School 
Society appear to us to have been conceived in a liberal spirit ; and your 
committee think they go as far as a due regard to the objects of the institu- 
tion would warrant, and would seem to open an avenue which we would 
fain hope may yet lead to a satisfactory arrangement. 

Among the reasons assigned in the Superintendent's report for the non- 
attendance of so many " vagrant children," is " an idea," said to be " jjreva- 
lent among the peojjle, that an attempt is made to coerce them, directly or 
indirectly, to do something which others take great interest in having done. 
They are not left or called upon to act ^pontaneoudy, to originate any thing, 
or take any part in matters which they are told most deeply concern them- 
selves." 

Of the existence of any such cause your remonstrants are entirely igno- 
rant, nor do they believe any such feelings exist. 

Is it probable that persons who are so utterly indifferent to the present 
and future welfare of their offspring, as to permit them to become vagrants, 
■could be influenced by any such considerations ? Or, if it be possible that 
there are those who keep their children from school, and yet permit them to 
" infest " the streets as " vagrants," because they are not permitted to " take 
any part " in the management of the schools, what beneficial results could 
be hoped for from the " spontaneous " action of such persons, or from any 
plans or movements which might " originate " with them ? Your remon- 
strants confess that they are unable to jierceive the force or propriety of this 
reasoning. 

Having with frankness, and with the respectful freedom which our insti- 
tutions secure to the citizen, noticed the most prominent parts of a public 
document which treats of a subject of deep and abiding interest to all, your 
remonstrants conceive that they cannot, injustice to themselves or the cause 
they have espoused, omit to notice some incidental parts of said document. 

In alluding to the memorials presented at the present and last session of 
the Legislature, one is said to be from " Catholic citizens ; " thereby convey- 
ing the idea, or at least leaving it to be inferred, that the other was not. 

It is not pretended that every signer of all these memorials was a Catho- 
lic ; but nothing can be hazarded by asserting that each and every one of 
them was essentially, and in fact, a Catholic petition. 

At no time since the decision of the Common Council in 1824, which 
excluded Church schools, has there been, either in this city or elsewhere, 
any other class of citizens who appeared in opposition to the public school 



4:20 THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

system of instruction, under the control of your remonstrants. These citi- 
zens have, of course, the same rights that appertain to every other class ; but 
it is of some importance that this fact should be correctly understood. 

Your remonstrants are not aware of any error in the detailed history of 
the Public School Society which is given in the report ; but they are unable 
to discover its object, or the bearing it has on the merits of the question 
under discussion. The report says, that more than one million of dollars 
has been paid to the trustees of the Society since 1813, while only 
$125,268.57 have been paid to other societies or schools. This stateiBcnt is 
probably correct, but no attempt is made in the report to draw an inference 
of any kind from the premises. It is not pretended that the funds have 
been misapplied, or that the other societies, whose comparatively small 
share is thus presented to view, would have made a better use of the money. 
Your remonstrants milst say, however, that this part of the report should, in 
their opinion, have been made to embrace other highly important facts 
which are intimately connected with it. One is, that, of the amount re- 
ceived by the Public School Society, more than one half was derived from a 
direct tax on this city, which was j)etitioned for at the instance of your 
remonstrants, by several thousands of the largest tax-paying citizens, with a 
full knowledge of the manner in which it was then disbursed, and, as your 
remonstrants have occasion to know, with a confident expectation that it 
would continue to be so disbursed, or that it would not, in any event, bo 
devoted to the support of sectarian schools. It was also essential to a cor- 
rect appreciation of the subject, to have stated, that more than one third of 
the amount paid to the trustees of the public schools was necessarily ex- 
jjended in the purchase of land and in the erection of school buildings } 
that this land and buildings are still in existence, and form, together, a 
proud monument of the liberality of our citizens. Documents referred to 
in thereport state these facts ; and in more than one of them it is announced 
that the fee of this property has been repeatedly tendered to the municipal 
government. 

The surprise that no mention should be made of the investments in 
school-buildings is increased from observing that, in the report made by the 
Superintendent during the present session (Document No. 90), in answer to 
a call of the Senate, it is shown that the sum of $138,563.44 has been 
invested by your remonstrants in land and school buildings within the last 
five years. 

In relation to the pay system which the report embraces, it is proper to 
state that it was practised during several years in the public schools of this 
city, and was found to be an unceasing source of deceptions, jealousies, and 
dissatisfactions. The mean-spirited and sordid would plead poverty with- 
out just cause ; while the generous and noble-hearted would make great 
eflbrts and unreasonable sacrifices to sustain a commendable feeling of inde- 
pendence. In the city of New York, with its mixed and constantly moving 
l^opulation, it was impossible to discriminate, with even an approach to 
accuracy, between those who should pay and those who should be exempt ; 
and every mistake caused deep and wide-sjjread discontent. 



MEMOEIAL AND EEMONSTRANCE. 421 

But a difficulty far more formidable bad to be encountered, in carrying 
out the mixed plan of pay and exemption. It was found impossible to con- 
ceal the distinction from the children, and it consequently gave rise to a 
classification that disturbed the harmony of the schools, while it is eminent- 
ly opposed to the genius of our political institutions. The amount received 
from pay scholars diminished each succeeding year, and the trustees were 
finally induced to place all the children upon that footing of equality which 
comports so entirely with the feeling which jiervades the public mind. The 
consequence is, that the poorest citizen, instead of being required to solicit 
the admission of his children into the public schools on the free list, is ena- 
bled to demand their admission as a right, and on the same terms with those 
of his more prosperous neighbor. 

The people of this city have seen fit to furnish the means of breaking 
down the odious distinction between the rich and the poor, and the question 
is respectfully submitted, Why should the State interpose to restore it ? 

After the foregoing statements, remarks, and reasonings in relation to 
the report of the Superintendent of Common Schools were prepared, your 
remonstrants received a copy of Document No. 565, being "An Act to 
Extend the Benefits of Common School Education in the City of New 
York ; " and they are surprised to find that it does not bear even a remote 
resemblance to the jjlan projiosed in the late report of the Superintendent. 

Your remonstrants would be wanting in the open frankness due to the 
Senate of this State, and to the imjiortance of the subject, if they should 
withhold an expression of the conviction forced ujjon them, that this act, 
if not framed with that view, will inevitably emlirace the schools connected 
with the Roman Catholic churches in this city. The claims of these Church 
schools to a portion of the school money have been again and again refused 
to the parties on their direct application to the municipal government, and 
with a degree of unanimity scarce ever shown on any other occasion ; and 
yet this bill is so constructed, that it will accomplish that end by indirect 
means. It would, in the opinion of your remonstrants, be a serious error to 
suppose that Catholic citizens would be permitted to enjoy the benefits of 
this biU without opposition. Even a slight knowledge of the feeling which 
prevails among persons connected with our various religious denominations 
would serve to show that public education in this city would soon be thrown 
into utter confusion, by efforts to counteract what would be considered by 
many a dangerous means of influencing and moulding the tender minds of 
youth. 

The bill appears to your remonstrants to be liable to the same objections 
which have been urged against the plan proposed in the report of the 
Superintendent, on account of its tendency to connect itself with party poli- 
tics ; and to this may be added the danger, if not the necessity, of an alli- 
ance of politics with religion. 

If, as will most assuredly happen, a struggle arises to plant schools with 
a view to sectarian influence, it must be seen that, in order to secure the 
favor of the commissioners, whose right it will be to determine between 
conflicting claimants, this process must be commenced at the ballot-boxes. 



422 THK PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Besides the Catholic Church schools, there are a number of schools connect- 
ed with other denominations of Christians, and all these will be immediately 
jjlaced within the reach of this law. Can it be expected — is it reasonable 
to expect — that the people of this city, who have asked for and have cheer- 
fully paid the special tax for the support of public schools, -will be content 
to continue its payment when the proceeds are appropriated to the support 
of sectarian schools — schools in which the conscientious ojjinions and feel- 
ings of many must be daily and hourly violated ? Is it a sufficient answer 
to this to say, that the iield is open to all ? Your remonstrants think not. 

There are a number of small congregations to whom it may be incon- 
venient, or who may not choose, in consequence of the scattered manner in 
which their members reside, or who from other causes may decline opening 
schools of their own, and whose conscientious feelings are entitled to the 
same protection and consideration of those of the more numerous classes. 
There is also a very large class of citizens who, while they acknowledge the 
importance of religion in bridling the fierce and dangerous passions of the 
human heart, will view with jealous apprehension the first step toward an 
association of religion with politics. They cordially unite' with the senti- 
ment expressed in the report of the Superintendent of Common Schools, 
" that religious worship has been better provided for, and attendance upon 
it has been more general, by being left to the free and voluntary action of 
the people, without the aid of any legal establishment ; " and they are well 
aware that, of all means for securing attachment to a particular form of 
religion, and a blind devotion to it through life, the most efiectuul is, to 
cultivate it in the tender and susceptible mind of youth ; and hence they 
never can consent to be taxed for sectarian establishments of any kind, 
whether for adults or for children. 

The municipal government has been most cordially sustained in its 
repeated rejection of jilans which differ from the proposed law only in being 
more direct, and a confident belief is indulged that the Legislature of the 
State will not impose upon the city a measure to which it is so averse. 

If the act under consideration is viewed entirely apart from the objec- 
tions stated above, it will be found to conflict in important particulars with 
the theory and reasoning of the Superintendent of Common Schools to even 
a greater extent than the system which now prevails. 

It is contended, in the report, that, to devolve upon a private corpora- 
tion'the discharge of an important function of government, to give to those 
who are not directly responsible to the people the right of disbursing public 
moneys, the selection of teachers of whose qualifications they are the sole 
judges,,and the establishment and maintenance of a system of public edu- 
cation according to their own ideas of propriety, is an anomaly wholly 
unknown in any other dei^artment of the public service, and involves a prin- 
ciple so hostile to the whole spirit of our institutions, that it is impossible 
it should be long sustained, when other and more congenial means of 
obtaining the same objects have been pointed out. 

These and other consequences, which have been shown to be fiillacious, 
are predicated of the public school system in this city, and it now remains 



MEilOEIAL AND EESIONSTEAXCE. 423 

to CQjisider how far they are obviated, if at all, by the project submitted to 
your honorable body. The act proposes the election of school commission- 
ers by the people, in place of their being appointed by the Common Coun- 
cil, as is now done ; a change which may be made, if thought expedient, 
without disturbing any other portion of the present public school plan. 
But the very next provision of the act is at open war vrith the princijjles 
laid down in the report as being of vital importance, and such as the spirit 
of the age will not endure to see disregarded. It provides, virtually, that 
any number of inhabitants of this city who shall desire to establish a 
school, may present an application to the commissioners, who are author- 
ized, if they consider such persons adequate to the support of a school, and 
if a school be required in the place specified, to grant a certificate thereof; 
when all such associations shall " possess all the rights and powers conferred 
by law upon the inhabitants of school districts in any other parts of the 
State." In short, every such association, of any numher of persons, is made 
a private corporation for the purposes specified, and is entitled to its rata- 
ble portion of the public money. 

In the plan of the Superintendent of Common Schools, the commisssiou- 
ers elected by the people were to organize and establish schools where they 
appeared necessary, as district schools, with the usual oflicers, to he chosen by 
the inhahitaiits of the dintrict. The two plans, it will thus be seen, conflict 
directly with each other in a most essential particular. 

While the Superintendent throws around his scheme those defences and 
safeguards which he says are called for by the spirit of the age and the 
nature of our institutions, the act now pending confers upon any number, 
however small, of persons who may associate for the purpose, and without 
being elected by, or, in any greater degree than your remonstrants are, 
amenable to the people, the duty of discharging what is declared to be one 
of the most important functions of the Government. 

The report objects to the association represented by your remonstrants, 
on the ground of its " want of responsibility to the people," and yet the 
proposed law contemplates the creation of an indefinite number of associa- 
tions for the same object, equally independent of the people, and it is n<it 
discovered but that each one will be as obnoxious to the principles laid 
down in the report as the Society to which such strong exceptions have been 
taken. It will be seen that the city will have to depend for the means of 
general education on accidental and capricious circumstances. 

Some portions may be crowded with schools, while others may be left 
destitute ; and inasmuch as the associations will be required to receive pay 
from those who can afford it, there is no little danger that portions of the 
city where schools are most needed will be left without them. 

In short, it appears evident to your remonstrants that, under the pro- 
posed law, feelings and motives of the most discordant character will be 
brought into action in establishing and maintaining schools, and will be 
made to supersede those which have hitherto prevailed, and which, what- 
ever else may be thought of them, have been directed to the one important 
object of promoting the moral and literary education of the youth of the city. 



424 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The act imposes upon teachers, trustees, and commissioners, duties so 
intricate and arduous that they never will be performed. As regards the 
duties required of teacliers, in addition to those attached to the profession, 
your remonstrants feel authorized, from a long-continued and intimate 
acquaintance with the subject, to say that tliey cannot be discharged with- 
out sacrificing ftir more pressing and important interests. 

The report provides that the Board of Commissioners elected by the 
people shall establish schools and a system for their government and inspec- 
tion, and for providing the means of testing the qualifications of teachers. 
But in the act under consideration, all these points are left to the discretion 
of any number of inhabitants of lawful age, and adequate to the support 
of a school, who may desire to establish one. It is not, perhaps, the prov- 
ince of your remonstrants to contrast the provisions of the projected law 
with the principles contended for in the rejjort of the Superintendent ; but 
it appeared to be so intimately connected with the deeply interesting sub- 
ject of common schools that it could not be well omitted. 

It will be seen that much of the reasoning which has been applied to the 
system in the report is applicable to that which is embraced in the act, and 
particularly such parts as refer to the importance of uniform schools 
throughout the city — a point which never can be abandoned without the 
most disastrous consequences. This objection will apply to the provisions 
of the act with increased force. To the existing public schools it would be 
equally if not more fatal than the system proposed in the report. 

Its practical operation must, therefore, be viewed as embracing the whole 
city. Considered in this light, if the extra duties imposed upon teachers by 
this act are executed at all, it must be at the expense of the best interest of 
the pupils, or a supernumerary teacher must be employed to jierform them. 

This remonstrance has been extended far beyond the limits contemplated 
at the commencement ; for which the only apologies that can be offered are 
the high importance of the subject of which it treats, and the deep and 
abiding interest wliich your remonstrants feel in that subject. 

In conclusion, they would remark, that they have no private ends to 
answer, in opposing cither the plan of the Superintendent of Common 
Schools, or the act presented, but not sanctioned, by the committee. 

A careful examination of both has produced a clear and firm conviction 
that the former, however plausible it may appear, is not adapted to the 
peculiar circumstances of this city ; and that the latter is ill-digested, and 
displays throughout an absence of that experimental knowledge of the mat- 
ter which is indispensable to a successful result. 

Your remonstrants are persuaded that the public schools of this city 
accomplish all that can be accomplished with the same jiecuniary means ; 
and that they are as free from any just cause of dissatisfaction to any class 
of citizens as human ingenuity can make them. Under these impressions, 
they feel bound to remonstrate against the proposed changes. But the same 
feelings and the same sense of duty which have led them to make no incon- 
eiderable sacrifice of personal interest, comfort, and convenience, in sustain- 
ing the present system of public instruction, would cause them to yield 



MEMOEIAL AND KEMONSTEANCE. 



425 



cheerfully to any other system which the people and the constituted author- 
ities of the State may see fit to substitute for it. If a better can be devised, 
they will, as far as they can, lend their aid in sustaining it. 

RoBEUT C. CoR>fELL, President. 
A. P. Halset, Secretary. 

New York, May 21, IMl. 



The following are the names of the 
John T. Adams, 
Stephen Allen, 
Au^stin Averill, 
Micab Baldwin, 
Caleb Bartlett, 
Meigs D. Benjamin, 
George W. Belts, 
William Birdsall, 
James B. Brinsmade, 
James H. Blaisdell, 
Thomas Bussing, 
Abm. R. Lawrence, 
Richard SI. Lawrence, 
James M'Erair, 
William H. MacT, 
William Mandeviile, 
Samuel F. Mott, 
Lindley Murray, 
Abner Mills, 
John Morrison, 
William D. Murphy, 
Wm. W. Chester, 
Samuel R. Childs, 
Lyman Cobb, 
Joseph B. Collins, 
Peter Cooper, 
I. T. Cornell, 
Joseph Curtis, 
Edward W. Cleavelaud, 
Albert Chrystie, 
Mahlon Day, 
Samuel Demilt, 
Henry E. Davies, 
Frederic De Peyster, 
James F. De Peyster, 
Charles DurPee, 
Asahel A. Denman, 
Benjamin Ellis, 
Edward Ferris, 
John Groshon, 
Samuel Griffing, 
Lewis Ilallock, 
Edmund Ilaviland, 



present Board of Trnstees : 
Timothy Hedges, 
Robert Hogan, 
Jacob Harsen, 
John R. Hurd, 
John W. Howe, 
John Jay, 
Shephard Knapp, 
Hiram Ketchum, 
Charles Oaldey, 
George Pardow, 
James Palmer, 
Anson G. Phelps, 
Pelatiah Perit, 
Thompson Price, 
Richard Paige, 
Charles E. Pierson, M.D., 
George Pessinger, 
James 0. Pond, 
William Rockwell, M.D., 
J. Smyth Rogers, M.D., 
James I. Roosevelt, Jr., 
Peter A. Schermerhorn, 
Henry H. Schieffelin, 
Henry M. Schieffelin, 
Joseph Stuart, M.D., 
Samuel W. Seton, 
Linus W. Stevens, 
Willett Seaman, 
Thomas L. Servoss, 
Burritt Sherwood, M.D., 
Reuben Spencer, 
William Smith, 
James Stokes, 
Najah Taylor, 
George T. Trimble, 
Isaac P. Trimble, M.D., 
Gulian C. Verplanck, 
Joseph Washburn, 
Benjamin R. Winthrop, 
Edmund Willets, 
Samuel Willets, 
Abm. V. WilUaras M.D. 



426 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

On Saturday, May 22d, Mr. Verplanck moved that all orders 
of business preceding the bill relative to common schools in New 
York be suspended, and that the Senate resolve itself into com- 
mittee on the said bill. The motion was agreed to, and, after 
some time spent in debate and making amendments, the com- 
mittee rose, and reported the same to the Senate. On motion 
of Mr. H. A. Livingston, the bill was laid on the table. 

On Tuesday, the 25th, the Senate proceeded to the considera- 
tion of the report of the Committee of the Whole, when an 
interesting and animated debate ensued, M'hich was terminated 
by a motion of Mr. Robert C. Nicholas, that the further consid- 
eration of the said report be postponed until the first Tuesday in 
January following. 

The President put the question on agreeing with the said 
motion, and it was decided in the affirmative, by the following 
vote : 

Ayes — Messrs. Denniston, Ely, Foster, Furman, Hull, Hum- 
phrey, Johnson, H. A. Livingston, Nicholas, Ilhoades, Taylor — 
11. 

Nays — Messrs. Dickinson, Hopkins, Hunt, Lee, Moseley, 
Paige, Scott, Sibley, Strong, Verplanck — 10. 

The defeat of the bill was unexpected by the advocates of 
change, and their disappointment and chagrin was not in any 
way concealed. Meetings were held, and Bishop Hughes made 
a very elaborate speech, reviewing the argument of Mr. Ketch- 
um, which occupied the three evenings of June 16th, 17th, and 
21st, in its delivery. The place selected was Cari'oll Hall, 
TlfOmas O'Connor, Esq., being appointed chairman, and Bernard 
O'Connor, secretary. 

The Senate was then in session in the city of New York in 
its judicial organization as the Court of Errors, and the Hon. 
Luther Bradish, Lieutenant-Governor, and several of the sena- 
tors, were present on the first evening. 

Bishop Hughes spoke as follows : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : The subject of education is one which 
at this time agitates, more oi' less, every civilized nation. If wo look across 
the ocean, we find it the subject of discussion in France, in Prussia, in Hol- 
land, in Belgium, in Ireland, and even in Austria. It is not surprising, then, 
that this subject, which has but lately attracted the attention of govern- 
ments and of nations, should become one of deep and absorbing interest. 



SPEECH OF BISnOP HUGHES. 427 

But of all these nations there is, perhaps, not cue which has placed educa- 
tion on that basis on which it is destined successfully, in the end, to repose. 

In countries in which the inhabitants pi'ofess the same religion, whatever 
that religion may be, the subject is deprived of many of its difficulties. But 
in nations in which there is a variety of religious creeds, it has hitherto been 
found one of the most perplexing of all questions, to devise a system of 
education which should meet the approbation of all. This subject has 
engaged the attention of our own Government. In every State of the Union 
it has already been acted upon more or less fully. And in all these 
instances, whether we regard Europe, or regard this country, we find that 
there is not a solitary instance in which religion, or religious instruction in | 
a course of education, has been proscribed, with the exception of the city 
of New York. And this proscription of religion in this city is not an act 
of public authority. There is no statute authorizing such an act ; it has 
been the result rather of an erroneous construction put upon a statute, and 
which has been acquiesced in, rather than approved, for the last sixteen 
years. In the operation of that system. Catholics felt themselves virtually 
excluded from the benefits of education. Very shortly after that construc- 
tion of the law was adapted, they felt themselves obliged to proceed in the 
best way that their poverty would allow for the education of their children. 
And, whilst they have been taxed with the other citizens, up to the present 
hour they have received no benefit from the system supported lay that taxa- 
tion ; but, on the contrary, after having contributed what the law required, 
have been obliged to throw themselves back upon their own resources, and 
provide, as well as they might, the means of educating their children. 

We have, from time to time, complained of this state of things. It has 
frequently been brought before the notice of the public. A Society — pro- 
fessedly the friend of education — ^having exercised supreme control over the 
whole question, we bad no resource but to apply to that tribunal, which the 
law had authorized to use its discretion in distributing the money set apart 
for the purposes of education. We always insisted, in good faith, that the 
object — the benevolent object of this Government — was the education of 
the rising generation, and we never conceived that the question of religion, 
or no religion, had entered into the minds of those philanthropic public 
men who first established this system for the diffusion of knowledge. We 
applied, as I have remarked, at different times, to the tribunal to which 
allusion has been already made, and did so even till a very recent period, 
because, before we could apply to the Legislature of the State, it wa^ 
requisite to comply with the forms prescribed, and that we should be first 
rejected by the Common Council of this city, to whom the State Legislature 
had delegated the discretionary power to be exercised in the premises. That 
course was regarded necessary, and we adopted it. The result was as tee 
anticipated — denial of our request ; and then it was that we applied to the 
Legislature of the State ; submitted to them the grievances under which we 
labored, in the full confidence that there we should find a remedy. 

Both l>efore the Common Council and the Senate of this State, the means 
which have been taken to defeat the proper consideration of our claims have 



^' 



428 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT, 

been such as we could not have anticipated in a country where the rights of 
conscience are recognized as supreme. The test has been put, not as to 
whether we were proper subjects for education, but whether we were Catlio- 
lics ! And in the course of the examination on whicli I am about to enter, I 
shall have occasion to show that, from the beginning to the end, the one 
object of the members of the Public School Society has been, to convince 
the p\iblic that we were Catholics ; and they, it would ajjiiear, calculate as 
the consequence, that, if we were Catholics, then we had no right to obtain 
redress, or hope for justice. 

In the course of my remarks I shall be obliged to refer to distinctions in 
religion, the introduction of which into the discussion of this question is 
ever to be much regretted. I shall have to speak of Catholics and of Prot» 
estants ; and when I do so, let it be understood that I do not volunteer in 
that, but the course pursued by that Public School Society has imposed 
upon me the necessity to refer to these religious distinctions ; and, in doing 
so, I trust I shall be found to speak of those who differ from me in matters 
of religion with becoming respect. I am not a man of narrow feelings. I 
am attached sincerely and conscientiously to the faith which I profess, but I 
judge no man for professing another. In the whole of my intercourse with 
Protestants, my conduct has been such, they will be ready to acknowledge, 
in Philadelphia and elsewhere, that I am the last man to be accused of big- 
otry. But I feel that I should be unworthy of that estimation — that the 
denomination to which I belong would be unworthy of sustaining that posi- 
tion which they are ambitious to occupy in the opinion of their fellow-citi- 
zens of other creeds, if they were to submit to the insult added to the injury 
inflicted on them by these men. I, for my own part, feel ihdignant at the 
recent attempt made to cast odium upon us and our cause ; and it is because 
-that turns entirely on the question of religion, that I shall be obliged to 
speak of Catholics and of Protestants, and refer to those distinctions which 
should never have been introduced. 

Before taking up the report of the Secretary of State, I shall refer briefly 
to the conclusion of the discussion before the Common Council. There we 
had, as you will recollect, legal gentlemen and reverend gentlemen, advo- 
cates of the Public School Society, who had studied the question in aU its 
bearings — volunteers and associates and colleagues on the same side ; and, 
throughout that debate, the ground taken by them was, that, if our petition 
were granted, favors would be conferred on us as a religious denomination, 
fending to that against which all the friends of liberty should guard — a 
union of Church and State. So long as that idea was honestly entertained 
by these gentlemen, I could respect their zeal in opposing us. But that idea 
has disappeared, and yet their opposition has become more inveterate than 
ever. 

The very last sentence of the speech of Mr. Ketchum before the Common 
Council of the city of New York was a declaration that this Society, so far 
from desiring a collision of this kind with us, were men of peace, to whom 
even the moral friction of the debate was quite a punishment ; that, for 
them, it would be a relief if our system of education were assimilated, in its 
external aspect, to that of the State. I will read his own words : 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 429 

Now, perhaps, the gentleman may ask, if the system is to be changed, 
that we should resort to the same course as is pursued in the country, •nhere 
the ])eople elect their own commissioners and trustees. But if we do, the 
schools must be governed on the same principles as these, and the only dif- 
ference will be in the managers. And if it is to come to that, I am sure 
these trustees will be very willing, for it is to them a source of great vexa- 
tion to be compelled to carry on this controversy for such a period. 

They are very unwilling to come here to meet their fellow-citizens in a 
somewhat hostile manner. They have nothing to gain, for the Society is no 
benefit to them, and they give days and weeks of their time, without recom- 
pense, to the discharge of the duties of their trust. 

I shall not now praise that Society. I have more than once given my 
full assent to eulogiums on their zeal and assiduity ; but Mr. Ketchum 
praises them, and they praise themselves, and at this jjcriod of the contro- 
versy they are entitled to no praise from the thousands and thousands of the 
poor neglected children of New York, whom their narrow and bigoted views 
have excluded from the benefits and blessings of education. 

I shall now, before proceeding farther, take up the report of the Secre- 
tary of State, and commence with that portion of it in which he gives a 
brief sketch of the origin of this Society : 

The Public School Society was originally incorporated in 1805, by chap- 
ter 108 of the laws of that session, which is entitled, " An Act to Incorpo- 
rate the Society instituted in the City of New York, for the establishment 
of a free school for the education of poor children who do not belong to, or 
are not provided for by, any religious society." In 1808, its name waa 
altered to " The Free-School Society of New York," and its powers were 
extended " to all children who are the proper subjects of a gratuitous edu- 
cation." By chapter 25 of the Laws of 1826, its name was changed to " The 
Public School Society of New York ; " and the trustees were authorized to 
provide for the education of all children of New York not otherwise pro- 
vided for, " whether such children be or be not the proper subjects of gra- 
tuitous education," and to require fi'om those attending the schools a mod- 
erate compensation ; but no child to be refused admission on account of 
inability to pay. 

Thus, by the joint operation of the acts amending the charter of the 
Society, of the statutes in relation to the distribution of the school moneys, 
and of the ordinance of the Common Council designating the schools of the 
Society as the principal recipients of those moneys, the control of the pub- 
lic education of the city of New York, and the disbursement of nine tenths 
of the public moneys raised and apportioned for schools, were vested in this 
corporation. It is a perpetual corporation, and there is no power reserved 
by the Legislature to repeal or modify its charter. It consists of members 
who have contributed to the funds of the Society ; and, according to the 
provisions of the last act, the payment of ten dollars constitutes the con- 
tributor a member for life. Tlie members annually choose fifty trustees, 
who may add to their number fifty more. 

He goes on to describe its diff'erent acts, by which its name and other 
attributes were changed, until, from being a Society to take charge of the 
children that were not provided for Ijy any religious society, they came to 
have the control of the whole system of education in New York. The 
report informs us that the members of the Public School Society are so by 
virtue of a subscription of ten dollars ; that they elect fifty trustees ; that 
these fifty trustees have a right to appoint fifty others, and then the number 



430 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

is completed ; that the city Council are members a-officio. And this ■will, 
perhaps, go a great way iu explaining the unwillingness of the Common 
Council to grant our petition. 

The Society were so constituted, that, when we went before the Common 
Council, we virtually went before a committee of the Society. 

In this state of things, the Governor of this State, with a patriotism and 
benevolence that entitle his name to the respect of every man that has 
regard for humane feeling and sound and liberal policy, declared for a sys- 
tem that would afford a good common education to every child. And, 
though I have never before spoken iu public the name of that distinguished 
officer of the State, I do now, from my heart, award to him my warmest 
thanks, and those of the community to which I belong, for the stand he has 
taken on this subject. An attempt has been made to victimize him because 
he favored Catholics — because he dared to manifest a humane and liberal 
feeling toward foreigners. He survived that shock, however ; and a recent 
excellent document from hfm, showing that he is not any longer a candidate 
for public favor, authorizes me to say, in this place, that every man who 
loves his country and the interests of his race, no matter what may be his 
politics, will cordially render the tribute of esteem and praise to that Gov- 
ernor — Seward. 

Governor Seward knew too well the deep-seated prcjudic's of a large 
portion of the community not to feel that he had nothing to gain by being 
the advocate of justice to Catholics. But, whatever may be that distin- 
guished statesman's future history, whatever his situation, however much 
thwarted and opposed, and perchance, for a moment, partially defeated by 
those who call themselves the friends of education, it will be glory enough 
for him to have inscribed upon his monument, that, whilst Governor of New 
York, he wished to have every child of that noble State endowed and 
adorned, in mind and intellect and morals, with the blessings of education. 

When, therefore, we presented, as every oppressed portion of the commu- 
nity has a right to do, our grievances to the honorable Legislature of the 
State, these gentlemen, who are represented by Mr. Ketchum, through a 
speech of nine mortal columns, as the humble almoners of the public char- 
ityr— these men, who are burdened with their load of official duty, which 
they are willing, Mr. Ketchum says, to put off — pursue us thither with un- 
abated hostility. We supposed that the Public School Society would acqui- 
esce in the justice of the plan of the Secretary. Ko ! these humble men, all 
zeal for the cause of education, enter the halls of legislation with a deter- 
mined spirit of opposition to us, which is, perhaps, unparalleled, consider- 
ing the circumstances under which they acted. 

One of the most difficult points in treating with these gentlemen is, to 
ascertain in what particular situation, and under what particular circum- 
stances, their responsibility may be discovered. They are, it is said, but 
agents ; they are wealthy and powerful— have every advantage in opposing 
humble petitioners as we are. And, with all these advantages, they pre- 
sented themselves there, not to dispute the justice of our claims, nor the cor- 
rectness of the ground on which the honorable Secretary placed the ques- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 431 

tion before the Senate, but to appeal, even in the minds of senators, to what- 
ever they might find there of prejudice against the Catholic religion, and 
the foreigner and the descendants of the foreigner. 

One of the documents of which they made use was published in the 
Journal of Commerce. This question had been, ia the Society, made the spe- 
cial order of the day for, I think, Friday, the 20th of May. lu the Journal 
of Commerce ol the previous day, there was published a most calumnious 
article, full of all those traditions against our religion which the minds of 
the uneducated portion of some of those denominations inherit ; and the 
agent of the Public School Society, sent, as we should understaml, to repre- 
sent justice and -truth between citizens of the same country, is found dis- 
tributing this paper all over the desks of the senators ! On that very day 
it was supposed that the vote on this very question would be taken, and the 
agent of the Public School Society is found supplying the senators — for I 
have a copy of the papers thus furnished, with the member's name written 
at the top, and the article referred to marked with black lines, so that there 
could be no overlooking it — with an article containing a mock excommuni- 
cation, a burlesque invented by Sterne, and inserted in his " Tristram Shan- 
dy," but quoted by the Public School Society — for I hold it to be their act 
till they disclaim it^as a part of our creed, and made the ground of a sneer 
at the Secretary. " These are precious principles, to be preserved in the con- 
sciences of your petitioners ! " Religious prejudice will have its reign in the 
world. But it is a low feeling. Especially is it a low feeling in a country 
in the fundamental principles of whose government and laws the great 
father of our liberties insisted that conscience and religion should be ever 
free, and be regarded as above all law. There was to be no toleration, for 
that implied the power not to tolerate ; the word was therefore excluded 
from the language of American jurisprudence. And, that being the case, it 
was painful to find an honorable body of men, as the members of the Pub- 
lic School Society are regarded to be, employing such a means of apjiroach- 
ing the Senate of New York — that Senate to which Justice, if she found not 
a resting-place upon the globe, like the dove to the ark, might return, and 
expect every hand to be stretched out to receive her. 

If they deny that they approached the Senate with that document — too 
vile and filthy to be read in this audience ; but if any gentleman has the 
curiosity to see it, here (holding up a volume of "Tristram Shandy") he 
may read it word for word — let them call their agent to account. We will 
not let them rob us of our reputation. We stand ambitious to be considered 
worthy of membership in the great American family. Let them not, after 
depriving us of the benefit of our taxes, destroy our reputation. 

I will now, after this introduction, take up the remonstrance of the Soci- 
ety. It is impossible for me not to feel indignant, when I think how these 
high-minded men have treated us — when I recollect how this same gentle- 
man, who acted as their agent, and distributed that calumnious paper, was 
once a candidate for ofBce, and gladly received the signatures of Catholics. 
And this was the recompense he offered. 

I know not by whom this remonstrance was drawn up. I know not 



432 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

whether all the members of the Board of Trustees approved of it ; but if 
they did, I trust there were no Catholics present. In page 3 of this remon- 
strance, which is signed by the President, " Robert C. Cornell," we find 
the following declaration introductory to the subject : 

The Legislature, therefore, in 1813, when the first distribution was made, 
very naturally appropriated the amount apportioned to this city to these 
schools, in the ratio of the number of children taught in each. This mode 
of distribution continued until 1824, when the subject was again brought 
before the Legislature by the jealousies, disputes, and difficulties which had 
arisen among the recipients, and the conflicting parties presented themselves 
at Albany for the purpose of sustaining their respective claims. 

Now, in all the foregoing applications — in all the reports made by com- 
mittees of the Common Council, you will find that there has not been one 
in which the subject of religion was not referred to as the ground of the 
refusal of our claims— rin which it was not assumed that the laws were 
opposed to giving education-money — the public school fund, or any portion 
of it — to any religious denomination. This principle, it has been pretend- 
ed, and the disputes among the sects, led to the alteration of the law, in 
1824. But if we refer back to the memorial jjioceeding from this Society 
itself, we will find that no such thing existed at the time. We find that ]Mr. 
Leonard Bleecker sent a memorial at that very period — 1824 — in which he 
says: 

It will not be denied, in this enlightened age, that the education of the 
poor is enjoined by our holy religion, and is, therefore, one of the duties of 
a Christian Church. Nor is there any impropriety in committing the school 
fund to the hands of a religious society, so long as they are confined, in the 
appropriation of it, to an object not necessarily connected or intermingled 
with the other concerns of the Church ; as, for instance, to the payment of 
teachers, because the State is sure, in this case, that the benefits of the fund, 
in the way it designed to confer them, will be reaped by the poor. But the 
objection to the section sought to be repealed is, that the surplus moneys, 
after the payment of teachers, is vested in the hands of the trustees of a 
religious society, and mingled with its other funds, to be appropriated to 
the erection of buildings under the control of the trustees, which buildings 
may, and in all probability will, be used for other purposes than school- 
houses. 

Here was the ground taken, and yet we hear these gentlemen, before the 
Common Council, say it was on account of constitutional difficulties and 
religious differences ; whereas, it was simply because the money had been 
used for an improper purpose. 

In page 5 of this remonstrance, this Society takes the ground, in oppo- 
sition to the view of its being a monopoly and a close corporation — which 
it in fact is — that the same objection might be urged against hospitals, asy- 
lums for the blind, the insane, and the mute, dispensaries, and houses of 
refuge ; and they institute a comparison between these institutions and the 
public schools. 

Now, as to the fact that the Public School Society is a close corporation, 
they themselves do not deny that all citizens are excluded except those who 
can afford to pay ten dollars for membership. They do not deny that, but 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 433 

justify it on the ground that, inasmuch as these are corporations for the 
management of such institutions as I have named, the same reason exists for 
the constitution of a corporation for the direction of the public schools. 
And where, then, pray, are the rights with which nature, and nature's God, 
have invested the parents of these children ? Pray, are they who are held 
competent to decide on the gravest questions affecting the interests of the 
nation, unworthy to have a voice in the education of their own children ? 
And must they resign that to a corporation responsible neither to them nor 
to the public in any formal way ? And, pray, are the people of New York 
lunatics, that they must have a corporation of keepers appointed over them ? 
If the doctrine of this memorial be correct, they are to be so considered. 
But there is this difference : they pay taxes for education, and they have a 
right to a voice and a vote in the manner in which their money is to be ex- 
pended. If the people are to be treated as lunatics, mutes, or inmates of 
the House of Refuge, then the argument of the Public School Society is a 
good one. I think the comparison instituted in the remonstrance utterly 
fails. I cannot dwell longer upon it. 

I now come to a charge made against the petitioners : 

At one time it was declared, " the public school system in the city of 
New York is entirely favorable to the sectarianism of infidelity, and opposed 
only to that of positive Christianity ; " that '' it leaves the will of the pupil 
to riot in the fierceness of unrestrained lusts," and is " calculated to make 
bad and dangerous citizens." 

Now, it is true that we did view the Society as being opposed to re- 
ligion. There can be no doubt of that. But, if that be true, it is equally 
true that the evidence on which we built that conclusion was furnished by 
themselves. And how ? In every report of theirs it appears that, if any 
thing like a religious society presented itself, that character was enough to 
decide them in resisting its application. You will find this evidenced in 
their vindication and defence, both by Mr. Sedgwick and Mr. Ketchum. 
They contend that what they meant by religious instruction, was not reli- 
gious instruction, and so it may be proper for me to enter a little into the 
examination of the meaning of these words. 

When the trustees make the religious character of a Society the ground 
of denying them a portion of their funds, what is it that constitutes the 
objection ? They do not decide against the infidel ; for it seems, if the 
applicants had divested themselves of a religious character — if men of no 
religious profession, of no belief in a God or a future state, had i)resented 
themselves, no objestion would be made, and, on their own premises, the 
trustees would be obliged to concede to their request. What, then, was the 
reason of the refusal, except the religious character of the applicants ? And 
had we not fair ground here for inferring that they are opposed to religion ! 
Examine their reports. Here is one : a report of the Committee on Arts, 
Sciences, and Schools, of the Board of Assistants, on appropriating a por- 
tion of the school money to religious societies for the support of schools. 
This is Document No. 80, and at page 389 we read as follows : 

The amount of one hundred and seven thousand dollars, and upward, 
28 



43 i THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

as hereinbefore stated, has been raised by annual tax in this city, for pur- 
poses of a purely civil and secular character. 

Well, if the education is to be purely " civil and secular," is religion 
mingled with it at all ? And if religion is not to be mingled with it at all, 
then had we not a right to infer, from their own document, that they were 
ojjposed to religion, and brought up the children without any knowledge 
of their responsibility to God, or of a future life, or of any of those great 
principles of religion on which the very security of society depends ? Were 
we not justified in this inference ? They refused our application because we 
professed religion ; and had we not a right to keep our children from the 
influence of a system of education that attempted to make a divorce be- 
tween literature — that is, such literature as is suited for the infant mind — 
and religion, and to give instruction of a " purely civil and secular charac- 
ter," for which, we are told, $107,000 had been expended ? How, I ask, 
can Mr. Cornell stand up and deny our charge, when such indisputable evi- 
dence of its truth is presented by their own documents ? 

Did Mr. Cornell, when they defeated us, find fault with the committee 
of the Assistants' Board, because they charged, the Society with excluding 
religion from education ? No ! no ! Enough it was that religious societies 
should be defeated, and that they should continue to wield their complex 
monopoly. No matter that they were charged with having no religion ; no 
matter at all that their education was then described as '' purely civil and 
secular." 

This document goes on : 

The appropriation of any part of that sum to the support of schools in 
which the religious tenets of any sect are taught to any extent 

Well, if you excluded the tenets of all sects, you excluded all religion, 
because there is no religion except what is included in the tenets of sects. 
I defy you to teach the first principles of religion without teaching the 
tenets of sectarianism. Then it was, on the faith of their own documents, 
that we charged on them the character which they had assumed, on the 
strength of which they had successfully opposed, one after another, all the 
denominations who reverence religion. 

The document proceeds : 

would be a legal establishment of one 'denomination of religion over 

another ; would conflict with all the principles and purposes of our free 
institutions, and would violate the very letter of that part of our Constitu- 
tion which so emphatically declares that " the free exorcise and enjoyment 
of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, 
shall forever be allowed in this State to all mankind." By granting a por- 
.tion of the school fund to one sect, to the exclusion of others, a "prefer- 
ence " is at once created, a " discrimination " is made, and the olject of this 
great constitutional guarantee is defeated ; taxes are imposed for the support 
of religion, and freedom of conscience, if not directly trammelled and con- 
fined, is not left in the perfect and unshackled state which our systems of 
government were intended to establish and perpetuate. No difference can 
be perceived in principle between the taxing of the people of England for 
the support of a Church establishment there, and the taxing of the people 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 436 

of New York for the support of schools in -which the doctrines of religious 
denominations are taught. 

And what are we to infer from this, except that they do not teach 
religion at all ? But they have changed their tactics. For they have, be it 
remembered, two strings to their how : one for those who have religion, and 
one for those who have not ; and so we actually find that, whilst before the 
Common Council of New York they are destitute of religion, and give a 
" purely civil and secular education," at Albany they can be in favor of 
religion. 

But there is still further evidence on this point. In page 18 of the 
report of the debate before the Common Council, we have the explanation 
of Mr. Ketchum, and it was one of the nicest managed points imaginable. 
Indeed, I could not but admire the sagacity of that gentleman and his asso- 
ciate, Mr. Sedgwick, in steering so adroitly between the teaching of religion 
and the not teaching of it, so that they taught it, but yet you must not call 
it religion. We put the gentlemen between the horns of a dilemma. We 
said, If you do not teach religion, then you are chargeable with making our 
common schools seminaries of infidelity ; if you do teach it, then you do 
exactly what you say excludes religious societies from a right to participate 
in the fund. But these gentlemen, with great skill and critical acumen, and 
a little sophistry, were able to steer, by a line invisible to my mind, between 
the horns of the dilemma. 

In describing the different kinds of instruction, Mr. Sedgwick says : 

But, beyond that, there is still another branch of instruction which is 
properly called religious ; and it is because those two phrases—" religious " 
and " moral " — have been used occasionally without an accurate apprehen- 
sion of their signification, that the documents of the trustees have been mis- 
construed. But when the term " moral " education is used, it only means 
that education which instructs the childi-en in those fundamental tenets of 
duty which are the basis of all religion. 

That is to say, you build the roof before you lay the foundation. For 
whence, I ask, will men get their knowledge of duty, if not based on a sub- 
stratum of religion ? But here, morality, so called, is made the basis of 
religion. Well, let us apply this to the schools, and see whether any Chris- 
tian parent would submit to have his children placed under such a system. 

There is a child at one of these schools. They tell him not to lie ; but 
children are inquisitive, and he asks, " Why should I not lie ? " You must 
answer, " Because God abominates a lie." There you teach religion. You 
explain the reason why the child should not lie — that religion requires and 
affords tlie reason of the performance of the duty ; not that the duty is the 
basis of religion. It is not enough to tell the child, " You are to speak the 
truth, and, when you know and fulfil your duty, then you may learn that 
there is a God to whom you are responsible." Washington himself, in his 
" Farewell Address," cautioned the nation against the man who would 
attempt to teach morality without religion. He says : 

Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, 
religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man 



■iSG THE PUBLIC SCnOOL SOCIETY. 

claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pil- 
lars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citi- 
zens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect 
and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with 
private and public felicity. Let it be simply asked, Where is the security 
for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligations 
desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of jus- 
tice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition tliat morality can 
be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influ- 
ence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and expe- 
rience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclu- 
sion of religious principle. 

Had we not, then, I would ask very respectfully, a right, when every 
petition had been rejected on the ground that the petitioners had a religious 
belief, to infer that religion formed no part of their system of education, 
and that the consequence which we charged upon them, and that Mr. Cor- 
nell repudiated with so much horror, inevitably and justly followed — name- 
ly, that the Public School Society was favorable to the sectarianism of infi- 
delity ? 

I now go on to show what the Public School Society boast of having 
done in our regard. They had ofl'ered, in reply to our olyectious to passages 
in their books — as, for instance, where it was stated that " John Huss was a 
zealous Reformer, but, trusting to the deceitful Catholics, he was taken by 
them and burned at the stake" — to expunge such objectionable passages 
when they were pointed out. They said, " Bishoj), we submit our books to 
you, and if you will have the goodness to point out any objectionable pas- 
sages, we will expunge them." Well, certainly there was something very 
plausible and apparently very liberal in this offer. But when the matter 
was pressed, it was found that all this was merely the expression of individ- 
uals ; there was no guarantee that the books would be amended. Weeks, 
months, might be spent in examining the books, and then the approbation 
of the board was necessary in order to effect the alteration. Did they say 
that it should be given ? Never. ■ 

I pass now to another point ; for, observe, I do not at all think myself 
called on to say one word in vindication of the able and eloquent and satis- 
factory report of the Secretary of State. That is not necessary. The lan- 
guage of that document will be its own vindication when the petty sophis- 
tries raised against it shall have been long forgotten ; for be assured, gentle- 
men, that, whatever may be the temi)orary opposition to any public measure, 
from the moment that there is discovered to be inherent in it — of its essence 
— a principle of justice and equality, its ultimate triumph is certain, and all 
the opposition which it encounters will have no more effect on it than that 
of the breeze which passes over the ocean, rufiling its surface, but destroy- 
ing nothing of the mighty and majestic element which it seems to fret and 
disturb. 

I take up this, then, not to vindicate the report, but rather in reference 
to the insulting attempt, as I will call it, to deprive Catholics of the free 
exercise of their own consciences, and the respect and esteem of their fellow- 
citizens. In reasoning on the subject, observe the course that is taken by 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 43Y 

Mr. Cornell. He enters into a comparison between the schools of the Public 
School Society and ours— ours, supported in poverty, the humblest that may 
be, but still supj^orted in a Tvay sufficient to show our determination not to 
give up our rights or relinquish the maintenance and defence of a sound and 
patriotic principle. But this gentleman compares these our schools with 
theirs — on which more than a million of the public money has been expend- 
ed, whilst we have been virtually shut out from all benefit from the public 
funds, not by any law of the State, but by a vicious interpretation of the 
law. He requires us to furnish as perfect a system as they do with the 
expenditure of a million of dollars ! He is reasoning with the Secretary, 
telling him, in effect, that we ai'e troublesome and designing people, and he 
8ays: 

But having in view the stringency with which the same party insisted 
on the necessity of religious in juxtaposition with secular education, and the 
warmth with which they denounced the public school system when they 
saw fit to charge it with excluding religion, and particularly when reference 
is had to their avowed dogma, that there is no hope of salvation to those 
not of the Roman Catholic Church ; which dogma is now taught iu their 
schools. 

I thank God that the Catholics — the long-oppressed of three hundred 
years, during which the ear of the world was poisoned with calumnies 
against them — have now liberty of speech, and ability to exercise it ; and I 
call Mr. Cornell to account for what he has here written, and to which he 
has affixed his name. He says : 

When reference is had to their avowed dogma, that there is no hope of 
salvation to those not of the Roman Catholic Church ; which dogma is now 
taught in their schools. 

The Catholics " avow " every dogma of their religion ; but the two 
statements employed by Mr. Cornell are both false. It never was and never 
can be a dogina of ours, that there is " no hope of salvation to those not of 
the Roman Catholic Church." Neither is that dogma taught in our schools. 
This false statement must be accounted for by Mr. Cornell's ignorance of our 
doctrine on the one hand, and, on the other, his disposition to injure us. I 
call upon him — ^I arraign him before the people of New York, and the Sen- 
ate whose confidence he has attemi^ted to abuse, to prove his statement, or 
else to retract it. 

And here it may be jiroper for me to explain something of this matter ; 
for I know that, in the minds of Protestants, almost universally, there is 
that idea ; and that, in the theological language of the Catholic Church, 
there is apparent ground for entertaining it. But, at the same time, I do 
know that that language, properly understood and fairly interpreted, does 
not imply the dogma imputed to us by Mr. Cornell. 

It is very true that we believe that out of the true Church of Christ 
there is no salvation : first proposition. 

It is true that we believe the Catholic Church to be the true Church of 
Christ : second proposition. 

It is very true that, notwithstanding these propositions, there is no dog- 



438 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ma of our creed wbicli teaches tliat a Protestant may not hope to be saved, 
or may not go to heaven. Now, how is this cx])lained ? In this way : 
When we speak of the Church, we mean the Church as Christ and His apos- 
tles did — in the sense that the ordmary means for the salvation of mankind 
are the doctrines and institutions which Jesus left ou earth, which have all 
descended in the Church with our history and our name. This we believe ; 
but we do not believe that God has deprived himself, because Be instituted 
these things, of the means of saving whom He will. We do not believe 
that, on this account, the power of the Almighty is abridged. Hence it is 
consistent with our dogmas to believe that God, who is a just .Judge as well 
as a merciful Father, will not condemn any one for involuntary eri-or. Their 
judgment will be individual. They were externally out of the Church ; but 
was it by their own will, or the accident of their birth and education in a 
false religion ? Did they believe that religion to be true in good faith, and 
in the simplicity of their hearts ? Were they ready to receive the light and 
grace of truth as God might offer it to them ? Then, in that case, though 
not belonging to the Catholic Church by external profession, they Ijelonged 
to it by their internal disjDosition. 

Consequently, we are not authorized to deny hope of salvation to those 
not of the Catholic Church, unless so far as the errors in which they have 
been involved have been voluntary and culjjable on their part. And this is 
uo new doctrine, as our opponents would have seen had they consulted the 
writings of the highest authorities in onr Church. St. Thomas Aquinas, 
one of the greatest minds that ever contributed to enlighten the human 
race, as Protestants themselves acknowledge, writing in the eleventh or 
twelfth century, speaks of a man who is not even a Protestant, but a pagan, 
a man who has never heard of Christ or of Christianity ; and he, supposing 
that man to be moral, sincere, acting according to the best lights God has 
given him, tells us God would sooner send an angel to guide him to the way 
of salvation, than that such a one should perish. Such is the sentiment of 
St. Thomas Aquinas, expressed in his works ; and his works are approved 
of by our Church. How, then, can Mr. Cornell, or any other individual, say 
that we enter into judgment respecting those who die out of the p.ile of our 
Church ? I publicly call upon Mr. Cornell to retract or qualify his official 
statement. 

Sentiments according with these I have quoted from St. Thomas Aquinas, 
I have myself preached in the cathedral of New York, and similar ones 
have been abundantly proclaimed by others ; and amongst them I would 
mention a very distinguished French bishop, then the Abbe Frcssinous. In 
the third volume of his " Conferences," he has one special sermon on the 
subject of exclusive salvation, and he shows that, of all Christian denomi- 
nations, there is no one more abounding in charity on this point than the 
Catholic Church. The same explanations are to be found in the writings 
of Bossuet, St. Francis of Sales, and St. Augustine.* With these facts well 



• Salvation out op thh Church. — In concluding this simple and brief view of 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 439 

known, how did those gentlemen venture to take advantage of their and 
our relative situations, and calumniate us when we had no opportunity of 
repelling the unfair attack ? 

Besides, Mr. Cornell says, " which is now taught in their schools." I 
deny the truth of that statement, and demand his authority. 

But now, would it, think you, be improper on my part, congidering that 
Mr. Cornell is not present, to imitate some of the liberties which he has 
taken with us in our absence ? 

Throughout this document he has labored to prove that we are Catho- 
lics ; and not only that, but to show what our religion is ; though I am 
rather at a loss to imagine where he studied Catholic theology, in which, if 
he should persevere, I would suggest to him to consult better authorities 
than the Journal of Commerce and " Tristram Shandy." 

Now, it never occurred to us to ask, Of what religion is Mr. Cornell and 
the Public School Society ? The whole ground assumed by them is, that 
they are not a " religious society." Well, what are they ? Are they an irre- 
ligious society ? Not at all. They are members of churches ; and I have 
taken the pains to ascertain that Mr. Cornell is a member of Dr. Spring's 
church ; and, if he lectures the Catholics, would it be very wrong in me to 
speak of the doctrines of his creed ? Let us look at the Westminster Con- 
fession of Faith, the rule of Presbyterian dogma, and see whether Mr. Cor- 
nell opens the gates of heaven to all religious denominations. I quote from 
the Westminster Confession as adopted and amended in the United States, 
and published by Towar and Hogan, Philadelphia, in 1837. In page 111 it 
is said : 

The visible Church consists of all those throughout the world who pro- 
fess the true religion. 

So, to be a member of the visible Church, you must " profess " the true 
faith. " Together with their children." Happy children ! " And this is 

the Catholic doctrine, it may be well to state here what is to be correctly understood 
of that Catholic sentiment, " Out of the Church there is no salvation." 

" We do not pretend to deny (s.its Mi'. Bergier) that there are numbers of men born 
in heresy, who, by reason of their little light, are in invincible ignorance, .and, conse- 
quently, excusable before God. These, in the opinion of all judicious divines, ought 
not to be ranked with lieretics." This is the very doctrine of St. Augustine (Epis. 43, 
ad gloriam et alias, n. 1.) St. Paul tells us, in his Epistle to Titus, chap. iii. : " A 
man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, avoid ; knowing that he 
that is such a one is ."iubverted, and sinneth, being condemned by his own judgment." 
As to those who defend an opinion, cither false or perverse, without obstinacy, and 
who have not invented it from a daring presumption, but received it from their parents 
after tliey^'ere seduced and had fallen into error, if they diligently and industriously 
seek for the truth, and if they hold themselves ready to embrace it as soon as they 
shall have found it, such as these also are not to be classed with heretics." X. 1, «.• 
Bai:jt. contra Donat. c. 4, n, 5. 

" Those who fall with heretics without knowing it, believing it to be the Church of 
Jesus Christ, arc in a different case from those who know that the Catholic Church is 
spread over the whole world." i. 4, c. 1, n. 1. 

" The Church of Jesus Christ may have, through the power of her spouse, chil- 
dren and servants. If they grow not proud, they shall have part in his inheritance ; 
but if they are proud, they shall remain without." Ibid. c. 16, ?i. 2.3. 



440 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of 
which there is no ordinary possibility of salyation." 
Here is another statement of Mr. Cornell : 

They are not merely the incidental remarks of the historian, or extracts 
from the Holy Scriptures, " without note or comment," to which such strong 
exception has been taken in relation to the public schools, but they are such 
as ever have, and, in the opinion of your remonstrants, must ever tend, if 
sustained by tax imposed npnn the anathematized portion of the commu- 
nity, to destroy public harmony ; and such as would prove any thing rather 
than a " social benefit." 

Now, by using the word " anathematized," he conveys the impression 
that all out of the pale of our Church are under our anathema. I demand 
the proof. I have studied our holy religion m.any a day, but never yet have 
I discovered any such anathema, and I defy Mr. Cornell to point it out. 

Mr. Cornell goes on to say : 

Your remonstrants had supposed that the fact of the Public School Soci- 
ety being composed of men professing every variety of religious faith, would 
neutralize sectarian tendencies and secure it against abuse. 

Now, there is something exceedingly specious in this, but it is, indeed, a 
very spurious position. They refuse our application on the ground that we 
are a religious society ; and when we then charge them with not being a 
religious society, they repudiate it as a stigma on their character. And 
what is their remedy ? That they " will neutralize sectarian tendencies by 
the variety of the religions that they introduce." How is this ? They are 
all members of churches, and that does them honor ; but whenever they 
come within the magical circle of their official character, then, like negative 
and positive brought together in just proportions, they neutralize each 
other. Is this really the position that these gentlemen assume ? How are 
the trustees chosen ? In the most beautiful manner ! One or two Catholics 
are taken, a Universalist, perchance, and so of other denominations, and 
then they say, " We are of all religious 1 " You will lind that the mass of 
the Society belong to one sect, of which little or nothing is said, and that 
an odd one is taken from each of the other sects to sanctify their acts. 
There is a sufficient majority of one denomination. There is a tendency 
and aim which I am not unwilling to proclaim, a secret understanding — not 
so very secret, either — to the effect that, " as there is a large foreign popu- 
lation in New York, and mostly Catholic, our liberties would not be safe 
unless the interests of Catholics were not neutralized in their education." 
We reject that idea with scorn, that Catholics have to learn the principles 
of liberty from them. At a period when Protestantism was as little dreamed 
of as steam navigation, Catholics were the schoolmasters to the nations of 
the world in the principles of liberty. They were Catholics who wrung the 
great charter of English liberty from the hands of the tyrant. And was 
that their first effort in the cause of freedom ? No. That was only the 
written recognition of theii- rights, which the encroachments of his jjrede- 
cessors had diminished ; and, having thus secured their rights, they main- 
tained them down to the period of the Reformation, when their high and 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 44:1 

honorable notions of liberty were trampled in the dust, and were never 
restored till the Revolution ; and when that so boasted event in the history 
of England took place, it only recognized the rights lost at the period of 
the Reformation, which Catholics for centuries before had known and 
enjoyed. Let them not say, then, that our religion is inimical to liberty.' 
That is a reproach which we spurn — which we abominate and abhor. We 
have nothing to learn from them of human liberty. Their part is to imitate 
us ; not ours to imitate them. 

If that is the principle referred to, we understand it perfectly well, and 
it is of no use for these gentlemen to moot it for the purpose of showing 
that our claim should be denied. Was that, indeed, their object ? Not at 
all. But their object was, with hands that should have been better em- 
ployed, to rake up that wretched remnant of prejudice against us, and pan- 
der to the vitiated taste that could relish it. 

We see, then, that, so far as this remonstrance is concerned, there is not 
one solitary proposition which should for one moment have arrested the 
mind of the Legislature. The bill proposed by the honorable Secretary of 
State contemplated no special favor. Much as I honor that distinguished 
individual, I would not esteem him as I do, if he had, in his bill, proposed 
any thing which should have raised us above our fellow-citizens of other 
denominations. But the bill only places us on an equality with others ; 
with that wo are satisfied — with nothing less will we ever be satisfied. 

But, hitherto, these gentlemen have assumed various shapes. They have 
viewed with self-complacency the beauty of their system ; and as for their 
few schools — few, in comparison with the number of destitute and unpro- 
vided children — I have nothing to say against them. I proposed to place 
our schools under their direction, so far as regarded their police and man- 
agement. But I would not permit them to teach our children that Catho- 
lics were deceitful — that Galileo was put into the Inquisition, and punished 
for the heresy that the earth revolved on its own axis around the sun. That, 
and similar statements of partisan writers, long and generally believed, 
begin to be better understood. Behind the anti-Catholic credulity in which 
they have hitherto been entrenched, there is now going on a deeper and 
sounder spirit of criticism, conducted by eminent Protestant as well as 
Catholic writers. At the very time of his trial, his doctrine was held and 
avowed by eminent cardinals, and the pope himself declared, that, as a 
philosophical proposition, it was no heresy. His case is entirely misunder- 
stood. • 

Galileo's crime was not teaching sound philosophy, but bad theology — 
wishing the Church to declare that his theory was in accordance with the 
Scriptures. For reasons like this, I would not allow them to mislead our 
children, but was willing to allow the gentlemen the external management 
of our schools. They, however, would have universal rule, or none at all. 

What has been their panacea for all complaints ? To invite the city 
Council to visit the schools. And, certainly, I presume it would be impos- 
sible to visit their schools without being satisfied with their appearance. 
But had I been able to have made my voice heard in the Senate of the State, 



442 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETV. 

when they made the proposition to visit their schools, I should have pro- 
posed something like an amendment. I would have prayed these senators, 
in the name of humanity and their country, of all the benevolence that 
beats in the human breast, to visit not the schools, but the lanes and alleys 
and obscure resorts of the poor neglected children of New York, and there 
see, not how much is done, but how much is left undone. These are the 
portions of the city that should be visited. It is utterly impossible, owing 
to their scattered condition, to learn the numbers of children in this city 
who are deprived by these gentlemen of the blessings of education. We 
who mingle with the people have the opportunity of learning their dis- 
like of this system — that they would no more trust their children to it than 
to that tyrannical system of British misgovernment which their fathers 
knew so well, and from which they derived the sad legacy of ignorance and 
poverty. I refer to the laws which made education a crime in Ireland, and 
which have left the inhabitants of that country the degraded but unbroken 
people that they are this day, after a iiersecution of near three hundred 
years. 

It is for these poor, neglected, uneducated children that I plead. Their 
parents will not send them to the public schools whilst constituted as at 
present, and I approve of their resolution. I trust that they never will send 
their children to schools managed by men who can send to the Senate of 
this State a burlesque upon our creed, and represent it as a genuine exhi- 
bition of our faith and principles. Eather will we trust to the kind and 
merciful providence of God, than voluntarily relinquish a principle by which 
we maintain the right implanted in the breast of every parent and secured 
by the laws, to have a voice in the education of his child. It is these chil- 
dren that should be visited. Then would these honorable senators, whom I 
know to be above all these petty prejudices which have been appealed to, 
do justice, and apply a remedy so far as the law would authorize them. 

I must now soon conclude m}' remarks for this evening. I will merely 
refer to the objection of the Society to the bill of Mr. Spencer : its tendency 
to introduce party politics. Every thing is held, in this country, to be in 
the hands of the people; yet these gentlemen, after enjoying a monojjoly for 
sixteen years, think it a great misfortune if the taxpayers should be allowed 
a voice at all in the selection of the teachers in the schools which they sup- 
port, or any share whatever in their management. 

The next objection to the bill is its want of uniformity. Because they 
happen to have school-houses exactly one like the other, and have a uniform 
style of books, the large and liberal and statesmanlike plan of the honor- 
able Secretary should be given up ; because, forsooth, these " humble almo- 
ners " pronounce it void of uniformity. " Humble almoners," who, after 
coiling their roots around the Common Council, and making them judges in 
the cause, go to Albany to defeat our claims. Well, they may call them- 
selves " humble almoners," if they please ; but they remind me very much 
of the beggar in Gil Bias, who, when he asked alms, always took good care 
to have his musket ready. 

I have now gone briefly through this part of the subject, and I ask you 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 443 

whether we can have any confidence in men who can stoop to such artifices 
as I have exposed 3 I call upon them to vindicate themselves from the dis- 
honor of having circulated that document from " Tristram Shandy." It was 
done by one of their colleagues and their ofiicial agent, who, when charged 
with it, replied that he had done so under instructions. What instructions ? 
Did they instruct him ? If not, let them say so by a public act. Until they 
do so, we justly charge them with being the traducers of our reputation. I 
charge them on the ground that they are responsible for the act of their 
agent ; and they should have known better. Gentlemen claiming to be 
exclusively the judges of what is a proper system of education — who held 
that you are unworthy of having any thing to do with the schools of New 
York — should have known that that document was from " Tristram Shan- 
dy," written, I presume, for his amusement, by Mr. Sterne, who, though 
numbered amongst the clergy of the Church of England, was believed to be 
an infidel — a man who secretly scofied at every thing sacred, and the work- 
ing of whose rank imagination is too offensive for the eye of delicacy. 
Surely, then, these gentlemen should not have drawn weaisons from such a 
source for the purpose of destroying the reputation of any class of their 
fellow-citizens. 

This is not the first occasion on which we have been misrepresented ; 
and religious gentlemen, whose avowed puqjose it is to preach the gospel 
of peace, have taken up the habit of abusing us, and have rung the changes 
on this tojjic, till, in some instances, some of their audiences, more liberal 
than they, have left the place disgusted. They remind me of a saying of 
this same Sterne, who, when quizzing the credulity of the people of Eng- 
land — for he was a great wag — said that, occasionally, he was straitened for 
the price of a dinner, but he could always manage to make a good meal of 
Cheshire cheese ; but it also happened that oftentimes he was in a similar 
strait in his ofiicial capacity, and was called on to preach when he had not a 
word of a sermon prepared, and then he took " a fling at popeiy." The 
people went away edified and delighted. For this reason, he says, I call 
popery my " Cheshire cheese." It seems to me that the occupants of half 
the pulpits of New York are nearly in the same predicament, and would die 
of inanimation, were it not that their stock of " Cheshire cheese " is still 
unexhausted. 

I think I can safely say, that in none of our churches will you hear such 
abuse. "We never touch upon secular afifairs ; you will not even hear from 
our pulpits harangues about abolition. We explain and defend our creed, 
and, I trust, preach charity and peace and order. But it is not so with 
those who assail us as I have described, as I will have occasion to show 
when treating of Mr. Ketchum's speech, which I intend to do on to-morrow 
evening. 

THXTRSDAT EVENIKG. 

Bishop Hughes resumed bis I'einarks, as follows : 
The question, gentlemen, which has called us together, has had two 



444 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

stages of progress, which must be kept distinct in order to comprehend its 
present position. We have, from time to time, applied to the Common 
Council of this city for relief, which we knew they had the power to grant; 
and we had applied, as it were, in an isolated, and, if you please, as to 
appearance, in a somewhat sectarian character. The reasons of this will be 
easily understood, when you reflect that we had no intention to disturb the 
system of education so generally approved by our fellow-citizens. Our 
object was not to destroy that which was good for others, if they thought 
it so, but to find something that might be equally good for ourselves. Ac- 
cordingly, we applied as Catholics, because it appeared that there were no 
other denominations whose consciences suffered under the operation of that 
system. And we did suppose that these considerations would have had 
some weight with the honorable Council. We might — as we are re- 
, proached with not having done— we might have interfered with the regu- 
llations of these schools — asked for a di&orcnt oixler of books — required the 
I erasure of such and such passages, and the insertion of others. They 
reproach us with not doing so ; but if we had done so, it would, in the first 
place, have been pains thrown away ; and, in the second place, we might 
thereby have disobliged many of our fellow- citizens of other denominations. 
Without our at all pressing the question upon them, farther than observing 
that even the reading of the Holy Scriptm'es, according to the Protestant 
version, was looked upon by us as an invasion of our conscientious rights, 
they took it up as an objection against the reading of the Scriptures at all, 
as if the presence of a Bible within the walls of a school was a thing we 
could not bear. It is needless to say how wrong that inference was ; but we 
did not at all wish to disturb the Protestant's approbation of his version of 
the sacred volume, nor the order that seemed so generally apisroved ; and 
that was the reason of the mode of our api^lication. 

In the course of my speech, therefore, you will understand that we did 
not so apply for relief because we wished to be apart, separate from the rest 
of the community — that it was not because we were exclusive or intolerant, 
as they have charged upon us, but because we supposed that they would 
not wish to have their children hear the Catholic version of the Bible read ; 
and therefore they had no right to impose on our children the hearing of 
the Protestant version. If that' be sectarianism, then we plead guilty to the 
charge ; but, without feeling and acting so, we could not have our con- 
sciences simple, and, in their integrity, upright toward God. 

When, however, after having gone through the ceremony — for it was 
nothing else — of appearing before the Common Council, and having been 
heard — and denied, as a matter of course — when we had gone through this 
ceremony required by the formulary of the law, then, indeed, we threw our- 
selves on our general rights as citizens, and appealed to that tribunal to 
which we must always look with confidence for the redress of every griev- 
ance that presses on us in our social condition. Nevertheless, our opponents 
followed us there, and fastened upon us the character, in which it had been 
the duty imposed on us by necessity, to apjsear before the Common Council. 
We have had occasion already to point out some evidences of the use 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 44:5 

made of tbat in the remonstrance. You saw with what recklessness of 
truth, I am sorry to say, it was charged in tliat document tliat we were 
intolerant — that we taught there was no salvation out of the Catholic 
Church, and so forth. There are in that document of the Public School 
Society many other passages requiring examination ; but as the substance 
of them is contained in the speech of the learned gentleman who was their 
official organ before the Senate, I suppose that the refutation of the one will 
be the refutation of both, and therefore I deem it unnecessary to refer far- 
ther to that memorial. 

They — that gentleman particularly — referred, in the course of the dobatc,j 
to a projiosition for accommodation, which was made on the part of the 
Society previous to the last decision of the public Council. They alleged 
that nothing could be fairer ; but when we had examined that, we found 
that of not a solitary grievance of which we had complained did it take 
notice — not the slightest notice. The whole proposal was, that they should 
correct the books, so far as their guardianship of the rights of conscience — I 
for they are conscience-keepers for the several sects in this community ! — [ 
would allow. They would accommodate us by striking out passages insult- j 
ing and offensive to our minds and injurious to our children. That was alt ' 
the amount of the concession. Then, the second proposition was, that they 
would purchase from us — they can afford to do so — the only school-house 
which our humble means have enabled us to erect during the sixteen years \ 
of privation from the benefits of common school education. These were the \ 
only two features that distinguished that offer of accommodation. But Mr. 
Ketchum did not find it convenient to read the propositions that we submit- 
ted at the same time, and which, candor should have acknowledged, re- 
moved from us every imputation of being actuated by sectarian motives, or 
having in view the appropriation of the public money to the propagation 
of our religion. 

I will now commence with the reading of but a small portion of that, 
sufficient, however, to show you that, on this ground, so far as information 
was concerned, they had it ; and if, with that in their possession, they con- 
cealed the truth, and sujjpressed it, on their heads be the responsibility 
that attaches to such conduct. 

What is the great difficulty— the legal difficulty ? That public money 
cannot be applied to sectarian uses. Very well ; we met that. We said. 
Here are propositions that cover our whole ground : 

That there shall be reserved to the managers or trustees of these schools 
respectively the designation of the teachers to be appointed, who shall be 
subjected to the examination of a committee of the Public School Society, 
shall be fully qualified for the duties of their appointment, and of unexcep- 
tionable moral character ; or, in the event of the trustees or managers fail- 
ing to present individuals for these situations of that description, then indi- 
viduals having like qualifications of unexceptionable character, to be select- ' 
ed and appointed by the Public School Society, who shall be acceptable to 
the managers or trustees of the schools to which they shall be appointed ; 
but no person to be continued as a teacher in either of the schools referred 
to against the wishes of the managers or trustees thereof. 



446 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

That was the fii'st proposition ; showing them that, so far as the teachers 
were concerned, all we wanted was, men in whom we could place confidence. 
The second proposition was : 

That the schools shall be open at all times to the inspection of any au- 
thorized agent or officer of the city or State government, with liberty to 
visit the same, and examine the books used therein, or the teachers, touch- 
ing the course and system of instruction pursued in the schools, or in rela- 
tion to any matter connected therewith. 

So that there was no concealment there, they themselves should be the 
inspectors ; and I will say it boldly, that, if they had been actuated by that 
deejD feeling of humanity for which they claimed credit, they would have 
accepted that proposal to take our children under their care, aflbrding to 
them the same means of gaining future hajjpiness as they did to others. 

The document goes on : 

The undersigned are willing that, in the superintendence of their schools, 
every specified requirement of any and every law passed by the Legislature 
of the State, or the ordinances of the Common Council, to guard against 
abuse in the matter of 'common school education, shall be rigidly enforced 
and exacted by the competent public authorities. 

They believe that the benevolent object of every such law is to bring the 
means of education within the reach of the child of every poor man, with- 
out damaging their religion, whatever it may Ije, or the religious rights of 
any such child or parent. 

It is in consequence of what they consider the damaging of their religion 
and their religious rights, in the schools of the Public School Society, that 
they have been obliged to withdraw their children from them. The facts 
which they have already submitted, and which have been more than sus- 
tained by the sentiments uttered on behalf of the Society in the late discus- 
sion, i^rove that they were not mistaken. 

As regards the organization of their schools, they are willing that they 
should be under the same police and regulations as those of the Public 
School Society — the same hours, the same order, the same exercises, even the 
same inspection. , 

But the books to be used for exercises in learning to read or spell, in his- 
to'Ti geogi'fiphy, and all such elementaiy knowledge, as could have a ten- 
dency to operate on their hearts and minds in reference to their religion, 
must be, so far as Catholic children arc concerned, and no farther, such as 
they shall judge proper to put in their hands. But none of their dogmas, 
nothing against the creed of any other denomination, shall be introduced. 

Reference is here made to the sentiments uttered by the advocates of the 
Public School Society in their opposition to our claims before the Common 
Council. Many of my present audience were perhaps there, and they can 
remember what an array of individuals, otherwise distinguished by their 
character — what an arrray of bigotry and prejudice, and, we must say, of 
profound ignorance, was presented against us. One reverend gentleman 
came there, and said, in reference_to our objection respecting the Protestant 
version of the Bible, that one of our comments taught " the lawfulness of 
murdering heretics." Before the Common Council I brought that gentle- 
man to account, and I assure you that, considering his gray hairs, and the 
respect that is due to age and the sacred character of a minister of peace, I' 
felt humbled at beholding the degraded jjositiou in which he found himself 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 447 

before I had done. He bad, however, obtained a copy of an old version of 
the Scriptures, published by the Catholic refugees in the time of Queen 
Elizabeth, who, wishing to prepare the way for an invasion by the Sjjanish, 
wrote a series of notes on the Scriptures, which they thought would tend to 
effect that end. So soon, however, as these notes became known in England 
and Ireland, they were scouted with horror by all professing the Catholic 
name. A few copies of that version, however, remained lost and forgotten, 
and an ignorant j)ublisher in Cork, thinking to make a profitable specula- 
tion, obtained one of them ; and not knovring — as was aftei'ward proved — 
the difference between it and the authorized version, he undertook to jjub- 
lish another edition of it. In the process of publication, however, the 
character of the work became known, and the Archbishop of Dublin for- 
bade the publication. The publisher was ruined, and he commenced a suit 
for damages. The matter was referred to in committees of the House of 
Commons and of the House of Lords, and to all the particulars of the case 
was, of course, thus given the greatest jjossible puljlicity. Well, the pub- 
lisher, being deprived of his anticipated sale in Ireland, where the Catholics 
would not purchase such a book, thought that, by sending some to this 
country, people as ignorant as himself might purchase them, and thus the 
work might not prove a dead loss. In this way a copy fell into the hands 
of one of these gentlemen ; and what did they do ? Why, about the very 
same period that " Maria Monk " was published — and I know not but from 
the» same press — they emitted an edition of this Bible, in order to excite 
public odium against their Catholic fellow-citizens ! It was then, with a 
copy of that in his hand, that that clergyman came forward to prove, by 
means of that forgery, that we taught the lawfulness of murdering heretics. 
Then, besides that, there was another gentleman, and he, in speaking on the 
subject of these very schools, and offering reasons why we should be denied 
the benefits of education, instituted a comparison — all the others had, with 
great professions of respect and benevolent feeling for us, said " it was not 
because we were Catholics " that they opposed us ; oh ! no ; they always 
qualified it — but he instituted a comijarison between the religion of Fene- 
lon and Voltaire, and with marvellous candor, forgetting the preface, ad- 
mitted that he opposed us because we were Catholics ! This gentleman 
said, that, if he had no alternative, he would sooner be of the religion of 
Voltaire than of that of Eenclon. These are the sentiments to which I 
allude, and to which reference is here made, when we say that such senti- 
ments are only calculated to strengthen the conviction that our Catholic 
children, from the prejudices against their parentage and religion, had no 
chance of justice in those schools. The committee to whom was referred an 
examination of the schools, make a report, and in that, after quoting the 
two propositions for an accommodation, they take occasion to say : 

Tour committee deem it proper to remark, in vindication of the School 
Society, that they were only one of the numerous remonstrants against the 
prayer of the petitioners. Their views were represented at the late discus- 
sion before the board only by their legal advisers, Messrs. Sedgwick and 
Ketchum. The other gentlemen who participated in the discussion repre- 



4i8 THE POBLTO SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

sented other bodies, which are not in any manner connected with them. 
Sentiments were uttered by them which the School Society do not entertain, 
land for which they are not justly accountable. 

So they say ; but by whom ? It would go abroad that this was a decla- 
ration from the whole body of the Public School Society. I do not believe 
that was the fact, and I have no reason to believe it. Because I do know 
that these gentlemen used, or at least admitted this sentiment — this bad 
sentiment of their associates — for the purpose of defeating us, and they 
were perfectly satisfied with the victory, without at all disclaiming the dis- 
honorable means they had employed to secure it. But as easily could the 
English efface the stigma that rests upon them from their employment of 
the Indian's tomahawk dm'ing their warfare with America. 

And I ask them, Is there on their records a disapproval of the declara- 
tion of Dr. Spring or of Dr. Bond ? — the one, that we would murder here- 
tics, and the other, that the religion of Voltaii'e was to be preferred to that 
of Fenelon. Have they, in any one ofiicial document, disavowed that 3 We 
challenge them to show that the question of a disclaimer has ever been 
mooted. On the contrary, we have reason to believe that they approved of 
these statements made by Drs. Spring and Bond, and that from their own 
document too, signed by their President and Secretary, which goes nearly 
as far. And yet these are the men to whom we are required to give the 
management of the education of our children ! They have hedged educa- 
tion around with an impenetrable wall, beyond which no applicant from^ur 
body can be admitted, except on terms that violate our civil and religious 
rights. A state «f ignorance and degradation is the destiny assigned to 
those who will not submit to their Procrustean system, to the dimensions of 
which all must submit to be adapted. 

The Society acknowledge that Messrs. Ketchum and Sedgwick are their 
oflBcial organs. Well, we find Mr. Sedgwick, in the speech referred to on 
last evening, absolutely disclaiming the teaching of religion. He said it 
was a mistake to suppose that what was called religious instruction meant 
any thing more than simple morality, which he stated to be the basis of all 
religion. And do these gentlemen intend to reverse the order of the Al- 
mighty, and, by giving this precedence to morality, to say that men must be 
good without a motive, and then they may learn religion ? How, then, can 
they quarrel with us for saying that they attempted — what Sir. Spencer says 
well, is impossible — to divorce religion from education ? It was on that 
ground that they appeared before the Common Council and defeated our 
claim ; for, as you saw yesterday, and see to-day, the crime charged upon us, 
the disqualifying circumstance, was, that we belonged to a religious society, 
and the public money was not to be appropriated in any way except in the 
promotion of a " purely civil and secular education." When we told them 
that we supposed they were sincere in their declarations, and that, by divorc- 
ing religion from education, thus leaving the children withcut the necessary 
motive to virtue and morality, and wholly destitute of any princijjle to curb 
their rising passions, they seemed to exclaim, " Oh ! what an impious set of 
men you suppose us to be — atheists ! " No, not exactly ; but I accuse you 



SPEECH OF BISUOP HUGHES. 449 

of being what you yourselves assume. You defeat all applications made by 
applicants professing religion. Tou contend that religion must not be any 
part of State education. Well, then, how can you be dissatisfied if we call 
you anti-religious, according to the principles you have yourselves assumed ? 
The fact is, that, in order to conciliate those whose minds are haunted by a 
certain spectre of a union between Church and State, and in order to bring 
them to the support of the Society, they i)retended to meet their views ex- 
actly ; and then again, on the other hand, attempted to satisfy the scruples 
of conscientious parents by playing the several sects one against the other, 
and with so much adroitness, that the whole community came to the desired 
conclusion that the interests of education and morality were perfectly safe 
in the hands of the Society, and could not be safe in the hands of any 
other. 

In taking up the speech of Mr. Ketchum, I must premise that he has 
divided it into two parts, and that, of the many columns by which it is sup- 
ported, the first two or three are occupied with a detailed history of the 
legislation, so called, of the Common Council, on this question. Now, I 
understand the part of this gentleman — who has, perhaps, as deep a knowl- 
edge of the mystery of political wire-drawing as any other gentleman of his 
profession in the State — I understand his introduction of this matter entirely 
foreign to the subject. His object was, to impress the mind of the senators 
with the idea that, in New York, the question had been decided — that the 
Board of Aldermen had been changed — the position of parties changed — 
applications had been made from time to time, for sixteen years, and that, 
after the gravest reflection, under all possible variety of circumstances, the 
answer uniformly was, that it would be a violation of something that he 
calls "a great principle" — which, however, he does not think proper to 
define — ^if our claim were admitted. He wished to convey the idea that, if 
there had been any thing just or proper or true in our claims, it could not 
have escaped the notice of public officers in New York — the immediate rep- 
resentatives of the people ; and that, consequently, the senators should 
approach the subject with minds already biased and prejudiced against us. 
The gentleman wished to lead the honorable legislators to say, " What ! 
shall we, on the examination of one hour, at this distance from the city of 
New York, undertake to reverse the judgment sustained by the uniform con- 
currence of the various boards that have constituted the public councils of 
that city for sixteen years ? " There was great generalship in all that on the 
part of the learned gentleman. 

But I dispute the principle in toto which the gentleman assumes, and, 
before that honorable Senate, I would maintain that the gentleman has no 
foundation whatever for his assumption, and that this question should be 
viewed by them as if approached for the first time. 

And what is my reason for assuming this jjosition ? You will mark, that 
the learned gentleman frequently styles the Common Council " the represen- 
tatives of the people." My argument in reply,, then, is, that, so far as re- 
gards this school question, they never were the " representatives of the peo- 
ple " for that question never was made one that could aflfect their election 
29 



450 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

in the most remote degree. At least, so we tliouglit. So for as we are con- 
cerned, we are right. True, whilst we were meeting to study this subject 
and bring it under pul)lic notice, these gentlemen of the Society were ever 
and anoa charging us with political designs ; and I recollect something of 
an amusing nature connected with that. It was my duty, on the day suc- 
ceeding the debate before the Common Council, to proceed to Albany for 
the purpose of giving " confirmation." I went ; preached three times on 
nest day, Sunday. On Monday I drove to Troy, for the purpose of visiting 
the churches there ; and on Tuesday I returned to this city. Well, what 
was the story ? — of course, I do not say got uji by these gentlemen, nor by 
the Public School Society — but it was said that I, having taken tea with the 
aldermen, a bargain was struck between us, and I was to go to Albany to 
get the Catholics to vote against the Governor, and then all would be right. 
That was a specimen of the stories that were circulated. But, while we 
were thus charged, they who brought the accusation were themselves not 
idle in that very department. The subject was introduced to their pulpits, 
and their congregations were lectured on it, and from that may be traced 
the attempt to defeat Governor Seward. 

But we never made this a political question, and the Common Council 
have never acted on it " as the representatives of the people," because it 
never was applied as a test; but if the question were put between the Sec- 
retai^'s plan and the Public School Society, the latter would soon break 
down any board that would undertake to support thenrf. 

We were denied, it is true, by the Commou Council ; but we never 
looked on them as acting, in that matter, as the representatives of the peo- 
ple. We regarded them as independent judges. And, really, there is little 
ground for surprise at their decisions iu the premises. 

Now, I will suppose a case. Let us take that of a bank ; for it is per- 
haps as good an illustration as I can furnish at the moment. A citizen has 
.a controversy with the bank, and that controversy comes to a trial. The 
citizen complains that he is injured by the directors of the bank ; he makes 
out his case, but, in the end, he finds, contrary to all his just anticipations 
and all his views of justice, that he is defeated, and judgment given against 
him. Well, he thinks this very hard. But he happens to learn that the 
judge before whom the case was tried, and the jury who rendered the ver- 
dict, are all directors of the bank, and his wonder at the result of the trial 
-^ ceases. Do you see the application ? These gentlemen, after having ex- 
1 eluded all religious societies, made the word " religion " a kind of disquali- 
/fication in a Christian community, in the year 1824; after that, with the 
subtlety which proves that they arc w'ise in their generation, they got an act 
jjassed, by which the Common Council are made ex-officio members of the 
' Public School Society, and thus constituted them parties and judges in the 
cause. 

Let me not be misunderstood. I do not suppose for a moment that any 
gentleman of that Common Council would at any time knowingly deviate 
from the path of justice and duty on account of his official connection with 
that Society ; but, at the same time, I do know that there is a powerful 



SPEECH OF BISUOP HUGHES. 451 

influence in association, against which the laws, with great wisdom, have 
guarded the judicial bench, when they declare that a judge should be of a 
single mind, elevated above all selfish considerations, and whose interests 
could never be affected by the result of any official act which he might be 
called on to execute, or any sentence which it might be his duty to pro- 
nounce. Here, then, were aldermen of different parties elected from time to 
time, and so made members—part and parcel — of this Society ; and I ask. 
Would it have been a gracious thing in them, after having been so honored 
with a place in it, to become adverse to the interests of that body ? Let us 
bear in mind, too, that there is with most people a regard for consequences ; 
and no alderman could imagine he would greatly benefit his interests by 
opposing a corporation that has acquired nearly the entire control of all 
the public money appropriated for the purpose of education in New York, 
and having its dependents spread from one end of the city to the other. I 
think it would require a strong and elevated mind, an unusual amount of 
moral courage, to enable any man so situated to oppose such a corporation. 

I do not, then, admit the reasoning of Mr. Ketchum, for I deny his pre- 
mises that the Common Council ever were " the representatives of the peo- 
ple " on this subject. 

I will now commence my review of this speech. I read it carefully from 
beginning to end, and I was myself impressed with the idea that it scarcely 
required an answer. I was quite convinced of that, so far as the honorable 
senators were concerned, because I knew that, to the minds of men accus- 
tomed to reasoning, and to detect at a glance where the strength of a posi- 
tion rested, that speech must have apjjeared a thing altogether out of place. 
.Nevertheless, it was hinted to me that the sjjeech was not intended for sena- 
tors alone, and the readiness with which Mr. Ketchum could furnish the 1 
report went considerably to strengthen that opinion. It was said that, 
though to me the speech might seem weak, yet to the generality of readers, 
particularly those unacquainted with the subject, it might seem very spe- 
cious, and produce in their minds the very conclusions opposite to those 
which we would wish to see established. On that ground I have taken it 
up ; and I must say that, with regard to Mr. Ketchum himself, I have the 
kindest possible feeling ; and if, in the course of my remarks, I should hap- 
pen to sjjcak in a manner seemingly disrespectful, I beg that it may not be 
considered as having been so intended. Of the gentleman himself I cannot 
say any thing disrespectful ; of his speech I hope I am permitted to say 
whatever the evidence may authorize. I mention his name with perfect free- 
dom, because bis name is attached to the speech, and because, principally, 
he is the official organ of that Society, and what he says is already endorsed 
by them. 

After his introduction, Mr. Ketchum says : 

This, probably, may account very sensibly for the fact that, in the city 
of New York, the portion of the school fund allotted to her was to be dis- 
tributed by those almoners of her charity whom her representatives thought 
proper to designate. Now, I ask, was there any thing inconsistent with 
sound principle in this ? Is there any thing in it which violates the princi- 



4:52 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIErST. 

pie of the largest liberty and the purest democracy, of which we hear some- 
thing in this report ? 

Stop, Mr. Ketchum ! I tell you that there is not one word in that whole 
report against such a state of things as that you represent to the minds of 
the senators, by making a wrong application. What is represented as con- 
trary to the principle of our Constitution, was the monopoly — the exclusive 
system that has succeeded to the former ; and Mr. Ketchum is kind enough 
to make an anterior reference to the period when all enjoyed the appropria- 
tion for the purposes of education. I stop him there, and say that he makes 
a wrong ajiplication. He ought not to prejudice the minds of senators, or 
the community, by pretending that the Secretary's report trenches on the 
enjoyment of the largest liberty. 

Mr. Ketchum goes on : 

In the city of New York, as I shall have occasion to show by and by — 
and more or less, I suppose, it is so in all the States of Christendom — there 
are voluntary associations, charitable associations, associations composed of 
men, incorporated or otherwise, who are willing to proffer their services to 
feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to visit the destitute, and to see to the 
application of funds set apart for their relief Such men are always to be 
found in large cities — men of fortune, men of leisure, men of benevolence, 
who are willing to associate together for benevolent objects, and who are 
usually made the almoners of the charity of others. 

Now, Mr. Ketchum, in the whole of this, is gliding imperceptibly to the 
point he wishes to reach. And what is that point ? It is, to fix on the 
minds of the senators that, as religious societies formerly took care of their 
poor, and as other associations take care of other objects of benevolence, so 
they were to look upon the Public School Society as taking care of educa- 
tion. In endeavoring to effect this conclusion, his reasoning glides imper- 
ceptibly, as on a colored surface which is black at one extremity and white 
at the other, but in which the various shades are so nicely mingled that yon 
cannot ascertain the point where the change of color begins, so does the 
progress of his sophistry elude observation. '' Charitable associations ! " 
Now, I will examine Mr. Ketchum's -philosophy here. I consider that there 
is here what may be called a rhetorical picture. He personifies the city of 
New York, and calls it " she ; " then he takes her and places her on one 
side, and places all the religious societies and benevolent societies, the Pub- 
lic School Society amongst the rest ; and, that being done, he says the city 
of New York made them her " almoners." But when we take these socie- 
ties away, where is " she ? " What becomes of her ? This is what I call a 
rhetorical fiction. Mr. Ketchum need not pretend to say that the city of 
New York made " almoners." They were self-created. When you take the 
religious societies, each having its charity school, and this Society — ^whicli 
we must not call irreligious, although it has always defeated its opponents 
by saying that they profess religion — these constitute the people of New 
York, and they received the money set apart for that specific purpose, and 
in their sovereign power and wisdom they applied it as they thought prop- 
er. They managed it with perfect harmony, for I never heard of the occur- 
rence of a dispute when each section of the community assumed the man- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 453 

agement of their own schools, and it was on account of a charge against one 
society of misappropjiating the public money that the controversy arose. 

Afterward, referring to the Legislature by which that stale of things 
was changed to the present, he says : 

Hence, after many discussions in the Assembly chamber (discussions at 
which all the members were iuvitcd to attend — and almost all of them did 
attend, for we had generally a qVorum, although it was before a committee 
night after night), the committee of the Assembly at length made a report 
favorable to the prayer of the memorial ; but suggesting, iu that very rejjort, 
whether even so much as was granted in the proposition referred to was not 
a violation of sound principle ; whether, in tact, religious societies ought to 
participate iu the enjoyment of the fund at all, because, by such participa- 
tion, the Jew might be made to support the doctrine of the Christian ; and, 
i)ice-versd, the Christian that of the Jew, the Catholic of the Protestant, the 
Protestant of the Catholic, and so on. 

What a splendid discovery ! The people hitherto living in perfect har- 
mony, all enjoying that appropriation of public money — not, perhaps, ex- 
pending it in the wisest manner, but, at all events, without disturbance or 
dispute. But all at once it is discovered that, because they are religious 
societies, it would be a violation of sound principle to allow them the pub- 
lic money. And why ? Because, in that case, the money paid by a Protes- 
tant might pass to the support of a Catholic school — or, if you please, to 
the school of a Jew ; and that involved a violation of conscience. I con- 
fess, however, I cannot see that, nor do I think any reflecting man can see 
it. But what is the fact respecting the turn of the legislation in relation to 
the Public School Society, called, at that time, " The Free-School Society " ? 
Simply that, because at that Bethel Baptist Church money had been im-/ 
properly ajipropriated, occasion was taken to punish not the guilty party,/ 
if there was guilt, but those who had memorialized against the abuse of 
public money, and to disfranchise every man professing religion, because the 
members of one particular Church had abused their trust ! And it is sus-j 
pected that all this was not done without, the secret instrumentality of that 
very Free-School Society itself, which then, as at the present day, professed 
to have no religion at all. So that, in this very Legislature — though I know 
that another view of it is perfectly lawful — we see that the reasoning ap- 
proved by Mr. Ketchum would go to brand a stigma on the sacreduess of 
religion ; it would lead to the inference that, because the adherents of one 
religious sect have abused their trust in the employment of the public 
money, tliat, therefore, all profession of religion should be an everlasting 
disqualification ! But I pronounce such an inference unworthy the citizens 
of a land in whose Constitution Christianity is recognized. And I ask. 
Where was the usual penetration of Sir. Ketchum when he employed such 
reasoning ? By the laws of this State, church property is exempted from 1 
taxation ; and I am surprised that gentlemen of such tender apprehensions 
can rest quietly at night, when they reflect that, possibly, Protestant money I 
is going to make up the deficiency in the revenues of the State caused by 
the exemption from taxation granted to Catholic churches ! But I see no 
harm at all in the state of things by which money is thus transferred. All 



4:54 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the cliurches are represented by all tlie people, and it matters not an iota if 
churches are exempted ; the tax is paid by the members in another form. 

So with the public school money. Although, in the manipulation of the 
money, it might happen that the identical dollar paid by a Protestant might 
pass into the treasui-y of a Catholic school, the Catholic dollar would go 
back to replace it in the Protestant school ; it would be, in the end, all the 
same, for the question is not at all about the identity of the money. If the 
taxes could be kept separate, and the money paid by the Protestant go into 
the Protestant box, and the money paid by the Catholic go into the Catho- 
lic box, sure enough, they would get their own money ; but it would be all 
the same if no such care had been taken. Here I would refer to the case of 
chaplains in our prisons, &c., not one of whom is a Catholic, but who have 
often received the contributions of Catholics ; have they ever complained 
that that was a violation of the Constitution ? Certainly not ; and that 
practical view of the matter should have taught the gentleman the futility 
of his reasoning, that, if the money of one sect went into the hands of an- 
other, it was all the same ; it was the money of the people-, received from 
them in one form and returned to them in another, allowing them, in its 
employment, the noble and grand privilege — of which, I trust, they will not 
allow themselves to be deprived, no matter how they exercise it — of obey- 
ing the dictates of their own free consciences. 

In the course of his speech, the gentleman makes a grand display of all 
the sects that were set aside by the Society. Then he asks the Senate, 
" Will this honorable body grant to Catholics what was denied to all these 'i " 
But there is a difference here ; and what is it ? There is not on record an 
instance of a complaint on the part of any of these sects that their rights 
of conscience were invaded. Episcopalians never made any such complaint, 
nor did Presbyterians, nor Methodists, nor did any of the other sects ; but 
it happened that they had charity schools attached to their churches, and 
they thought, by giving such education as the State required, they were 
entitled to their share of the State bounty. But very different was the case 
of the Catholics. And now, suppose the circumstances of the case were 
reversed, and Catholics had the majority on which the Society depends, and 
would employ the power conferred by it in forcing on the whole community 
Catholic books and Catholic versions of the Bible, and give the children les- 
sons about the burning of Servetus, and the ignorance of a whole nation in 
supposing the machine for winnowing corn to be an impious invention, and 
denouncing those employing it as guilty of a crime against the God who 
supplies the zephyrs and the breeze — suppose that case, and that the ag- 
grieved minority complained and applied for redress, I trust that on the face 
of the earth there would not be found a Common Council of Catholics who 
would refuse to listen to so just a prayer. 

Mr. Ketchum says farther, when speaking of the action of the Common 
Council on this application, that it had been referred to a Law Committee ; 
and he quotes the decision of that committee. We, knowing the manner in 
which our former applications were disposed of, need not, of course, be sur- 
prised at the manner in which this report was expressed. To our last appli- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 455 

cation, made in the spring of 1840 — when I was absent from this country — 
to the Board of Assistant Aldermen, the usual negative was given ; but then 
it is to be observed, that the board was surrounded by the advocates of the 
Society, and these things which we have stated, and which they have since 
acknowledged, were denied by them ; and on that denial was grounded the 
refusal of our application. The advocates of the Society denied that there 
were any passages in their books with which we could find fault ; averred 
that they contain nothing disrespectful to our religion. But, since then, 
they have been obliged to retract that, and to acknowledge repeatedly that, 
in making these assertions, they were not sustained by truth ; that there 
were passages in those books reflecting ujion our faith ; that these passages 
had been taught to the children for years, and would have been retained till 
this vei-y day, had it not been for our detection and exposure. But it was 
not at all surprising that, under the influence of a Society stretching its 
gigantic branches over every quarter of the city, and hearing such assertions 
from its advocates, the board should deny our claim. But let us glance at 
the conclusion which Mr. Ketchum draws from such denial. He says : 

That conclusion was ratified by their constituents ; and I believe that 
every one of the religious societies, or nearly so, excepting the Roman Cath- 
olics, acquiesced in that decision. But that society, year after year, has 
come before the Common Council, and renewed their request for a separate 
portion of the school fund. With the best feelings for the applicants, in a 
spirit of kindness, with every disposition to do whatever could be done for 
them, year after year, and without respect to politics, whether the one party 
was in the ascendant or the other party was in the ascendant, the Common 
Council have, with almost entire unanimity, disallowed that request ; and I 
believe that never, in either board, since the division of that body into two 
boards, has there been but one dissenting voice raised against the ratifica- 
tion of that decision. ISTow, if the committee please, who have complained ? 
The Roman Catholics. 

I repeat, that I deny the philosophy of this reasoning. I deny that, in 
any case, that portipn at least of the community that has petitioned for a 
reform of this system ever looked to the Common Council as their represen- 
tatives on this question. And another argument against 3Ir. Ketchum's 
position is, that this public Council were partisans in the case in which they 
were called to deliver judgment. And I think that it would be well for 
that Public School Society and the Common Council, if the latter, by their 
election to office, are to be engrafted into the former, that the duty of judg- 
ing between them and the community were delegated to disinterested par- 
ties. Mr. Ketchum goes on to say : 

No disrespect was intended them. The Common Council, and every 
person engaged in the discussion of the qiiestion on behalf of the Common 
School Society, took great care to say, " We do not reject you because you 
are Roman Catholics ; and, as evidence of this truth, we give you the fact 
that we have rejected similar applications from powerful Protestants ; but 
we reject your request because we believe that a sound general principle will 
not allow us to grant it." 

So there was always a precaution observed. Indeed, I myself remarked 
that before the Common Council. They uniformly, with one exception, said 
that they did not oppose us because we were Catholics. But Dr. Spring, 



4:66 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

. with great magnanimity and candor, neglected to take the liint, but de- 
clared that he was apprehensiye of our faith gaining ground. lie would 

I oppose us, and preserve the Society as it was, even though the rights of the 
Catholics should be damaged, and that, for his part, he preferred the 
religion of Voltaire to that of Feuelon. The sentiment was indeed a black 

I one, and it was rendered blacker liy the brightness of the candor with 
which it was uttered. 

Here again Mr. Ketchum states w'hat is incorrect. He says : 

We have rejected similar applications from powerful Protestants. 

■^ I deny that. I refer him to the records of the Common Council, and I 

J will ventm-e to affirm that he will not find there one " similar ai^plication." 
And why ? Simjjly because there was no ground for any such application. 
For, although one denomination of Protestants may differ from another, and 
may carry their attachment to their respective dogmas to great length, yet 
there is one common ground on which they all, so far as I know, without 
exception, meet. What is it ? That the Bible alone, as understood by each 
individual, is their rule of faith. They could, therefore, unite on their pub- 
lic school question so far as the Bible was concerned. But then they re- 
(luired that Catholic children, whose creed never admitted that principle, 
should be taught that doctrine. They had not the same reason that we had 
to go before the Common Council. We felt that we might as well at once 
give up to them our children, and allow them to educate them as they 
pleased, as to send them to their schools. I deny, then, the statement, that 
" similar applications " were made. 
Mr. Ketchum jjroceeds : 

I say, that the Corporation have been desirous, so far as that body possi- 
bly could, so far as they felt themselves at liberty, consistently with the 
maintenance of a sound general principle, to accommodate these parties. 
They have granted a privilege out of this fund to the Roman Catholic de- 
nomination, which has not been granted to any other. The Sisters of Char- 
ity, so called, under direction of the Roman Catholic Church, and connected 
with it (I believe I am right ; if not, I should be happy to be corrected), 
established a most benevolent institution in the city of New York, called 
the Orphan Asylum — the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum. They took into 
this institution poor and destitute orphans. They fed them and clothed 
them most meritoriously, and they thus relieved the city of New York of 
tlie maintenance of many who would otherwise, probably, have been a 
charge upon it. After long discussion, and with some hesitancy, yet over- 
come by the desire to oblige, and aware of the limitation arising from the 
very nature of that institution, the Corporati(m did permit the Catholic 
Orphan Asylum to receive money from this fund ; and, during the last year, 
it received some $1,463 for the education of aljout one hundred and sixty- 
five children — in common with the Institution for the Blind, and the Deaf 
and Dumb, and those other benevolent and Christian institutioiis which are 
altogether of a Catholic character, in the most comprehensive acceptation 
of that term, as they are under no sectarian influence or government. 

And pray, what sort of an institution is the Protestant Orjjhan Asylum ? 
la religion not taught there ? And yet Mr. Ketchum singles out the Catho- 
lic Orphan Asylum, and speaks of the favor conferred upon it, in order to 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 457 

show the liberality of the Common Council. We are indeed grateful to that 
body for having placed ours ou the same footing with other institutions of 
a kindred character. But the Common Council have granted money to the 
Protestant Half-Orphan Asylum, and denied an application of a similar 
grant to the Catholics. How can Mr. Ketchum assert that a " privilege " 
ha-s been granted to us exclusively ? 

In reference to our last application, Mr. Ketchum proceeds : 

The subject, I repeat, underwent a very full and free discussion ; and, 
after that had terminated, the Board of Aldermen gravely considered and 
discussed the subject, and at length, after some delay, came to the conclu- 
sion that they would go and visit the schools. Some of the members of the 
Board of Public Schools, feeling sensibly alive on the subject, expressed to 
me an apprehension that this was a mere evasion, and they feared that the 
question had now become mingled with politics. But I said, " Wait, gen- 
tlemen ; let them go and see your schools ; it is a natural desire. They 
ought to go. It is a great and delicate question, and they ought to be ac- 
quainted with it in all its details." They went and visited the public 
schools and the Roman Catholic schools, and they incorporated the result of 
their deliberations in a report which I have before me, and from which I 
shall quote by and by. It is drawn up with great ability, and the decision 
was, with but one dissenting voice, that the prayer of the petition should 
be rejected ; and it was rejected. 

On this I remark, in reference to what I have, I believe, already referred 
to, that thee has been always a panacea for every evil — the appointment of 
a committee to visit the schools. Why, this is one of the easiest things in 
the world ! A little training, a little arrangement, a judicious wink to the 
teachers, will prepare every thing, so that it will be very hard if a pleasing 
exhibition could not be got up in any one of these schools for one hour, on 
any day out of the three hundred and sixty-five in the year. 

But this has been the invariable remedy — no looking at the wounds 
which the system was from year to year, and from day to day, inflicting on 
less favored portions of the community ; no visit to the back streets and 
miserable lanes of this city, in which so large a portion of its future inhab- 
itants are grovelling in exposure to vice and degradation. Nothing of that 
was thought of. But the schools, enriched and adorned by the expenditure 
of more than a million of money, were inspected, and the gratified and 
approving visitors returned to the Common Council, to make their report 
that it was an excellent system, perfect in its details and admirable in its 
workings, and it was only the absurd bigotry and extreme ignorance of the 
Catholics that prevented them from reaping its benefits. 

Then he compares, with all this, the state of om- humble schools. Well, 
I will not prcteud to say that the Catholic schools were in the best order. 
But here I remark, that, whilst at evei^ stage and step of the progress of 
this question I have been obliged to controvert false statements, I can chal- 
lenge them to point to a single instance in which they could dispute the 
truth of any of our documents. And now I will give a passing notice to 
that visit to the Catholic schools. Hear this statement. This committee 
say: 

We also visited three of the schools established by the petitioners, and 



458 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

we found them as rejiresented, lamentably deficient in accommodations, and 
supplies of books and teachers; the rooms were all excessively crowded and 
poorly ventilated ; the books much worn, as well as deficient in numbers, 
and the teachers not sufficiently numerous ; yet, with all these disadvan- 
tages, though not able to compete successfully with the public schools, they 
exhibited a progress which was truly creditable ; and with the same means 
at their disposal, they would doubtless soon be able, under suitable direc- 
tion, greatly to improve their condition. 

Such is their testimony. 

And now, shall I pass over this opportunity of making a comparison ? 
When questioned before the Senate, the Society stated that they could not 
get the children to come ; and here are our schools crowded to excess ! I 
can show you, in a room not much larger than the square of the distance 
between two of the columns supporting the gallery of this building in 
which we are now assembled, upward of two hundred children crowded 
together. Yet the Public School Society are obliged to pay $1,000 a year 
of public money to visitors for the puqjose of gathering children to their 
schools. For the fact came out, in the course of the investigation, that 
they paid that sum yearly to tract distributors for the purpose I have stated ; 
whilst we, in our poverty, could not find room or books or teachers for the 
multitudes of children that thronged upon us, and whom this exclusive sys- 
tem consigns to degradation and ignorance and vice, unless something be 
done for them by others. 

Such is tlie testimony of that very committee. And yet the decision to 
which they came is quoted by Mr. Ketchum as proof that a " great princi- 
ple " — of which no definition known is given from the beginning to the end 
of his speech — prevented them from granting our petition. Wdl, I have 
called your attention already, and would do so again, to a point that shows 
as clear as noonday that this denial was not benevolent toward us, nor in 
accordance with equal-handed justice. They had opposed us as a sect — as 
being Catholics. The Secretary of State, however — a man whose integrity 
of character, legal knowledge, and i^rofound and statesmanlike views have 
elevated him to the highest rank in the community — placed the question on 
entirely different grounds. Mr. Ketchum, in the last sentence of his speech 
before the Common Council, declared, that to the Public School Society the 
discharge of their duties was rather a burden, which nothing but the ex- 
treme benevolence of their nature had promijted them to assume ; and, 
unless they were saved from this continued agitation, they would throw it 
off. Well, Mr. Spencer excludes all these objectionable features, and places 
the question on a broad basis, entirely removed from all sectarianism ; and 
then, where are these benevolent gentlemen who are burdened with their 
charge — these "humble almoners" of the public bounty? At Albany, 
ready for a new fight ! Not for their schools, but to oppose the Secretary ; 
for Mr. Spencer only wishes to make education like the air we breathe, the 
land we live in — like other departments of human industry and enterprise — 
free ! He would not hold the balances so as to afford the least advantage 
to any party, but would make all equal, and secure to them the enjoyment 
of the rights established by the Constitution of the country. And who 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES, 450 

opposed liim? The Public School Society. Their interests Tvere not in- 
vaded, but they could not admit the j)rinciple that we were to receive edu- 
cation consistently with the laws of the State. Why ? Tou will find that, 
in the course of Mr. Ketchum's speech, he says the Public School Society 
could not stand one day if education were made free. If the monopoly 
which they have wielded for sixteen years should be touched by the little 
finger of free trade, they would perish. '• They cannot live a day." And, 
gentlemen, if they cannot live one day on the principles of justice and free- 
dom, then I say that half a day's existence is quite enough for their exclu- 
sive system. 

We have seen that JMr. Ketchum has introduced the committee to the 
schools, and now he comes to the point : 

Who, then, complain of the operation of this system? Our fellow-citi- 
zens, the Roman Catholics. 

Failing to get, from the hands of a body thus constituted, the redress for 
the grievance which they complained of, tlicy come here and now ask it of 
you. I say, they come here, because I will presently show you, from their 
memorials, that none hut they come here. 

He has brought it round to that, and he thinks that, if that be estab-' 
lished, the same prejudices, the same means, that were employed to defeat 
us in New York, would be equally eiBcacious at Albany. He says-: 

Failing to accomplish their purpose through the Common Council of the 
city of New York, they come and ask it here. Failing in their application 
to a body of representatives to whom they have applied year alter year, 
and who represent a population in which is intermingled a greater mass of 
Roman Catholic voters than in any other district of the State of New York. 

See the advantage that he takes of our known forbearance, and their 
activity. Because we, with honorable motives that should have been better 
appreciated, abstained from making this question a political one. But they 
did make it such a question, and endeavored to deter all public men from 
rendering justice to the oppressed Catholics. 

Now, I am no politician ; I belong to no party, and I can also, perhaps, 
speak with the greater freedom, because we have high-minded friends, and 
opponents too, amongst both political parties, and I can perhaps give a sat- 
isfactory answer to Mr. Ketchum's allusion to " voters." 

After the election of the Governor, the papers in the views of this Soci- 
ety referred to it as a warning; and not only so, but individuals here wrote 
to the Governor in terms of reproach against the Catholics and the Irish, for 
not having been more grateful to him. They taunted him with it. And 
how is that to be answered ? I should be sorry that ever the Irish should 
be ungrateful under any circumstances, or ever forget a friend : and espe- 
cially at a time when the high and noble principles of justice and equality 
laid down by the fathers of this country seem to be passing rapidly into 
oblivion. If a public man stands up for the rights of even the humblest 
portion of the community, he is entitled to the gratitude and esteem of 
every man who loves his country. Not that the Governor conferred on us 
any peculiar favor. I disclaim that ; he never asked any thing for us but 
what we conceived our right. But still he was taunted with references to 



460 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the ingratitude of the Irish. It was said, " There is what you got by advo- 
cating the cause of the Irish ! " That shows wlicther we made our question 
a political one ; and I am glad, in one sense, that the Irish did not vary 
from the principles in politics to which they had been in the habit of attach- 
ing themselves ; because that demonstrates that, whatever may be the opin- 
ion of calculating politicians respecting the Irish, that jjortion of this com- 
munity have, perhaps, after all, an integrity of character and purity of prin- 
ciple which is not unfrequently found wanting amongst more elevated classes 
of both political parties. It was discovered, then, that the Irish would not 
abandon their principles from selfish motives. But now let me ask, What 
was the .case on the other side ? Many of them turned quietly round, aban- 
doning all their old political associations and friends, in order to let Gov- 
ernor Seward know how much he had dared, when he declared for justice 
and equal rights to all. 

Such was the case, and our opponents cannot deny it. Mr. Ketchum, 
then, is unfortunate in his allusion. He ought not — if he had what I shall 
not now mention — if he had had presence of mind, I will say, he ought not 
,to have alluded to that matter at all, because it has brought up the proofs 
'of what was done by his own clients, whilst our vindication is triumphantly 
effected. 

We have thus been enabled to refute all the charges urged against us 
from the pulpits and religious presses at the disposition of the Society, that 
we made a political question of it, and so forth. They did, but we did not. 

Gentlemen, I have dwelt longer on some topics than I intended, and 
made less progress in my review of this speech than I anticipated. On to- 
morrow evening I will proceed with ray remarks. 

On Friday evening a severe storm prevailed, and the meet- 
ing was adjourned to Monday, when Bishop Hughes proceeded 
as follows : 

MONDAY EVENIKG. 

Bishop Hughes rose, and proceeded as follows : 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I have had occasion already to ob- 
serve, that the question wc are now discussing has passed, or, at least, is 
now passing, through the second stage of its progress. In the iirst stage we 
had to apply to the city authorities ; and we were obliged, by tlie circum- 
stances of the case, and for reasons that I have already mentioned, to apply 
in a character which we did not desire, but which was forced ujion us by 
circumstances over which we had no control. The issue of that application 
is known. Then we laid our grievances before the Legislature of the State ; 
and the Secretary of State, to whom the question had been referred, placed 
it upon grounds altogether different from those on which it had hitherto 
been considered. Consequently, it was necessary for me, in reviewing Mr. 
Ketchum's speech, to consider it under two heads. And hitherto my 
remarks on it have applied to the question under the circumstances in 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 461 

■which it Tvas previous to its reference to the Legislature of the State. We 
have now, liowever, to consider it on the ground on which it has been 
placed in the able and eloquent and liberal report of the Hon. Mr. Spencer. 
And I cannot avoid observing, in the first place, that, taking into account 
the principles of equality and of justice that pervade that document, I did 
conceive that the Public School Society could not have found any objections 
against it. For you will recollect that Mr. Spencer removes entirely the 
objections urged before the Common Council against the recognition of -our 
claims. These objections were grounded on the principle that no sect or 
religious denomination had any thing to do with the money appropriated' 
for the purpose of education. The Secretary has comjiletely obviated that 
objection. He has regarded the petitioners in their civil capacity. He has 
exhibited the broad and general grounds on which every public institution 
in this country is conducted ; but we find these gentlemen, nevertheless, as 
zealous, and their advocates as eloquent, against Mr. Secretary Spencer as 
they had been against us. There can be no charge, now, that a I'ecognition 
of our claims would fiivor sectarianism — a union of Church and State. All 
that has disappeared, and with it, we had hoped, would have disappeared 
the opposition to our claims. 

I will now follow Mr. Ketchum in his arguments before the Senate. 
And, first of all, I would direct your attention to the number of times in 
which he repeats that the petitioners are Catholics. He twists and turns 
that in a variety of ways, in order to convince the senators that, though we 
applied in the character of citizens, that advantage was to be taken away 
from us, and we were to be clothed before that honorable body with our 
religious character, by the hand of Mr. Ketchum. I should have less confi- 
dence in the stability of this Government, less affection for its constituted 
authorities, if I thought that such a circumstance could militate against us 
in the minds of those gentlemen who have been elected by the suffrages of 
the people to the guardianship of equal rights. I conceive, therefore, that 
Mr. Ketchum has mistaken the character of that assembly — that he has 
exerted himself in vain to fix on us the epithet of Roman Catholics, when 
we appeared in the character of citizens, and when our right to worship 
God according to the dictates of our conscience had been already, & priwi, 
recognized by the Constitution of the country. And I ask, Is there any 
crime in being a Roman Catholic ? Is there any advantage to be gained in 
bringing that against us ? Is there any thing in the history of the country 
which could justify the hope of prejudicing the minds of senators by such 
an allusion ? No. In the days when men stood side by side and shoulder 
to shoulder, and blood touched blood in the battle-strife, and with their 
brave swords they won the freedom of their country, was it asked, Who is 
a Catholic? or. Who is a Protestant? Had Mr. Ketchum forgotten the 
names and deeds of Kosciusko, of Pulaski, of La Fayette, and the Catholic 
soldiers of Catholic France ? Was there any thing said against that religion 
by the fathers of our country, when they laid the foundation of the liber- 
ties we now enjoy ? Was there any such charge against Charles Carroll, 
when he came and signed that glorious Declaration, risking more than all 



462 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the other signers together ? No. Nor have we any cause to be ashamed of 
our religion, and God forbid we ever should ! I throw back, then, that 
manauvre of Mr. Ketchum, and tell liim, This is not the country whose 
Constitution makes apparent to the world that, to be a Roman Catholic, 
involves a deprivation of the rights and privileges of citizenship. 

Last year, a petition was presented to the Senate, signed by Catholics 
alone ; this year, the petition had other signatures. True, the petitioners 
were generally Catholics, but others signed it too ; and I hope and believe 
that they thought they asked but for justice. However, Mr. Ketchum, in 
order to accomplish his purpose, takes up the petition presented last year, 
and taunts the Secretary, as if he were guilty of artifice in making it appear 
that the members of other religious denominations had joined in our peti- 
tion. He says : 

Probably that circumstance was discovered by the Secretary's sagacity, 
between 1840 and 1841. 

What does he mean by that allusion, except to remind the Secretary that 
it was by prejudicing the public mind by misrepresentations, that certain 
partisans succeeded in diminishing the vote for his Excellency the Gov- 
ernor ? If Mr. Ketchum does not intend that by this delicate hint, I should 
like to know what he does mean. He then affects to take up the objections : 

One of their comj^laints is, that the people are not represented in this 
Public School Society ; that here is an agency used for a great public pur- 
pose which the people do not directly choose ; and they complain of the 
Public School Society being a close corporation. 

Certainly, all these are grounds of complaint, and all these are so clearly 
set forth in the report of the Secretary, that you have but to read that docu- 
ment to see that Mr. Ketchum cannot shake one solitary position of that 
honorable gentleman. Is not the Public School Society a close corporation ? 
And is not Mr. Secretary Spencer's report calculated to place it on the same 
basis on which all our free public institutions are founded ? Is the Secre- 
tary not a reformer, then, in reference to that Society ? He does here pre- 
cisely what Lord John Russell attempts to do in England, when he endeav- 
ors to break down the monopoly of the corn laws, and to make bread cheap ; 
Mr. Spencer wishes to break down the monopoly of education, and to make 
voting and education — the bread of knowledge — cheap. That is to say, 
that the same people who are snipposed to be capable of choosing a sheriff, 
or a governor, or a president, without paying for the privilege, should also 
have the right of choosing the teachers of their children without paying ten 
dollars for it. Mr. Ketchum passes over that very lightly. That is a point 
not to be seriously dwelt upon, and he glides into the old charge preferred 
before the Common Council, and takes up the old objections, althoujjb not 
one of them was presented in the petition before the Senate. Keeping 
always before the mind of the senators that we are Catholics, he affects to 
take up these objections, and says : 

Now, I wish to call the attention of the committee to the fact now to be 
stated : there is no complaint in these memorials, nor will you hear any from 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 463 

any source, that the Public School Society does not furnish, to all the chil- 
dreu who attend theii' schools, a good literary education. 

Let me caution Mr. Ketchum not to he so fast, and 1 will give him my 
reasons. From the manner in which the examinations are conducted, it is 
the easiest thing in the world to have all ready prepared for the day of visi- 
tation. When the examiners present themselves, pet classes are arranged, 
and in them pet pupils, who will perform their part admirably well. It is 
easy to have all this array, and so it is to be regarded rather as an exhibi- 
tion than an examination. But if they desire their examinations to create 
universal confidence, let them have them as they are conducted in European 
universities, where the pupils stand forward, and any person who chooses 
examines them ; when not the choice and prepared pupils are taken, but the 
subjects of examination are selected indiscriminately from the classes. Let 
such a method be adopted here, and I will venture to say that Mr. Ketchum 
will not have any thing to boast of over other schools. I do not, however, 
blame the visitors for not finding fault with the external management of 
these schools. I think it excellent ; and the best proof of the sincerity of 
that opinion was aff'orded in our willingness to adopt and place the superin- 
tendence of our schools in the hands of these very gentlemen. 

But Mr. Ketchum goes on : 

The Roman Catholics complain, in the first place, that they cannot con- 
scientiously send their children to the public schools because we do not give 
religious instruction in a definite form and of a decided and definite char- 
acter. They complain, in the second place, that the school-books in com- 
mon use in the Society contain passages reflecting upon the Roman Catholic 
Church. And they complain, in the third place, that we use the Bible with- 
out note or comment ; that the school is opened in the morning liy calling 
the children to order and reading a chajjter in the Bible — our common ver- 
sion. These are the three grounds on which they base their conscientious 
scruples. 

Now, it is a fact that we do not complain of any one of these things in 
our petition to the Senate. One of these complaints was expressed in the 
petition to the Common Council, and I have already explained the reasons 
of that presentation. But, in the petition to the Senate, we said, in general 
terms, that the conscientious scruples of a large portion of our fellow-citi- 
zens were violated by the system jjursued in these schools. I will, however, 
take up these objections in order. 

Mr. Ketchum says that we complain, in the first place, that we cannot 
send our children to the schools of the Public School Society " because 
religion is not there taught of a decided and definite character." Mr. 
Ketchum certainly has not stated the objection correctly, for I defy him to 
find such words in our petition. We complained in general against these 
schools, that, by divorcing religion and literature, they endangered the best 
interests of children who were to grow up to be men, and who, to be useful 
members of the community, should have their minds imbued with correct 
principles, and could not be so without being made acquainted with some 
religious principles. But we never complained that they did not give " defi- 
nite religious instruction." Far from it ; and when Mr. Ketchum asserted 



464 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

that we did, I am sorry to say that he asserted what he must or might have 
known to be untrue. And how do I prove it ? In our jiropositions to the 
committee of the Common Council, when they had gone through with their 
ceremony of visiting tlie schools, and the Society had offered their propo- 
sitions, the very last article of our jjroposal was iu these words : " But noth- 
ing of their (/. e., Catholic) dogmas, nothing against the creed of any other 
religious denomination, shall be introduced." Mr. Ketchum saw that ; and 
I ask him. How could lie undertake to make an argument by substituting 
language entirely different from ours, and presenting it as our objection ? 
How could he say that we found fault with the Public School Society for 
not teaching religion in a '' definite form," when tliey always disclaimed the 
right to teach it at all, and considered it a crime for any denomination to 
ask for it ? This is what I call substitution — invention — a course unworthy 
of Mr. Ketchum, of his profession, and of that Society of whicb he was the 
organ. 

I am well aware that, to a hasty reader, Mr. Ketchum's speech will 
appear very logical indeed. But I have, at the same time, to observe that, 
while he reasons logically, by drawing correct inferences from his premises, 
he has taken care previously to change the premises, and, instead of taking 
our princij)le as submitted by us, he gradually shifts it ; preserving, how- 
ever, enough to deceive a cursory reader, until he substitutes one entirely 
different, from which he reasons very logically, of course. Let us suppose 
Mr. Ketchum a professor of law in some university — for I have no doubt he 
could fill such a chair, and adorn it, too, if he would — and imagine him 
addressing a class of students. He says, " Gentlemen, one of the most im- 
portant things in our profession is, to know how to conduct an argument, 
which you must always do with logical precision. And, to effect this, you 
are to follow this excellent rule : if your facts sustain your couclusions, 
well ; if not, you must find other facts that will. The principle of this rule 
I call the principle of substitution, and an admirable principle it is ; but 
you must be cautious how you use it, especially before a judge and jury. 
But if it is before a public, which reads fast — for there is a great deal to be 
read — you will find it work very well. Recollect, then, gentlemen, this 
great princijjle — ' substitute ' in your reasoning." 

In such a way we might imagine Mr. Ketchum addressing his students. 
And you will find that few reason illogically. Even the inmates of the 
Lunatic Asylum reason very logically. One ot them, perhaps, imagines 
himself a clock. He says, " Stand off! Don't shake me ; I am obliged to 
keep time." That is logical reasoning. The only mistake is, that he " sub- 
stitutes " a clock for a living creature ; and, reasoning from this substitu- 
tion, he draws the conclusion admirably. So it is with Mr. Ketchum. 

We did not, I tell Mr. Ketchum, ask the Public School Society to teach 
religion in any definite form. We never complained of their not teaching 
it. We never did ask such an unreasonable thing from mea who made it a 
crime for religious societies to have any thing to do with the public money. 

He then states another objection : " that the books used in the schools 
contain passages reflecting on the Catholic Church." That is true ; and he 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 465 

says, in the third place, that we object that " the Protestant version of the 
Bible is used, and that the schools are opened by calling the children to 
order and reading a passage from that Bible." Not a word of that in our 
l)etition. That is " substitution " again — removing the objections presented 
by us, and substituting others which might, as he supposed, lead to the 
denial of our claims, on the ground that we object unreasonably. 

Mr. Ketchum takes up the objection, and, in order to show how unrea- 
sonable that was, he submits the proposition of the Public School Society, 
passing altogether over ours, which common justice required should have 
been also presented, as it would have discovered on our part a simOar dis- 
position, and have entirely undeceived the senators as to any alleged claim 
to have religion taught in a definite form. 

There was no official declaration guarding against the possibility that, 
nest year, another board might alter all these books to a worse state than 
ever ; and, consequently, their offer to expunge their books was altogether 
nugatory. Mr. Ketchum says, however : 

This portion of the report, as will be seen, has reference to these offensive 
passages. Now, every body will say that is a fair offer — we will strike them 
out. But, gentlemen of the committee, I submit whether here, in this coun- 
try, we must not, in matters of conflicting opinions, give and take a little ? 

Well, I do not find" the Public School Society, although very good at 
taking, at all disposed to give any thing. 

I have no doubt that I can find something in any public school-book, 
of much length, and containing much variety of matter, reflecting ujion the 
Methodists — upon the heated zeal, probably, of John Wesley, and his fol- 
lowers ; reflecting upon the Episcopalians, the Baptists, and Presbyterians. 
Occasional sentences will find their way into public discourses, which, if 
viewed critically, and regarded in a captious spirit, rather reflect upon the 
doctrines of all those churches. 

In this way he gets over these passages, most insulting to us and our 
religion, which I pointed out to these gentlemen, after their having incul- 
cated them in the minds of the children for sixteen years past. We have 
to add, however, that, in examining these books, we found no passages 
reflecting on those denominations. 

Now, I will call your attention to Mr. Ketchum's views respecting con- 
science and conscientious scruples. We supposed that, when a m.in could 
not do a thing in conscience, the reason was, that he thought, by doing it, 
he would ofiend God. This is what we supposed to be a conscientious diffi- 
culty ; and therefore it was that we did not object (as he says, and as I shall 
have occasion to treat of presently) to the Protestants reading their version 
of the Bible ; because, believing it right, they could use it with a good con- 
science. But we Catholics did not approve of that version ; many other 
denominations do not approve of it — the Baptists and Unitarians, for 
instance ; and our objection was, that Mr. Ketchum and the Public School 
Society would force on us the reading of that version against which we had 
conscientious objections. We believe that, to yield to that, would damage 
the fiiith which we hold to be most pleasing to God. Suppose us to be in 
30 



4GC THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETy. 

error, if you please, but certainly the Public School Society have no right to 
rule that we are. They are not infallible, and, consequently, should recog- 
nize our right of conscience, as -n-e r(;coguize theirs. 

But Mr. Ketchum has battled bravely against these principles, and, 
thinking it would be better for us to agree to oifend our God and coincide 
with the Public School Society, wishes to beat down these scruples. And 
now, would you have his idea of a conscientious scruple ? He institutes a 
comparison, in order to show how trifling such tilings are, and he says : 

On the other hand, there are many passages from the speeches of Mr. 
Webster which have found their way into school-books ; and a Democrat , 
may say, "I cannot go Mr. Webster; my children shall not be taught to 
admire him." Aud thus, if we are captious, we can iind conscientious scru- 
ples enough. 

So that Mr. Webster's writings are placed, as it were, on a parallel with 
the Word of God himself; and a difficulty of which he is the subject is 
spoken of in the same way as if it were a difficulty in reference to God. 
And what is Mr. Ketchum's conclusion ? That, whilst he would trample on 
our conscientious scruples about the deity, he bows with great deference to 
the scruple about Mr. Webster, and of this he goes on ; 

However, if it is bond fide a conscientious scruple, there is the end of it ; 
we cannot reason with it. But, in the judgment of the Common Council, 
and as I think must be the case in the judgment of every man, the difficulty 
is got over by the proposition which has been made. 

Well, now, just let him extend a little of that indulgence to us, in the 
■case in wliicli our account to our Creator and eternal Judge is involved. 
But not so. He next says : 

The next complaint is, that we do not give religious education enough. 

Where did Mr. Ketchum find that ? That is " substitution" again. He 
has not found that in any thing from us. He proceeds : 

The memorials, all of which are public — and the speeches and documents 
which have been employed, and which, if necessary, can be furnished to the 
committee — all go conclusively to demonstrate that, in the judgment of those 
who spoke for the Roman Catholic Church, we ought to teach religion in 
our public sch'ools ; not generally, not vaguely, not the general truths of 
religion, but that specific religious instruction must be given. Now, I 
hardly suppose that this deficieucy can be made the subject of conscientious 
objection. 

But that is a false issue. On none of these points has he stated our 
objection. We never objected, as far as Catholic children were concerned, 
that they did not teach religion. We complained of a system from which 
religion was (according to them) excluded by law. But that, on the con- 
trary, they did attempt surreptitiously to introduce such teaching, in a form 
that we did not recognize. What does he say then ? 

The third and last complaint is, that our Catholic brethren cannot con- 
sent to have this Bible read in the hearing of their children. Now, on 
evei-y one of these points the trustees have been disposed to go as far as 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 4G7 

they possibly could in tbe way of dccommoilation ; but tlicy never yet con- 
senterl to give up the use of the Bible to the extent to which it is used in 
the schools. I say, the trustees have never yet consented to this surrender. 
But if they can have good authority for doing it, they will do it. 

If this Legislature, by its own act, will direct that the Bible shall be ex- 
cluded, I will guarantee that it shall be excluded. 

Now, perhaps one of the rarest talents of an orator is that which enables 
him to accommodate his discourse to the character of the audience whom 
he addresses. But, like all rare talents, it should be exercised with discre- 
tion. That the learned gentleman possesses it, however, is proved by the 
fact that the very declarations made by him before the Senate are contra- 
dicted by his statements before the Common Councily and vice-vcrsd. Before 
the Common Council, in the presence of a number of the clergy, he elo- 
quently denounced the exclusion of the Bible from the schools. If a com- 
promise depended on this, he must say, " No compromise I " Before the 
Senate, however, he is all obsequiousness. " Gentlemen, if you give us 
authority to exclude the Bible, I guarantee that it shall be so." 

I recollect the beautiful period with which the gentleman wound up his 
sentiments before the Common Council. I remember him saying that " it 
would be hard to part with that translated Bible — hard, indeed ; for it had 
been the consolation of many in death, the spring of hope in life, and 
wherever it had gone, there was liberty and there was freedom ; and where 
it had not gone, there was darkness and there was despotism." But I must 
apologize for attempting to repeat, as I spoil the poetry of his eloquent lan- 
guage. At the time, however, I thought. What a beautiful piece of decla- 
mation that would be at a Bible Society meeting ! for on such occasions, 
owing to the enthusiasm — the sincere enthusiasm — of the auditors, and the 
oftentimes artificial enthusiasm of the speakers, all history, philosophy, and 
common sense occasionally, are rendered quite superfluous. The most beau- 
tiful phrases, resting on no basis but fancy, may be strung together, and will 
produce the deepest impression. But I doubt much, when we come to 
examine the sober reality of the matter, whether the poetical beauties of 
Mr. Ketchum's picture will not be seen vanishing into thin air. I doubt 
much, indeed, whether the liberty whose origin and progress history has 
recorded, will be found to have sprung from " that translated Bible " in any 
sense, and especially in the sense of Mr. Ketchum. I, of course, yield to no 
man in profound veneration for the Book of God ; but there is a point of 
exaggeration which does no credit, but injury, to that Holy Book. 

Let us look at these translations of the Bible. The first was Tjndal's, 
then Coverdale's, and then the Bishops' Bible ; these remained till the time 
of James I. ; and during all that time — a period of about a century — if ever 
there was a period of degrading and slavish submission to tyrannical power 
in Engand, it was then, beyond all comparison. At the close of this period, 
a new translation was made, and dedicated to the king. It was discovered 
that the " only rule of faith and practice " during all this time was full of 
errors and corruption. Every one knows that James was one of the poorest 
of the poor race from whom he was descended. Yet, in their dedication. 



468 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the translators appointed to amend the " rule of faith " by a new transla- 
tion, call him the " Sun in his strength," and that, from his many and ex- 
traordinary graces, he might be called " The Wonder of the "World." 

Now, during the succeeding sixty or eighty years, what were the doc- 
trines of liberty in England ? It was then that the schoolmen of Oxford 
and Cambridge taught from that translated Bible the dogma of " non- 
resistance to the royal authority ; " that " passive obedience" was the duty 
of subjects ; that no crime nor possible tyranny of the prince could author- 
ize a subject to rebel. How could 3Ir. Ketchum forget all that ? 

Let us examine the facts of the case, and ascertain how correct Mr. 
Ketchum is, when he said that liberty had always followed the progress of 
that translated Bible. You will find that, from the period of the Keforma- 
tion down to the period of the Revolution, England was sunk to the lowest 
degree of slavish submission to tyrannical authority. The spirit of old 
English freedom had disappeared at the Reformation ; and it was only at 
the Revolution that, like a ship recovering its equilibrium after having long 
been capsized by the storm, that the old spirit righted itself again. But do 
I speak poetry, like Mr. Ketchum ? Let me appeal to facts. 

We find the fundamental principles of liberty as well understood by our 
Catholic ancestors, centuries before the Reformation, as they are at the pres- 
ent day. They well understood the principles, that all civil authority is 
derived from the people, and that those elected to exercise it are responsible 
to those from whom they derive their power. 

By one of the laws of Edward the Confessor, confirmed by the Con- 
queror, the duties of the king arc defined ; and it is provided that, unless 
he should jDroperly discharge them, he should not be allowed even the name 
of king as a title of courtesy, and this on the autjjority of a pope. The 
coronation of Henry I. was based on as regular a contract as ever yet took 
place in market-overt. By the coronation oaths of the several monarchs 
between him and John, a similar contract was implied. By Magna Charta, 
and its articles for keeping the peace between the king and the kingdom, 
this implied contract was reduced to writing, and " signed, sealed, and 
delivered by the parties thereto." In the reign of Henry III., Bracton, one 
of his judges, tells us that, since the king "is God's minister and deputy, 
he can do nothing else on earth but that only which he can do of right. 
. . . Therefore, while he does justice, he is the deputy of the Eternal 
King ; but the minister of the devil, when he turns to injustice. For he is 
called king from governing well, and not from reigning ; because he is king 
white he reigns well, but a tyrant when he violently oppresses the people 
entrusted to him. . . . Let the king, therefore, allow to the law what the 
law allows to him-— dominion and power ; for he is not a king with whom 
his will, and not the law, rules." — Duhlin Review. 

There was the language of a judge in the times before either the Refor- 
mation or James' translation of the Bible were dreamed of. I pass to an- 
other historical event— the crowning of John ; on which occasion Hubert, 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, fearing that the monarch, from supposing 
that his royal blood alone entitled him to receive the kingly office, should 
throw the kingdom into confusion, reminded him that no one had such a 
right to succeed another in the government unless chosen by the people. 



SPEECH OP BISHOP HUGHES. 469 

That no one had a right by any precedent reason to succeed another in 
the sovereignty, unless he were unanimously chosen by the entire kingdom, 
and preelected according to the eminency of his morals, after the example 
of Saul, the first anointed king, whom God had set over His people, though 
not a king's son or sprung of a royal race, that thus he who excelled all in 
ability, should preside over all with power and authority. But if any of a 
deceased king's family excelled the rest of the nation, to his election they 
should more readily assent. For these reasons they had chosen Count John, 
the brother of their deceased king, on account as well of his merits as of 
his royal blood. To this declaration John and the assembly assented. 

I wonder whether an archbishop of Canterbury, now, with this trans- 
lated Bible in his hands, would dare to utter such language in the presence 
of the monarch, when he was about to officiate at a coronation ? Let us 
now turn to what occurred after tliis translation of the Bible. At the exe- 
cution of the Earl of Monmouth, there were a number of Protestant divines 
who exhorted him to die like a " good Christian ; " and the great point on 
which they insisted was, that the subject was bound to obey the prince 
with "passive obedience." 

But the noble Earl, in whose breast there still burned something of the 
principles of the olden times of England, could not agree to that dogma, 
and then the divines, under the influence of this translated Bible, refused to 
pray for him. Their last words were : 

Then, my lord, we can only recommend you to the mercy of God, but we 
cannot pray with that cheerfulness and encouragement as we should if you 
had made a particular acknowledgment. 

The same doctrine was prevalent in the time of Tillotson, and he speaks 
of it not only as his own opinion; but as that of those for whom Mr. Ketch- 
\im claims the honor of being considered the apostles of English liberty. I 
quote from the Duhlin Remeio : 

Among those who importuned the unfortunate Lord Russell to make a 
similar acknowledgment, was Tillotson, who, b}' letter, told him that this 
doctrine of non-resistance '' was the declared doctrine of all Protestant 
Churches, though some particular persons had thought otherwise," and 
expressed his concern " that you do not leave the world iu a delusion and 
false hope to the hinderance of your eternal happiness," by doubting this 
saving article of faith. Within the same period, Bishoj) Sanderson deliv- 
ered the -doctrine in the following clear and explicit language. He declares 
that " to blas23heme the holy name of God, to sacrifice to idols," &c., c&c., 
" to take up arms against a lawful sovereign, none of these, and sundry 
other things of the like nature, being all of them simple and, de ioto genere, 
unlawful, may be done on any color or pretence whatso.ever, the express 
command of God only excepted, as in the case of Abraliam sacrificing his 
son, not for the avoiding of scandal, not at the instance of any friend, or 
command of any power on earth, not for the maintenance of the lives and 
liberties of ourselves or others, nor for the dctence of religion, nor for the 
preservation of the Church and State ; no, nor yet — if that could be ima- 
gined possible — for the salvation of a soul ; no, not for the redemption of 
the whole world." This was considered a very orthodox effusion. 

An article of faith that you dare not, under any circumstances, resist the 
kingly power. 

Compare, then, the language of Protestant divines having this translated 



470 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Bible before them, -witli that of Catholic divines at a former period, and see 
the ground which Mr. Ketchum has found in England for his poetical asser- 
tion. But, perhaps, if we turn our attention to the Protestant governments 
on the continent of Europe, we may find his dream realized. Perhaps he 
may find it realized in Pi'ussia. In that country there are two principal 
communions of Protestants, the Lutheran and the Calvinist. Now, the king 
calls his officers together, and tells them to draw up a liturgy — decrees that 
both will, and shall, and must believe or practice this liturgy. Or he may 
i^o to Norway, or Sweden, or Denmark, and the dark desijotism of the 
North ; laerchance there he may find that liberty of which he speaks pro- 
gressing with this translation. What kind of freedom, let me ask Mr. 
Ketchum, followed this " translated Bible " to Ireland — that everlasting 
monument of Catholic fidelity and Protestant shame ? 

But to come to this country : perhaps it was in New England, among the 
Puritans, that Mr. Ketchum's dream was realized. Ask the Quaker. Per- 
haps it was in Virginia. Ask the Presbyterian. Where was it ? Let mo 
tell you. It was in Maryland, among the Catholics. They knew enough of 
the rights of conscience to raise the first standard of religious liberty that 
ever floated on the breeze in America. 

- You may be told that Roger Williams, and his associates in Rhode 
SIsland, declared equal rights. Not at all ; he excluded Roman Catholiea 
' from the exercising the elective franchise. But the Catholics did not ex- 
clude him. They may refer to Pennsylvania ; the reference is equally unfor- 
tunate, for Penn wrote from England, remonstrating with Governor Logan, 
I believe, for permitting the scandal of Catholic worship in Philadelphia. 
Turn, now, look at the constellation of Catholic republics, before Protestant- 
ism was dreamed of as a future contingency. Look at Venice, Genoa, Flor- 
ence, and that little republic not larger than a pin's head on the map — San 
Marino — which has preserved its. independence for such a long course of 
centfuries, lest the science of republicanism should be lost to the world. 
Look at Poland, when the Protestants were persecuting one another to the 
death in Germany : Poland opened her gates to the refugees, and made them 
equal with her own subjects ; and in the Diet of Poland, at which the law 
was passed, there were eight Catholic bishops, and they must have sanc- 
tioned the law, for the liberism veto gave each the power to prevent it. I 
challenge Mr. Ketchum to point, in the whole history of the globe, to one 
instance of similar liberality on the part of Protestants toward Catholics. 

Now, what becomes of that beautiful declaration of Mr. Ketchum, that, 
wherever that translation had gone, liberty had followed ? I know, indeed, 
that in this countiy we all enjoy equal, civil riglits; but I know also that it 
was not Protestant liberality that secured them. They grew out of neces- 
sity ; and in the declaration of them there is no dift'erenco made between 
one religion and another. Catholics contended as valiantly as any other in 
the first ranks of the contest for liberty. And I fervently hope that it is too 
late in the day for any one to pretend that Catholics have been so blinded 
by their religion as to be unable to know what is liberty and what is not. . 
Be it understood, then, that not one of the objections which Mr. Ketch- 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 471 

um has put into our mouths resijecting the Bible was presented to the Sen- 
ate by us. 

Mr. Ketclium, after ha\-ing thus disposed of our pretended objections, 
goes on to sjieak of tlie Secretary's report : 

They will be satisfied with it ; it will give them what they ask. Now, 
let us see how. There is no proposition contained in this report that reli- 
gious societies, as such, shall participate in this fund — none. 

Then, sii', I ask, What is your objection ? In New York, before the 
Common Council, all your opposition was directed against " religious socie- 
ties." Mr. Spencer has removed every ground for that, and I therefore ask. 
What is your objection ? Your object is, to preserve the Pulilic School 
Society in the possession of the monopoly, not only of the funds contributed 
by the citizens for the support of education, but also of the children. He 
says: 

The trustees of districts shall indicate what religion shall be taught in 
those schools. That is to- say, that you shall have small masses ; that these 
small masses shall elect their trustees ; and as the majority of the people in 
those small masses may direct, so shall be the character of the religious 
instruction imparted. 

Mr. Spencer wishes to take from the Society that very feature which is 
objected to ; that is to say, he wishes that religion shall neither be excluded 
nor enforced by law. And yet Mr. Ketchum, by his old principle of substi- 
tution, makes out quite a diflerent proposition from the report, and infers 
that the trustees shall have the jjower to prescribe what religion shall be 
taught. I do not see that in the report at all. On the contrary, the Secre- 
tary leaves parents at liberty to act on that subject as they see jiroper. Mr. 
Ketchum supposes a case to illustrate his view of the matter, which, I must 
say, does not do him much credit. He says : 

But when a school is formed in the Sixth Ward of the city of New 
York, in which ward (for the sake of the argument we will assume) the 
Roman Catholics have a majority in the district, they choose their trustees, 
and these trustees indicate that a specific form of religion — to wit, the Ro- 
man Catholic religion — shall be taught in that school ; that mass shall be 
said there, and that the children shall cross themselves with holy water in 
the school, having the right to do so according to this report, the Catholics 
being in a majority there. Then, and not till then, can these Roman Cath- 
olics conscientiously send their children to school. That is to say, their 
objections to this system arc to be overcome by having a school to which 
they can conscientiously send their children ; and that school must be one 
in which religion is to be taught according to their particular views. 

That is drawing an inference without the facts, for we never said so — 
never even furnished him with authority to say so ; and although Mr. 
Ketchum has the authority of the Public School Society to speak, yet that 
does not enable him, when he states what is not the fact, to make it true. 
But I wish to know why he brought up that picture at all ; why the Sixth 
Ward should have peculiar cliarms in his imagination ; or why he should 
have introduced all that about the children crossing themselves with holy 
water. And pray, is it for Mr. Ketchum to find fault with what he supposes 



4:72 THE PIXBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

to be a religious error, and for ■which he is not at all accountable ? He has 
not shown, nor has any man shown, that any such consequences would fol- 
low. It is impossible that the trustees could act so ridiculously as to per- 
mit such a thing ; it was incredible that they, being resijousible to the 
officers appointed by the State, and under the eye of such vigilant gentle- 
men as Mr. Ketchum and the Public School Society, could permit Mass to 
he celebrated in the school. Yet such is the picture presented by Mr. 
Ketchum — quite in accordance with his old course, and in order to excite 
popular prejudices, for which purpose this speech seems to liave been so stu- 
diously j)repared. For ho well knew that, amongst a large portion of the 
Protestants, there is a vast amount of traditional prejudice against Catho- 
lics, which has, from being repeated incessantly and seldom contradicted, 
become fixed, occupying the place of truth and knowledge. Their case 
reminds me of what is related of Baron Munchausen. It is said that, when 
this celebrated traveller was old, he had a kind of consciousness that there 
was some former period of his life when he knew that all his stories were 
untrue ; but he had repeated them so often, that now he actually believed 
them to be true. 

It is to such persons as are under the influence of these prejudices and 
bigotries that Mr. Ketchum addresses his speech ; and, if he utter the senti- 
ments of the Public School Society, how, I ask, can we confide to their 
hands the training of the tender minds of our children ? 

But one of the most remarkable things in this speech is, that, after hav- 
ing beaten off in succession the different religious denominations, because, 
as he said, they would teach religion, having, in fact, played the one sect 
against the other, Mr. Ketchum turns round and afiirms that the Society 
itself does teach religion. He says : 

No, sir. I atfirm that the religion taught in the public schools is pre- 
cisely that quantity of religion which we have a right to teach. It would 
be inconsistent with public sentiment to teach less ; it would be illegal to 
teach more. 

The " exact quantity!" Apothccai^'s weight! Nothing about the 
quality, except that Mr. Ketchum, having made it an objection that we 
wished religion in a definite form, he will give it in an indefinite form — a 
fine religion ; but, at all events, there is to be the " legal quantity." Well, 
now let us see something about the quality of this religion ; and I wish to 
consider the subject seriously. And here let me refer to a beautiful senti- 
ment expressed by the Secretary in his report. He says that religion and 
literature have become so blended, that the separation of the one from the 
other is impossible. A more true or appropriate declaration could not pro- 
ceed from the lips of any man wishing the welfare of his country and his 
kind. 

Now, whenever wo made objections to that Society for pretending that 
religious subjects were excluded by law, it was on these grounds. We said. 
We refer you to the experience of public meu — to that of the most cele- 
brated statesmen in Europe, even the infidels of France, who have uniformly 
declared that society cannot exist except on the basis of religion. All of 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 473 

them, wlietlicr believing in religion or not, have admitted the necessity of 
having some kind of religion as a basis of the social edifice. But these gen- 
tlemen, in all their debates, have contended that the education to be given 
should be " purely civil and secular." That is their official language. And 
now, for the first time, Mr. Ketchum, before the Senate, declares that the 
Society does teach religion, and exactly the proper quantity. 

Let me now call your attention to a passage in one of their reading- 
books, in order that we may see a specimen of this religiot. I will now 
make a few comments on the passage, but I do conceive that there are per- 
sons of all those denominations who recognize the doctrine of the Divinity, 
who could not be induced to have the minds of their children inoculated 
with such sentiments as it contains. Referring to our blessed Redeemer, one 
of their school-books says : 

His answers to the many insidious questions that were put to Him 
showed uncommon quickness of conception, soundness of judgment, and 
presence of mind, completely baffled all the artifices and malice of His ene- 
mies, and enabled Him to elude all the snares that were laid for Him. 

Are these the ideas of the divine attributes of the Redeemer which the 
Christian portion of the community wish impressed on the minds of their 
children ? That such have been the sentiments taught by the Society for 
the last sixteen years, they cannot deny. And they may account for it as 
they please, but it has attracted the attention of many, that, for the last six- 
teen years, the j^rogress of that young and daring blasphemy that trifles 
with all that is sacred has increased tenfold in this city. How do I account 
for it ? In two ways : first, because a large portion of the young are de- 
barred from the benefits of education ; and, on the otlier hand, there is the 
attempt which has been made to divorce religion from literature. When 
such causes exist, you need not be surprised to find that infidelity thickens 
its ranks and raises on every side its bold and impious front. 

I have presented you with a specimen of the quality of that religion 
which Mr. Ketchum says is dealt out with exact and legal measure. 

Mr. Ketchum contends that it is religion of a decided character that we 
want. And pray, what are we to understand by a religion that is not 
decided ? A religion which is vague — a general religion ? What is the 
meaning of these terms ? I desire to have a definition of them. 

If there is to be established by law a Public-School-Society-religion, I 
should like to have its confession of faith, and be informed of the number 
of its articles, and the nature of the doctrines contained in them. But it 
seems to me that Mr. Ketchum and this Public School Society resemble a 
body of men who are opposed to all physicians because they understand 
medicine ; and who, although themselves opposed to all practice of medi- 
cine, are yet disposed to administer to the patients of the regular practition- 
ers. And the comparison holds good ; for, after all, children are born with 
a natural moral disease — want of knowledge and evil propensities, and edu- 
cation and religion are the remedial agents to counteract these evil tenden- 
cies and remove the natural infirmity. Then, we have the practitioners, as 
they may be termed, coming to see the patient, the whole community sup- 



474 - THE PUBLIC 6CH00L SOCIETY. 

plying the medicine-chest ; and we have these men surrounding this chest, 
and exclaiming to the physicians, " Clear off ! You are a Thomsonian, 
and you are a Broussaist, and you are a Homoeopathic, and you are a regu- 
lar practitioner, and you wish to prescribe remedies of a decided and defi- 
nite character, which is contrary to ' a great principle ; ' " and, having thus 
banished all the physicians, they turn doctors themselves, and mix up their 
drugs into what they call a " general medicine," of which they administer 
what they calj the legal quantity. But the gentlemen forget that neither 
the patient nor the medicine are theirs. Those who furnish the patient and 
supply the medicine-chest should have a voice in the selection of the doc- 
tors. 

What do the gentlemen really intend ? They object to religious socie- 
ties, but, after they have got them pushed out of the house, they begin to 
teach religion themselves. Mr. Ketchum acknowledges that. He and Mr. 
Sedgwick, his associate, however, do not appear to have studied theology in 
the same school. One says that religion is the basis of all morality ; the 
other, that morality is the basis of religion. And, after all, do men agree 
any more in their views of morality than religion ? Certainly not. And 
yet you must give to the children, especially those of that class attending 
these schools — for it should be borne in mind that they, for the most part, 
do not enjoy the opportunity of parental or pastoral instruction — some sup- 
jjly of religious education. They are the offspring of parents who, unfortu- 
nately, cannot supply that deficiency ; and if they are brought up in this 
way, with a kind of contempt for religion, or with the most vague idea of 
it, the most lamentable results must necessarily follow. 

I now come to another point : the nou-attendance of the children in the 
schools. Whilst our humble school-rooms are crowded to excess, the Soci- 
ety has been obliged to give $1,000 a year to persons for recruiting for chil- 
dren. In Grand street they have erected a splendid building, almost suffi- 
cient to accommodate the Senate of the State ; and besides all that, we find 
that they are able to lavish public money in payment to agents to collect 
children. Mr. Seton, who has been a faithful agent of the Society, aade 
that fact known, and stated that, by this means, eight hundred children 
were collected. And to whom was this money given ? To tract distribu- 
tors. A very good occupation, theirs, I have no doubt, but, at the same 
time, that was rather a singular appropriation by men so extremely scrupu- 
lous lest any portion of tlie public money should go to the support of any 
sect. But I suppose that was on the principle of what Mr. Ketchum calla 
" giving and taking ; " that is, you give a tract and take a child. 

Then, we have quite an effort, on the part of Mr. Ketchum, to jjrove that 
the trustees discharge their onerous duties much better than officers elected 
by the people. I will quote his remarks on that point : 

This Public School Society receives its daily sustenance from the repre- 
sentatives of the people ; and the moment that sustenance is withdrawn, it 
flies — it cannot carry on its ojierations for a day. 

A most beautiful subversion of the actual brder ! For, so far from the 
Common Council patronizing the Society, it is the Society that patronizes 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 4T5 

the Common Council, taking them into partnership the moment they are 
elected ; and, so far from being dependent on the Council, as -was well re- 
marked by a greater authority than I am on this subject, the Council arc 
dependent on the Society. The schools belong to the Society, just as much 
as the Ilarlem Bridge docs to the company who built it. What remedy is 
there, then ? The Society, self-constituted, a close corjjoratiou, takes into 
partnership the Common Council, which then becomes part and parcel — 
boue of the bone and flesh of the flesh — of the Society ; and if any dificr- 
ence arises between the citizens and the Society, a committee of that very 
Society adjudicates in the cause. Thus we have found that the Common 
Council, after having denied our claim, and even when about to retire and 
give place to their successors, followed us to Albany ; and their last act, like 
that of the retreating Parthian who flung his dart behind him, was, to lay 
their remonstrance on the table of the tribunal to which we had appealed. 
Mr. Ketchum says : 

Here are agents of the people — men who, having a desire to serve man- 
kind, associate together ; they oflcr to take the superintendence of particu- 
lar works ; they otler themselves to the public as agents to carry out certain 
benevolent purposes; and, instead of paying men for the labor, they volun- 
teer to do it for you, " without money and without price," imder your direc- 
tions — to do it as your servants, and to give an account to you and an 
account to the Legislature. Voluntary public service is always more effi- 
cient than labor done l:>y servants chosen in any other way. 

So that, because they serve gratuitously, they discharge their duties 
much butter than if elected by the people ! Well, let us improve upon the 
hint. Perhaps some of them may be kind enough to discharge the more 
imj5ortant functions of the Government for nothing. But if volunteers bo 
more cfiicient than ofiicers chosen by the votes of the people, let us abolish 
the farce of elections altogether. Not satisfied with this, Mr. Ketchum also 
would seem to contend, that the volunteers ought not to be held respon- 
sible. 

To establish his views on this point, Mr. Ketchum refers to charitable 
and benevolent institutions. But where is the justice of the comparison ? 
The sick are incompetent to secure their own protection and recovery. The 
inmates of the House of Refuge, on which Mr. Ketchum has a beautiful 
apostrophe, referring to his own share in the erection of that one establi.'shed 
in this city, are likewise unable to take care of themselves. And here let 
me say, in all sincerity, to Mr. Ketchum, that if he and the Public School 
Society determine to j)erpetuate their system— if they continue to exclude 
religion from education, and at the same time deprive four fifths of the chil- 
dren, as now, of any education at all, then he had better stretch his lines 
and lay the foundations of houses of refuge, as the appropriate supplement 
to the system. Neither does the comparison hold, as I have before shown, 
in reference to lunatic asylums, &c. 

Then Mr. Ketchum goes on to illustrate farther, and says : 

But it is said — and said, too, in this report of the Secretary — that he 
proposes to retain these public schools. Ilow retain them ? One of the 



476 TnE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

\. 

features of the proposed new law is, that all school moneys shall be paid to 
the teachers. Under such a law we cannot live a day — not a day. 

What an acknowledgment is that ! — that a law, which would make edu- 
cation free, giving equal rights to all, would be the death-warrant of the 
Public School Society ! 

There is another point on which Mr. Ketchum does not now dwell so 
emphatically. He says that there were a large number of taxpayers who — 
wonderful to relate ! — asked for the privilege of being taxed — asked for that 
privilege for the purpose of supplying the Public School Society with 
money to carry out their benevolent pui-poses. Mr. Ketchum seems to con- 
sider that, at that time, there was a kind of covenant made between these 
petitioners to be taxed and the State authorities ; that, when they petitioned 
and were taxed, the authorities of the State bound themselves to keep up 
this system in jicrpduum. But did these persons ask to be taxed exclusively 
out of their own pockets ? or did they ask for a system of taxation which 
should reach all the tax-paying citizens of New York ? There is a fallacy 
in Mr. Ketchum's argument here. He supposes that, because these jDersons 
are large property-holders, that they are, therefore, par excellence, the payers 
of taxes. He forgets that it is a fact well understood in the science of 
political economy, that the consumer is, after all, the taxpayer ; that it is 
the tenants occupying the property of those rich men, and returning them 
their large rents, who are actually the taxpayers. And what peculiar merit, 
then, can Mr. Ketchum claim for these owners of property, and petitioners, 
to have all the rest of the citizens taxed as well as themselves ? But he 
insists there was an agreement — a covenant entered into between them and 
the State authorities ; and if you interfere with its provisions, you must 
release these taxpayers from their obligations as such. With all my heart, I 
have no objection. All we want is, that there should be no unjust interfer- 
ence, no exclusive system, no extraneous authority interposed between the 
taxpayer and the purpose for which the tax is collected. But the fact that 
others, besides these petitioners, are equally involved in the burden, demol-, 
ishes this argument of Mr. Ketchum. 

In his conclusion, the learned gentleman insists that, unless the Society 
remain as it is, it cannot exist ; and then goes on further — for it would be 
impossible for him to close his speech without again remindin'g the Senate 
that we are Roman Catholics. He says : 

The people in New York understand the suliject, and the Roman Catho- 
lics cannot say that they will not be heard as well there as here. Why not 
leave the matter to us, the people of the city of New York ? 

Thus Mr. Ketchum, after having first endeavored to impress the minds 
of the Senate that we had had all imaginable fair play — that other denomi- 
nations had made applications similar to ours, which is not the fact — that 
our petition had uniformly been denied iu the several boards representing 
the people of New York, whereas he knew that, in this question, the jJcople 
of New York was never even represented by the Common Council— he goes 
on to say, at last : " Why not leave the matter to us, the people of the city 



SPEECH OF BISHOP HUGHES. 477 

of New-York ? " I trust not, if a committee of the Public School Society, 
called the Common Council, are to be at once parties and judges. I hope 
that the question will not be referred back, although, for Mr. Ketchum's 
satisfaction, I may state that, if it were so referred, the Common Council 
would not, I will venture to say, now decide upon it by such a vote as they 
did before, when one man alone had the courage — whether he was right or 
wrong — to say " nay," when all said " yes." In consequence of that vote — 
as they have since taken care to tell us — this gentleman lost his election ; 
but, what was of infinitely greater importance, he preserved his honor. 
Were the matter now before the Common Council, they would see a thou- 
sand and one reasons for hesitation before deciding as before. For when 
public men see that any measure is likely to be jjopular, they can find abun- 
dant reasons for taking a favorable view of the c^uestion. I will refer Mr. 
Ketchum to a sign from which he may learn what he pleases. Since the 
Common Council that denied our claims went out of office, their successors 
have had the matter before them ; and when, in the Board of Assistants, it 
was proposed to pass a resolution requesting the Legislature to defer the 
consideration of the question, the motion was negatived by a tie vote. 

Still, Mr. Ketchum will have the end of this speech something like the 
end of the last. Then he said that this was a most distressing topic to the 
gentlemen of the Public School Society — that they were men of jjeace. 
That I do not controvert ; but certainly I must say that, in the course of 
this contest, they appear to have exhibited a spirit contrary to their natures. 
But so peaceful were they, Mr. Ketchum said, that, if any longer annoyed, 
they would throw up their office and retire. But, after all, they could send 
their agents to Albany to oppose us there : the one — Dr. Eockwell^-to. dis- 
seminate a burlesque on our faith, from "Tristram Shandy;" the other — ■ 
Mr. Ketchum — to plead as zealously, but I think not as successfully, against 
the recognition of our claims. Mr. Ketchum says : 

Now, the contest is renewed, and the trustees engage in it with extreme 
reluctance ; they have no personal interests to advance, and they are very 
unwilling to be put in hostile array against any of their feUow-citizens. 

Mr. Chairman, the lateness of the hour admonishes me that I have tres- 
passed too much upon your patience. I have but one observation to make 
in conclusion. 

These gentlemen have spoken much and laid great emphasis on the im- 
portance of morality ; but, as I have already remarked, morality is not 
always judged of by the same criterion. Let me illustrate this. According 
to the morality which my religion teaches, if I rob a man, or injure him in 
his property, and desire to be reconciled to God, I must, first of all, if it be 
in my power, make reparation to the man whom I have injured. Again, if 
I should unfortunately rob my neighbor of his good name, of his reputa- 
tion, either by accident or through malice, before I can hope for reconcilia- 
tion with an ofl'ended God, I must repair the injury and restore my neigh- 
bor's good name. If I belied him, I must acknowledge the lie as publicly 
as it was uttered. That is Catholic morality. Well, now, these gentlemen 
have belied us ; they have put forward and circulated a document which 



P^ 



478 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

existed only in the imagination of Sterne — a foul document — and reprcsentr 
ed it as a part of our creed. I do not say that tliey directly required this to 
be done ; but their agent did it, and he cannot deny it. I wonder now, 
then, if they Tvill have such a sense of morality as wiU impel them to en- 
deavor to repair the injury thus done to our reputation, by any oiBcial dec- 
laration that that is a spurious document ? I wonder if the conscientious 
morality that presides over the Journal of Commerce will prompt its editors 
to sucli a course ? If it do not, then it is a morality diiFerent from ours. 

I apprehend that no such reparation will be offered for the injm-y we 
have sustained by the everlasting harangue of abuse and vituperation that 
has been poured out against us for these few years past. Have we not been 
assailed with a foul and infamous fiction, in the pages of a work called 
" Maria Monk " ? And have its reverend authors ever stood forward to do 
us justice, and acknowledge the untruth which, knowing it to be so, they 
published ? Have they ever attempted to counteract that obscene poison 
which they disseminated, corrujiting the morals of youth throughout every 
hamlet in the land ? Whilst denouncing, in their ccclesiasticul assemblies, 
the works of Byron and Bulwer, did they include in their denunciations the 
filthy and enormous lie jjublished under their auspices, the writings of 
" Maria Monk " ? 

What idea, then, must we form of their morality and religion ? And 
here it would bo unjust to omit mentioning that many Protestants, not 
under the influence of blinded bigotry, haVe done us justice on this point. 
In particular I refer to the conduct of one distinguished Protestant writer 
who cannot be accused of great partiality for us, but who esjjosed and re- 
futed the authors and abettors of this filthy libel to which I have referred. 
I know that it would be incorrect and unjust to say that thousands of oth- 
ers, sincere Protestants, but high-minded, honorable men, have not taken 
the same view of the subject. But I speak particularly of the morality of 
tlie authors and publishers of these abominable slanders ; and I regret that 
the Public School Society, by their recent proceedings, should have allowed 
themselves to sink to a kindred degradation. 

Mr. Ketchum replied to the speecli of Bishop. Hughes briefly, 
through the press, and several rejoinders followed from the pens 
of the distinguished advocates of the opposing interests. The 
question Avas constantly agitated, and became a very exciting 
element in the election for members of the city delegation to the 
Senate and House of x\sseuibly, in the month of November. 
An independent organization, and the nomination of a school 
ticket, was determined upon by the Catholics, and measures 
were adopted accordingly. Inquiry having been made among 
the candidates of the " Democratic " and '• AVhig " jDarties, a 
selection was made, and three new names were placed on the 
school ticket, in default of gentlemen who did not respond satis- 
factorily to the wishes of the committee. 



ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOL TICKETS. 479 

Tlie Freeman's Journal of October 23 published a call for a 
meeting of " tlie friends of civil and I'eligious freedom, in favor 
of extending the benefits of a common school education to tlie 
neglected and indigent children of this city," to be held on the 
following Tuesday, the 26th of the same month. The '• Church 
Debt Association " held a meeting on Monday evening, at which 
Bishop Hughes was present, and made an address. He spoke at 
some length on the school question, and, in an earnest appeal to 
the audience, urged a full attendance the following evening. 

On Tuesday evening, Carroll Hall, the place of meeting, was 
crowded at an early hour with an assemblage attracted by the 
promise of a speech from the bishop, as well as by the object of 
the meeting, which was to decide on a list of candidates to be 
voted for at the election then approaching. Bishop Hughes rose, 
and delivered a lengthy address, during which he presented a 
ticket for the support of the Catholics. A few passages will 
serve to show the spirit and entliusiasra wliich characterized the 
meeting. Said the reverend gentleman : 

With political controversies and party questions I have, nothing what- 
ever to do. ... It is impossible for me to say any thing personally of 
those whose names have been recommended to be placed on the list of can- 
didates, and I would not for one moment urge that they should be placed 
there, had I not been assured, on the most positive evidence, and which I 
could not doubt, that they are friendly to an alteration in the present sys- 
tem of public education. ... I will now request the Secretary to read the 
names placed on the ticket. Of that ticket I have approved. It presents 
the names of the only friends we could find already before the public, and 
those whom, not being so prominently before the public, we have found for 
ourselves. 

The Secretary then read the follovv-ing list : 

SEJfATOKS. 

Thomas O'Connor, .1. G. Gottsberger. 



Tighc Davey, David R. Floyd Jones, 

Daniel C. Pentz, Solomon Townscnd, 

George Weir, John L. O'SulIivan, 

Paul Grout, Auguste Davezac, 

Conrad Swackhamcr, William McJIurray, 

William B. Maclay, Jlichacl Walsh, 
Timothy Daly. 

Each name," says the report of tlie Freeman'^ Journal, 



480 THE PITBLIG SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

" was received witli the most deafening and uproarious applause, 
and three terrific cheers were given at the close," on the subsi- 
dence of Mhich the Bishop proceeded : 

You have now, gentlemen, heard the names of men -nho are willing to 
risk themselves in support of your cause. Put these names out of view, and 
you cannot, in the lists of our jiolitical candidates, find that of one solitary 
public man who is not understood to be pledged against us. What, then, is 
your course ? Tou now, for the first time, find yourselves in the position to 
vote at least for yourselves. You have often voted for others, and they did 
not vote for you ; but now you are determined to uphold, with your own votes, 
your own rights. (Thunders of applause, which lasted several minutes.) 
Will you, then, stand by the rights of your offspring, who have for so long 
a period, and from generation to generation, sufl'ered under the operation of 
this injurious system ? (Renewed cheering.) Will you adhere to the nomi- 
nation made ? (Loud cries of " We will ! we will ! " and vociferous ap- 
plause.) Will you be united 2 (Tremendous cheering — the whole immense 
assembly rising en masse, waving of hats, handkerchiefs, and every possible 
demonstration of applause.) Will you let all men see that yon are worthy 
sons of that nation to which you belong? (Cries of "Never fear — we 
will ! " " We will, till death ! " and terrific cheering.) Will you jjrove 
yourselves worthy of friends ? (Tremendous cheering.) Will none of you 
flinch ? (The scene that followed this emphatic query is indescribable, and 
exceeded all the enthusiastic and almost frenzied disjDlays of jjassionate feel- 
ing we have sometimes witnessed at Irish meetings. The cheering, the 
shouting, the stamping of feet, waving of hats and handkerchiefs, beggared 
all powers of description.) Very well, then ; the tickets will be prepared 
and distributed amongst you, and, on the day of election, go, like freemen, 
with dignity and calmness, entertaining due respect for your fellow-citizens 
and their opinions, and deposit your votes. I ask, then, once for all, and 
with the answer let the meeting close, Will this meeting pledge its honor, 
as the representative of that oppressed portion of the community for whom 
I have so often pleaded, here as well as elsewhere — will it pledge its honor 
that it will stand by these candidates, whose names have been read, and 
that no man composing this vast audience will ever vote for any one pledged 
to oppose our just claims and incontrovertible rights ? (TeiTific cheering 
and thunders of ajjplause, which continued for several minutes, amid which 
Bishop Hughes resumed his seat.) 

The ticket was adopted by acclamation, and the meeting 
adjourned. 

A letter of inquiry was addressed to the candidates before 
the public, by a committee selected for the purpose, in which 
tliey were requested to state their views on the school question, 
and wliethcr they were favorable to the Public Scliool Society, 




GEORGE T, TRI MBLE 



KOMAN CATUOLIO SCHOOL TICKET. 



481 



or to a change of system. Those of the candidates then in the 
city replied to the inquiry, and a card also appeared, signed by 
Messrs. Solomon Townsend, D. K. Floyd Jones, George Weir, 
Paul Grout, Conrad Swackhamer, Augusto Davezac, "William 
McMurray, George G. Glazier, David Dudley Field, and Ed- 
ward Sandford, in which they declared that they " discounte- 
nance altogether the schemes and the objects of the present Gov- 
ernor of the State," who, as they charged, had originated all the 
difBculties of the school question. 

The election for members of Assembly resulted as follows : 



Solomon Townsend, 
D. E. Floyd Jones, . 
William B. Maclay, 
George Weir, 
Paul Grout, 
C. Swackhamer, 
A. Davezac, 
William McMurray, . 
John L. O'SuUivan, 
Daniel C. Pcntz, 
Joseph Tucker, 
William Jones, 
Nathaniel O. Bradford, 



18,374 
18,349 
18,368 
18,331 
18,195 
18,093 
18,000 
17,970 
17,644 
16,889 
16,336 
16,313 
16,308 



The last three names in the above list are those of candidates 
not on " the regular ticket " of the party supposed to be most 
favorable to the objects of the Carroll Hall party. The three 
names voted for by the Catholics, as recommended by Bisbop 
Hughes, with the number of votes they received, are the follow- 
ing : Michael Walsh, 2,330; Tighe Davey, 2,172; Timothy 
Daly, 2,163. 

The vote for Senators resulted as follows : Thomas O'Connor, 
2,202 ; J. G. Gottsberger, 2,1T5. 

This demonstration at the ballot-box of a religious body, 
under the leadership of its most popular and prominent digni- 
tary, occupying the chair of bishop of the diocese, was univer- 
sally regarded by the people at large, and especially by the 
members of other communions, as highly offensive and danger- 
ous as a precedent, and antagonistic to the spirit of our republi- 
can institutions. It created a profound impression, which, how- 
ever, Avas sensibly relieved when the canvas had been completed, 
31 



482 THE POBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

and the strengtli of the Carroll Hall party was ascertained by 
the test vote ou the last three candidates. The comparatively 
small number of votes of all parties who were willing to make 
the sectarianism of our schools a special issue, dissipated the 
apprehensions of many who feared that a powerful organization 
would be created for further movements. It was tlie last effort 
made, as the occasion for a distinct issue was removed by the 
action of the Legislature in 18-42. The proceedings during that 
session, and the change introduced, are made the subject of the 
nest chapter. 



The reader of the speech of Bishop Hughes will have noticed 
several allusions to "Teistkam Shaudt," Latjkence Steene, 
and the Journal of Commerce. The record will not be intelli- 
gible without an explanation of the facts. 

After Mr. Spencer's report appeared, the session of the Legis- 
lature being far advanced, the indications of success on the part 
of the Catholics threatened the friends of the Society with the 
decay of their system. One of them wrote a reply to the report 
of tlie Secretary, which was published in the columns of the 
Journal of Commerce at the last moment. The bill had been 
made the special order for Friday, May 21st. On Thursday, the 
20th, the article appeared, and a number of copies were sent by 
a gentleman in New York to a friend in Albany, by whom they 
were marked, and placed on the tables of the senators, so that 
they would attract immediate attention. It was as follows : 

From the Journal of Cummirce of Mnj 20, 1841. 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE BRIEFLY EXAMINED. 

Mr. Editor : The report of the Secretary of State on the subject of 
school education in the city of New York, having been before the public 
for several days, and feeling, as I do, a deep interest in the cause, I am con- 
strained to make a few suggestions in reply to it, in the hope that I may 
contribute a little to a full understanding of this interesting question. 

The importance of universality in the systems of education adojited by 
the people has not been overdrawn, and cannot be too much appreciated. 
No oile should Jje left without the opportunity of making some progress in 
those studies, the acquisition of which will qualify him for a high and hon- 
orable and useful station in society — at least, to prepare him to exercise the 
responsible privilege of deciding, by the right of suflrage, the course of 
legislation under which he would prefer to live. This is the principal fea- 
ture of the report ; this is its professed object. Regarding it as an essential 



JOTJENAX OF COMMEECE. 483 

principle, that, as all have civil equality, they should also enjoy an equality 
in the means of education, the Secretary has proposed the destruction of one 
system and the substitution of another. If the figures he presents were con- 
sistent with facts, and the new system were not open to powerful objections, 
his report would meet with even more general approbation than it receives 
at present. 

The statistics which he furnishes respecting the number of children in 
and out of school, show that 33,194 did not attend any school, whUe less 
than that number, or 30,758, were registered on the books of schools, of 
whom 22,955 were embraced in the public schools — the average attendance 
being 13,189. 

The disparity between the attendants upon the means of instruction, and 
those children not attending, is far less than, by this statement, would 
appear to be the case. 

1. The public schools in this city arc open to the reception of children 
and youth between four and sixteen years of age, but the proportion of 
those over ticclve or thirteen is but as one to twenty-five or thirty. Hence, a 
very liirge reduction in the number of non-attendants must be made. I 
have no data by which I can give the number of children between twelve 
and sixteen, but there is doubtless at least one third of the whole number, 
making a consequent reduction of 15,000 or 20,000 ; leaving the number of 
non-atteudants at 15,000 to 17,000, instead of 32,194. 

2. A large number of children are foreigners, who do not speak our lan- 
guage, who are imacqiiainted with the schools, do not feel their importance 
or understand the system, and who will not be enticed into school. For 
these, another proportion must be deducted. 

3. Many of the poorer class of the jjopulation find it necessary to avail 
themselves of the services of their children for their own support, and they 
are consequently put out to work, in factories and other places, at an early 
age. Many occupations are performed principally by children eight and ten 
years of age, and no doubt several thousands are thus engaged. For these, 
another reduction must be made. 

In this manner, by an appeal to facts which may be apjjarent to every 
one who will look at the subject, we reduce the number of non-attendants 
to about 8, 10, or 12,000. I might add another item : many of the chil- 
dren of wealthy parents are not sent to school, but are placed under the 
care of private teachers and governesses. Thus we leave the number of 
children who may be justly called non-attendants, at about the number of 
those who are prevented from attending these schools by their parents and 
priestly censors, whose jealous anxiety is so watchful lest the children might 
receive any sectarian bias " hostile to their views." 

The next deficiency to be accounted for is the great difference between 
the registered and actual attendance at the schools ; and this is no more diffi- 
cult than the other. 

1. Many of the children are kept from school by their parents for the 
sake of their Eervices. 

3. Children are mortals as well as ourselves, who are but " children of 
larcer growth," and often are sick, or feign sickness, as the case may be. 



484 . THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

3. Many of the parents, being poor, are obliged to resort to daily labor 
tor supijort, lea^'ing their children at home, or in the neighborhood. Being 
thus left •without restraint or counsel for the day, and not feeling a desire 
for books (few children of poor people do), they amuse themselves by play, 
or whatever may suit theii' tastes or convenience. 

Other details might be given, but these will serve as a clue to some of 
the causes of non-attendance ; and although any one might be considered 
unimportant in itself, all of them combined present an aggregate of no 
inconsiderable amount. Hence the inference on this point, that something 
is defective, which needs the stimulus of sectarian influence to correct it, 
falls to the ground. 

The Secretary then compares the attendance at country schools with that 
in the city, and argues that, because there is a larger proportion in the for- 
mer, the citizens of New York should adopt the district system. Let us see 
whether this will stand the test. He says, " the like proportion must exist 
in the city and in the interior, of those who have already received all the 
education they or their parents desii'e, or who are engaged as apprentices, or 
in employments preventing them from attendance at any place of instruc- 
tion." 

As we have before shown, the children leave school at about twelve years 
of age in the city ; but in the country, where it is expected that the chil- 
dren will assist on the farms, &c., during the busy seasons of agricultural 
life, they attend principally in the winter, or not much more than half the 
year ; and, to supply this absence, they attend school until they are sixteen 
or eighteen years of age. Here we have, in the same fact, two causes which 
make a material diflference, viz. : Does the average attendance equal that of 
the city ? and do not the children attend school until a period later in life 
by three, four, or five years ? 

The presumed insufficiency of the Public School Society, therefore, in 
not educating all the children not in private schools, has been shown to be 
altogether exaggerated ; causes over which neither legislation nor school can 
have control, existing in the community, and conspiring to prevent the 
attendance of children. 

These causes, as will be inferred from what I have above presented, are 
of a social rather than a civil nature — poverty, for instance, which makes its 
imperious demands on the labor of the young ; wide difference of language ; 
and, doubtless, to some extent, prejudice against our policy. Hence, if we 
wish to see all our children in school, under proper training and guidance, 
we must seek to improve the domestic condition of the families ; we must 
give the parents the means of supporting themselves and their children. 
Who will do it ? 

Let us pass on to notice a few of the Secretary's arguments : 

1. He thinks that the district school system is eminently fitted to prevent 
sectarian influence ; " and the records of this department have been searched 
in vain for an instance of abuse of the system to sectarian biases." Can any 
be furnished from the records of the Public School Society ? 

3. If this is the case in the district schools, why does he say. In the same 



JOnHNAL OF OOMMEKCE. 485 

sentence, that eacli district has that kind of " religious instruction most con- 
genial to the opinions of the inhabitants " ? If the jwpulation is Presbyte- 
rian, it will be a Presbyterian school ; and Baptists and Eijiscopalians and 
Romanists will feel that they are doing wrong to send their children to 
places where principles " hostile to their views " are taught. If the popula- 
tion (a majorit}') decide on having a Catholic school, or any other, is there 
not an abuse of privilege ? So far, however, as I am acquainted with the 
country schools, there is just the same amount of religious instruction given 
in them as in the public schools of New York — the reading of the Scrip- 
tures. My earliest instructions were received in a district school in West- 
chester county. 

3. The Secretary considers it an axiom that, in all schemes of education, 
there must of necessity be some religious instruction ; " and that it must 
therefore be sectarian — that is, it must favor one set of opinions in opposi- 
tion to another." Hence all must be banished, or we must have schools 
" congenial to the spirit and opinions of the inhabitants." The great argu- 
ment is equality. Very well ; if a Mohammedan should come to this coun- 
try and send his children to the public schools, and become dissatisfied 
because the reading-books contain sketches of the impostures of the 
Prophet, he sets u]! the claim of equality, and demands that every book con- 
taining any thing derogatory to the character of Mohammed should be sub- 
mitted to his examination, while he publishes an '■'■Index Expuri/atorius,'" 
and insists that every volume in the schools throughoutf the city should be 
blotted and mutilated to please his views. This is granted, but he demands 
more : that the Public School Society be broken up, and some system estab- 
lished by which he may be formed into a " district," and receive money 
enough to educate his children according to his creed, " for its transmission 
is a part of his religious profession ! " and, with commendable pertinacity, 
so effectually plies his " equality " arguments as to conquer a whole commu- 
nity. My ovra opinion is, that when the majority are on an equality, the 
people, in democratic construction, are on an equality ; and the term docs 
not necessarily involve the harassing and perplexing of a whole community 
at the dictate of a few. 

4. This cry of equality has been raised by the memorialists because they 
think it will touch a tender chord in the hearts of the American peojile. It 
has ; but they will find it does not vibrate in unison with theirs on this 
question ; for none are more exclusive than these self-same sticklers for 
equality, none more bigoted, none more arrogant. 

5. But the Secretary says, knowing " that they regard as the most sacred 
of duties the inculcation of those principles in the minds of their children, 
we ought not to be surprised at their anxiety to exclude all that is hostile 
to their views," " for the transmission of their creed is a most essential part 
of their religious profession." What are these principles, the transmission 
of which is so essential ? I happen to take the following : 

Esco^tMTTNicATioN OP Me. Hogan, Pastor OF St. Mart's Church, 
Philadelphia. — By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son, and 



486- THE PTTBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Holy Ghost, and the undeflled Virgin Mary, mother and patroness of our 
Saviour, and of all celestial virtues, angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, 
powers, cherubims and seraphims, patriarchs, apostles, prophets, evangelists, 
&c., may he, Mr. Hogan, be damned ! . . . May the holy choir of the holy 
virgins, who, for the honor of Christ, have despised the things of this world, 
damn him ! May all the saints, from the beginning of the world to ever- 
lasting ages, who are found to be beloved of God, damn him ! . . . May 
he be damned wherever he be, whether in the house, or in the stable, the 
garden, or the field, or the highway ; or in the woods, or in the water, or in 
the Church ; may he be cursed in living and dying ! . . . May he be 
cursed in his brains, in his vitals, his temples, his eyebrows, his cheeks, his 
jawbones, his nostrils, his teeth and grinders, his lips, his throat, his shoul- 
ders, his arms, his fingers, his veins, his thighs, his genitals, his hips, his 
knees, his legs, and feet, and toe-nails 1 . . . May the Son of the living 
God, with all the glory of His majesty, curse him ! And may heaven, with 
all the powers that move therein, rise up against him, and curse and damn 
him, unless he repent and make satisfaction. Amen. So be it. Be it so. 
Amen. 

Are not these principles very essential, and their transmission indispen- 
sable 2 

6. If these memorialists find it necessary to teach their religious creeds 
to their children, why do they not do it in the domestic circle, at the fire- 
side ? The knowledge which they acquire at school will make them more 
intelligent, and enable them better to receive parental instruction. There is 
a good reason. The light which they enjoy there is calculated to break the 
superstitious si^ell 6f saints, confessing to the priest, relics, absolution, pen- 
ance, and give to them notions of God himself, in His Word and works, 
which would conflict with the value of holy water, and dead men's bones, 
and prayers measured out by chains of beads. 

7. I have before referred to the principle of giving to districts " the 
power of appointing their religious instruction most congenial to the feel- 
ings of the population." This is the whole object of the report — to adopt 
a system by which any district may have any religious sentiments inculcated 
which they desire. If this is not sought by the report, there is no object to 
be gained by any change of system. 

But the Secretary says, in closing : " If . . . any schools would be per- 
verted to the purposes of a narrow and exclusive sectarianism, a remedy 
might be found by giving authority to the Board of Commissioners to 
investigate complamts, and to dissolve ofliending schools, or withhold its 
share of the school money." If no religious reading of the Scriptures can 
be had without sectarian influence, according to his own principle, will the 
Scriptures be banished from the schools ? If, as is an axiom in his lan- 
guage, " all schemes of education must convey some religious instruction," 
which, he says, must necessariTy be sectarian in its tendency, will he 
remove the influence by removing the religious instruction, which can be 
done only by shutting our schools altogether ? There is an inconsistency 
here. 

8. As the memorialists depend so much on equality, so let us throw our- 
selves back on our democratic principle of the majority ; and as the great 
mass of our citizens are in favor of the old system, let us retain it. 



JOUENAL OF COMMEECE.' 48T 

9. The Secretary has attempted to excite the jealousy of the Legislature 
and the people, by saying that the Public School Society is " subject to no 
control," except that the Common Council can omit designating their 
schools as recipients of the public bounty ; that they are not accountable to 
any authority — a perpetual corjDoration ; that the people have no choice of 
trustees, &c. This is as unjust to the trustees as it is unwise in its tendency. 
There has been but little or no fault found with these indefatigable public 
servants, but by the Roman Catholics, who do it on sectarian grounds, and 
the aspersion contained in it is not in harmony with the just tribute of com- 
mendation primarily given by him. Further, it is involving the people in a 
new sulject of discussion and contest. We have enough opposition and 
collision without adding more. 

10. The Secretary recommends the new system because it will be " vol- 
untary." This has struck me as being a peculiarly happy feature in the 
Public School Society. One hundi'ed intelligent citizens devoting a great 
deal of their time, voluntarily and gratuitously, to the education of the 
youth of this city, is a consideration of no small moment, and a Society 
which is more efficient can seldom he found. Of all the different classes of 
effort made by men for the accomplishment of any enterprise, the voluntary 
exertion claims the highest place. It is more ciBcient because it is more 
energetic ; it is more noble because it is more disinterested ; and it is more 
valuable because it reaps a richer reward. Who, then, is in favor of chang- 
ing this system for one founded on the election of commissioners and trus- 
tees elected by the people ? Are not the body of intelligent men now acting 
in that capacity just as intelligent as if they had their mental scale guaran- 
teed by the ballots of the people ? 

11. Tlie Secretary admits that it is an objectionable feature in this meas- 
ure that it originated with a sect. This cei'tainly is a powerful argument 
against it. It is done at the dictation of a minority of the citizens ; this 
minority always combined a religious body, and commenced on professedly 
sectarian grounds. Let us, if we value our liberty — if we value the har- 
mony of the community — if wo place a just estimate on the peqjctuity of 
our institutions — let us be very watchful against the march of sectarian 
privilege. This will be a tirst step — a great one.- Make this compromise, 
set this precedent, loosen the restraint which has hitherto existed, and threat 
will follow demand, and discord will follow non-comi)liance, and rupture 
will terminate in the ^ranting of the boon sought for — a ijrivileged Church 
establishment. 

13. The Secretary suggests that the system ho recommends will, 'by 
exciting emulation in the different sects, bring into the school all children 
not attending any. If this is a state of society which will promote the har- 
mony and union of the whole, human nature will have undergone some 
change. This emulation between sects, in so large and thickly populated a 
city, embracing numerous denominations, will lead to unfair means for 
obtaining scholars. Each school receiving a proportion of the fund depend- 
ing on the number of scholars, one teacher will make one offer, another will 
give a greater inducement to the children, and thus sectarian feuds, religious 
squabbles, school and church quarrels, would agitate the community. 



488 TDE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

13. But, could this be avoided, he promises us something as much to bo 
deprecated. " The -watchfulness of those who apprehend abuse may be 
relied upon to detect it promptly, and to seek the needful remedy." Now, 
it may be said in this case, as has been said of party spirit, " Never was the 
coimtry so likely to be destroyed as when party spirit was prevalent 
throughout the land " — a remark founded on an acquaintance with human 
nature. 

Cabals, parties, and divisions destroyed the Komau government, and 
may, in turn, destroy ours ; and any thing which might promote envyings, 
jealousies, heart-burnings, captiousness, and the rancor of party spirit, 
should be crushed rather than encouraged. The vigilance of those who 
watch for abuse is very apt to be itself, in its morbid vision, the creator of 
the objects it pretends to see ; and often the character of individuals and 
associations is destroyed by the combination of parties and cliques. As this 
vigilance sees through a very questionable medium, it is better to establish 
a system not depending on the accusations of opponents, but on the confi- 
dence of the people ; and as the former kind of care and watchfulness is 
seldom regarded by those who have the power in their hands, its exercise 
would be not only perplexing, but worse than useless. 

14. Proscription would follow from both of these causes. Instead of an 
argument, I will present a fact which will be its own commentator. At 
Paisley, in Scotland, the schools were conducted on this principle, and the 
consequence was, that the enmity became so great that one set of people 
would not trade with another ; a third would not speak to the fourth, and 
thus the social tics between townsmen were rudely snapped asunder by this 
execrable spirit. 

15. The trustees, being elected by the people, will add another item to 
the political capital of electioneers. Parties will test their strength, and 
the successful candidates will, of course, appoint teachers whose opinions 
are not " hostile to their views," and the consequence will be, that the 
school-house will become a politico-religious nursery, as changeable as the 
sentiments and population of the several districts. If this transmission is 
desirable, let the people speak for themselves. 

AirERICTJS. 

On Tuesday evening, June 1st, a meeting of the Catholics 
was held at Washington Hall, in New Yoi'k City, at winch 
addresses were made by James W. McKeon and Bishop Hughes. 
In the course of his remarks, Mr. McKeon said: 

Tfu; Umporarij ihfcat of the Ull might be ascribed to the efforts of the 
School Society, which had its agents watching every step of its progress 
vrith argus eyes. The conduct displayed he was indignant to name. It was 
the meekness of the dove without its innocence, the cunning of the serpent 
without its wisdom. Ay, they pushed their exertions to an extremity at 
■which they recoiled upon themselves ; for, though the dishonorable means 
resorted to effected the object, it has pulled down upon them a load of oblo- 



EEVIEW OF THE SCHOOL QUESTION. 489 

quy from which their institution could not rise unstained througli series of 
years of its existence. A i)ile, loathsome, and revolting attach upon the faith 
of a large portion of the petitioners was placed, by a functionary high in 
the confidence of the Society, in the hands of senators on the morning it was 
mpposed the tote would ie taken on the MIL 

In reference to tlie same matter, Bishop Iluglies used the fol- 
lowing language : 

I do not say that the trustees of the School Society were themselves per- 
sonally the distributors of these slanders ; but, to give you a sjiecimen of 
what was done, their agent, or one of their agents, at Albany, was detected 
placing on the desks of the senators, what think you ? Why, an ahsnrd and 
aT)ominal>le malediction, which they put forth as the Catholic form of excom- 
munication, but which, in fact and in truth, was nothing more than a pure 
fabrication of Sterne, written for his own amusement, in his book called 
" Tristkam Shakdt." And these high literary gentlemen, these self-consti- 
tuted, peculiar, exclusive dispensers of light and knowledge and education, 
were either so ignorant as not to know the true character and origin of the 
document which they so industriously circulated, or, knowing its character, 
they were so bigoted, and careless of honor and truth and justice and good 
principle, in their anxiety to forward a bad cause, that they did not hesitate 
to give the falsehood currency. . . . That Society, which has so persever- 
ingly opposed every effort which we have made for redress, has abundantly 
earned for itself that ejjithet, which has been often applied to it, of a soul- 
less corporation, and has used every artifice and means in its power to vilify 
and defame us and our principles. Yes, defamation is the term. I do not 
say they have done it knowingly. That is not a point for me to determine. 
But they have defamed us. I aver it, and insist upon it — they have defamed 
us with their extracts from " Tristram Shandy," and other documents of an 
equ.ally high literai'y character, creditable to the liberality and the preten- 
sions to learning and knowledge of a body so ambitious to be the sole 
instructors of the youth of the city. And I challenge them to meet me and 
prove that what they have laid to our charge has any foundation in truth, 
or is any thing else but defamation. 

After the delivery of the grcfit speech by Bishop Hughes, 
the anonymous author of the " Brief Review " above given, 
published, also anonymoiisly, the first part of a " Review of the 
School Question," in which the following passage occurs : 

In the opinion of the writer, too much importance has been attached to 
the simple extract which has called forth so much remark. It was given as 
a fact to show the nature of the principles which would be supported by 
sectarian schools, at least in part, and but a solitary remark was oflered, for 
the arguments and statistics were the objects of attention ; but as it has 
been made so prominent a topic ever since the defeat of the bill, and the 



490 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

pretext for calumniating tlie Public School Society, I am constrained to sub- 
mit the proofs. 

I am accused of defaming their faith. Now, defamation may be true or 
false in its terms, but I believe it is not measured so much by these, as by 
the injury effected to the reputation of any individual or cause. If I am 
charged ■with being a libeller in the latter sense — that of injuring their 
cause — I i^lead guilty ; but if in the first — that of uttering falsehood — I 
j)Iead emphatically not guilty. 

What was the conduct of the Bishop ? Did he confront me with evi- 
dence that the form had not been used ? Did he deny that any such person 
as Mr. Hogan had been a pastor of one of their churches ? ■ Did he produce 
evidence that it had riot been pronounced in this simple instance, if in no 
other ? No, none of these ; but he pronounces it to be an ikvention of 
Sterne's, a libel, a defamation. 

As nothing has been said heretofore in relation to the case of Mr. Hogan, 
I shall not stop to furnish evidence which would be gratuitous, as it has not 
been denied. If Bishoi) Hughes, however, thinks it important, and will 
make his wishes known, it shall he produced. 

Instead of presenting the details of the above case, I introduce an ex- 
tract from the London Quaiierly Eevieio, for March, 1841, pp. 303, 304 (Ma- 
son's American reprint), which ■will exhibit the similarity of tlie curse used 
in Ireland ■with the one referred to above. " The examination was taken 
down in order to be laid before a committee of the House of Lords, on 
oath.'''' 

Q. Were you in the chapel on the day of the cursing ? 

A. I was. 

Q. Did you hear it ? 

A. I did. 

Q. What did the priest say ? 

A. I'll be bound he cursed her well. . . . [The next witness came, 

promising to tell aM about it, to oblige Mr. , but evincing the greatest 

dislike to be known to have done so.] 

Q. Were you in Chapel the day the woman was cursed ? 

A. I was. 

Q. Did you hear it ? 

A. I did. 

Q. At what Mass ? 

A. At second Mass. 

Q. Did the priest give a reason for cursing the woman ? 

A. He said it was " going here and there." 

Q. What did he mean by that ? 

A. Because, he said, she was to and fro, going sometimes to mass and 
sometimes to cliurch. 

Q. What did he say to her ? 

A. He said enough, I'll be bound. 

Q. What did he say ? 

A. He cursed every inch of her carcass. 

Q. Did he bid the people not to speak to her ? 

A. He desired them not to speak to her, or deal with her, or have any 
thing to do with her. 

Q. Did he curse her child ? [the poor creature was pregnant at the time.] 



EOMAK CATHOLIC EXCOMMUNICATIONS. 491 

A. He cursed every thing that would spring from her. 

Q. Did he say any thing about the child she was carrying — did he curse 
the fruit of her womb ? 

A. I did not hear him say tlmt ; he cursed every thing that would spring 
from her. 

§. How was he dressed ? 

A. He threw oif the clothes he had on, and put on a black dress. 

Q,. Did he do any thing with candles ? 

A. 'Tis the way ; the clerk quenched all the candles but one, and him- 
self put out that, and said, " so the light of heaven was quenched upon her 
soul ; " and ho shut a book, and said the gates of heaven were shut upon 
her that day. 

Q,. What do you mean by saying '• he cursed every inch of her carcass " ? 

A. He cursed her eyes, and her ears, and her legs, and so on — every bit 
of her. 

. . . The neighbors of the poor woman withdrew from intercourse 
with her. Shopkeepers refused to sell even liread to her. Her own chil- 
dren were included in the curse, except one, who was in the service of a 
Roman Catholic lady, and was prohibited from speaking to his mother. 
The poor woman with whom they lodged was so tormented by the neigh- 
bors that they were obliged to quit the house, and must have perished in 
the street, had they not been received into the house of a Protestant ; and 
when Ihe poor creature's confinement approached, a Roman Catholic lady 
prohiliited the usual person from attending her, under threat of losing her 
support ; and no one could be found to attend until the wife of the clergy- 
man of the parish (from whom we heard this ourselves) interested herself to 
obtain from the priest a reluctant permission. 

The above is modern excommunication. I wilt now carry the reader 
back to a more remote period, and show the character of the formula: used 
in other days, as well as to prove that the very form so strongly objected to 
was known and in use more than six hundred years lefore the hirth of Stenic. 

In a work entitled the Protestant Journal, for 1831, pp. 53G-539, 1 find 
the following historical narrative, taken from the Historiw Ecchsm Skan- 
geliom in Hangaria, pp. 153-15G : 

At a congregation of Protestant ministers, members of the presbytery 
of the thirteen towns in Hungary which were at that time subject to the 
dominion of Poland, held at Filcau, November 13, 1630, Barbara Von Grot- 
tendorf, wife of Lewis Szgedi, of Varallia, complained that she was deserted 
by her husband, who had avoided her society for years, and had been guilty 
of violation of the laws of marriage, and prayed for divorce. Forty-fivo 
days were allowed to Szgedi to make his appearance before this ecclesiastical 
court. Notice to this effect was given him, not only by affi.xing his name to 
the church-doors at Varallia, but he was further summoned by name every 
Sunday for si.x weeks, at the conclusion of divine service. As the defendant 
did not make his appearance at the end of this time, permission was given 
to Barbara Von Grottendorf to marry another husband, John Krebcll, a 
goldsmith of Varallia. These circumstances being communicated to Ladis- 
laus Hoszszuthoty, president of the chapter of Czepus, the latter prohibited 
John Pilemann, the Protestant pastor of Varallia, from uniting them in 
marriage. As, however, Pilemann proceeded to solemnize the marriage, 
Hoszszuthoty fortified himself with the authority of the cardinal, Peter Paz- 
mann, archbishop of Strigonum, and primate of Hungary, and twice sum- 
moned Peter Zabler, superintendent of the presbtery, John Serpilius, one of the 
elders, and Pilemann himself, to appear before the archiepiscopal consistory. 



492 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

They were charged with contumacy, and the president told them that 
they were worthy of excommunication. The narrative proceeds : 

He then procured an interdict, issued by Cardinal Pazmann against the 
twenty-four pastors of the presbytery generally, and against Zabler, Serpi- 
Uus,_aud Pilemann, individually; and further, that the sentence of excom- 
munication which follows this historical notice should be publicly read at 
the cathedral, on the 19th, 22d, and 27th days of December, 1632. Know- 
ing the inveterate hatred of the Romish clergy, and dismayed at the effects 
which they too well knew would follow from this excommunication, the 
Protestants had recourse to Prince Lubemiski, chancellor of the kingdom 
of Hungary, and to other persons of distinguished rank. At length, after 
many negotiations and the most humiliating concessions, the intolerant pro- 
vost consented to take off the excommuuic;ition on condition of one hun- 
dred and thirty dollars being paid. Additional fruitless attempts were 
made to propitiate him ; but finally the advocates of the Protestants suc- 
ceeded in pacifying him, by paying him fifty gold crowns, on the 23d of 
March, 1633. 

Here follows the form of excommunication, which is different from that 
first given, by its being more virulent and persecuting, cursing even their 
conception, though it is nearly the same in its outlines. I make only one 
short extract : 

I adjure thee, O Lucifer ! with all thy imps, also with the Father and the 
Son, and with the Holy Spirit, and with the human nature and nativity of 
the Lord, and with the virtue of all the saints, that thou rest not night and 
day until thou hast brought them to destruction, whether they be drowned 
in rivers, or be hung, or be devoured by beasts, or be burnt, or be slain by 
enemies ; let them be hated by every person living, or even their ghosts. 

A cardinal in the true Church, standing up at the altar and praying to 
tlic daoil, as superior to the Lord of Hosts, and blasijhemously uniting Luci- 
fer, the prince of hell, in his invocations and imprecations, with the King 
of saints !. This is the last extremity, certainly ; but probably the cardinal 
had the best reason for invoking Lucifer and his imps, on account of his 
more familiar acquaintance with them. It will be recollected that Sterne 
was born in 1713, and that these things occurred eighty years anterior to the 
hirili of Sterne, and about one hundred and thirty years before the publica- 
tion of " Tristram Shandy." 

This testimony, however, being merely historical, and the actors in it 
having been long since numbered with the dead, it may be questioned with 
the greatest coolness by any one who wishes to dispute it. I therefore pass 
on to my last proof that Sterne did not invent the form of excommunication 
attributed to him. 

I have on the table before me a book entitled " Glossarium Arclmologi- 
cum : continens Latino Barbara, Peregrina, Obsoleta, et Novata; Significa- 
tionis Voeabula, &c. Authore Henrico Spelmanno, Equite, Anglo-Britan- 
no, Londini, mdclxxxvii." On pp. 205 — 206 of this book, I find the follow- 
ing formula, which, as will be seen at the close, Spelman obtained from a 
manuscript volume compiled during the reign of William the Conqueror, 
who occupied the throne of England from the time of the Norman con- 



EOMAN CATHOLIC EXCOMMUNICATIONS. 493 

quest, decided by the battle of Hastings in 1066, until 1087, nearly seven 
centuries priar to the publication of " Tristram Shandy ^ 

ExcoMMtTNiCATio. — Ex auctoritatc Dei omnipotentis, Patris, ct Filii, et 
Spiritus Sancti ; et sanctum canonum, sanctteque ct intemeratoc virgiuis Dei 
geuetricis Mariae, atque omnium cclestium virtutum, angelorum, archangelo- 
rum, throuorum, dominationum, potestatum, cherubin, ac seraphin, ct sancto- 
rum patriarcharum, prophetarum, et omnium apostolorum et evaugelistarum, 
et sanctorum inuocentium qui in conspectu agui soli digni invent! svmt can- 
ticum cantare novum, et sanctorum martyrum, ct sanctorum confessorum, et 
sanctarum virginum, atque omnium simul sanctorum et clectorum Dei, Ex- 
communicamus et anathematizamus hunc furem, vel liunc malefactorem N., 
et a liminibus sauctJB Dei ecclesia; sequestramus, ut seterni suppliciis cruci- 
andus mancipetur cum Dathan et Abiron, et cum his qui dixeruut Domino 
Deo, " ItecccU a nolis, acientiam marum tunrum nolumus" et sicut aqua iirnis 
extinguitur, sic extinguitur lucerna ejus in secula scculorum, nisi resipuerit, 
et ad satisfactionem veuerit. Amen. 

Maledicat ilium Deus Pater qui hominem creavit. Maledicat ilium Dei 
Filius, qui pro homine passus est. Maledicat ilium Spiritus Sanctus, qui in 
baptismo efi'usus est. Maledicat ilium sancta crux, quam Christus pro nostra 
salute hostem triumphans ascendit. Maledicat ilium sancta Dei genetrix et 
perpetua virgo Maria. Maledicat ilium sanctus Michael animarum susceptor 
sacrarum. Maledicat ilium omnes angeli, et archangeli, principatus, et jjo- 
testates, omnisque militia celestis exercitus. Maledicat ilium patriarcharum 
et proplietarum laudabilis Humerus. Maledicat ilium sanctus Johannes, pre- 
cursor et Baptista Christi proecipuus. Maledicat ilium sanctus Petrus, et 
sanctus Paulus, et sanctus Andreas, omnesque Christi Apostoli simul et 
ceteri discipuli ; quatuor quoque evangelists; qui sua predicationo mundum 
universum converterunt. Maledicat illnni cuneus martyrum et confessorum 
mirificus qui Deo bonis operibus placitus, inventus est. Maledicant ilium 
sacrarum virginum chori, qufe mundi vana causa honoris Christi respuenda 
contempseruut. Maledicant ilium omnes saucti, qui ab initio mundi usque 
in fiuem seculi Deo dilecti inveniuntur. Maledicant ilium coeli et terra, et 
omnia sancta in eis manentia ! 

Maledictus sit ubicuraque fuerit, sive in domo, sive in agro, sive in via, 
sive in semita, sive in silva, sive in aqua, sive in ecclesia. 

Maledictus sit vivendo, moriendo, manducando, bibendo, esuriondo, siti- 
endo, jejunando, dormitando, dormiendo, vigilaudo, ambulando, stando, 
sedendo, jacendo, operando, quicscendo, mingendo, cacando, flebotomando. 

Maledictus sit in totis viribus corporis. Maledictus sit intus et cxterius. 
Maledictus sit in capillis. Maledictus sit in cerebro. Maledictus sit in ver- 
ticc, in temporibus, in fronte, in auriculis, in superciliis, in oculis, iu genis, 
in maxilis, in naribus, in dentibus, in mordacibus, in labris, in gutture, in 
humeris, in harmis, in brachiis, in manibus, in digitis, ia pectore, in corde, 
et in omnibus interioribus stomacho tenus, in renibns, in inguinibus, in 
femore, in genitalibus, in coxis, in geuibus, in cruribus, in pedibus, in arti- 
culis et in unguibus. Maledictus sit iu totis compaginibus membrorum ; a 
vertioe capitis usque ad phintam pedis, non sit in co sanitas. 

Maledicat ilium Christus filius Dei vivi toto suae majestatis imperio ; et 
insurgat adversus eum ccelum cum omnibus virtutibus, qute in eo moventur, 
ad damnandum eum nisi poenituerit, et ad satisfactionem venerit. Amen. 
Fiat. Fiat. Amen. 

ExcoMMTiNiCATio. — Auctoritate Dei Patris omnipotentis, et Filii, et 
Spiritus Sancti, et beatoe Dei genetricis Mariae, omniumque sanctorum, et 
sanctorum canonum. • Excommunicarnus, anathematizamus, et a liminibus 
sancta; matris Ecclesia; sequestramus illos malefactores N. consentaneos 
quoque vel participes, et nisi resipuerint, et ad satisfactionem venerint ; sic 



494 THE PDBLIO SCHOOL BOCIETY. 

fcxtinguatur lucema eorum ante viventem, in secula seculoram. Fiat. Fiat. 
Amen. 

Hae Excommunicationum fonnulse sequuntur Emendationes legum, quas 
Guliclmus Conquestor edidit, iu libro vocato Texius Moffensis, MS. et viden- 
tur sub eo ipso iBvo conditae ; quia iu superioribus nusquam, quod scio, repe- 
ritur beatce virginis Marice invocatio. 

In Gorton's " Biographical Dictionary," vol. ii., in a notice of Sir Henry 
Sijelman, I find the following language : " He piinted a specimen in 1621, 
and in 1626 appeared the first part, entitled, ' Archaohgicus in modum Olos- 
sarii ad rem antiquam posteriorum folio.'' The sale of this Taluable woi'k was 
so unpromising, that the second part was not published till after the death 
of the author." " His death took place in 1641, and his body was interred 
in Westminster Abbey." 

See also Hale's " Analysis of Chronology," 4 vols. 8vo., London, 1830, at 
p. 341 of vol. iii., where reference is made to Boxhomius' " History of the 
Low Countries," and Brandt's " Abridgment," vol. i. p. 6, where the said 
foi-m may be found. 

Here, then, we have the crand point decided. Bishop Hughes alleges 
that the form first quoted was a fabrication of Sterne's. Now, books can be 
referred to which were published eighty-seven years before the birth of 
Sterne, and one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty years prior 
to the publication of " Tristram Shandy ; " and the volume on the table 
before me is of the third edition, which was printed twenty-four years iefore 
Sterne teas horn. 

In the scenes above narrated, personages of more importance than Tor- 
ick, Obadiah, Captain Shandy, and My Uncle Toby, played their parts, 
before any of them had even the ideal existence which Sterne gives them. 
I know not how Bishop Hughes can set aside such proof, except on the prin- 
ciple that " coming events cast their shadows before," and, in this case, cast- 
ing an unusually long one. 

It will be seen, by the extract from his speech, that he charges the Pub- 
lic School Society with cu'culating and approving the " Brief Review," 
because tJiey do not disclaim it. 

Because they do not ofliciously disclaim and condemn the murder of 
Thomas a Becket, they must be held responsible ! Because they do not dis- 
avow the murder of Queen Anne, they must be held responsible for the con- 
duct of Henry VIH. ! Because they do not condemn the burning of the 
Alexandrian library by Caliph Omar, it is their act till they disclaim it — or, 
at least, they approve of it ! And, on the same principle, until the Roman 
Catholic Church disclaims the curses alove giccn toe hold them responsible ! A 
politic denial by Bishop Hughes is not suiEcient ; it must come from popes, 
cardinals, bishops, and priests ; for those dignitaries authorized and sanc- 
tioned them. The reverend speaker must admit my application of his argu- 
ment, or retract his unwarrantable abuse of the Public School Society in 
relation to this jnatter. 

If he persists in denying the truth of my evidence, as I have proved my 
side of the question, if he thinks it desirable, he must produce the excom- 



REVIEW OF THE SCHOOL QUESTION. 495 

munication which was used in tJw case of Mr. Hogan. This is the alternative ; 
and, in the mean time, I shall not be overawed by the legal, literary, and 
ecclesiastical array of gentlemen whose research can pierce no farther into 
the gloom of antiquity than the '• Life and Character of Tristram Shandy." 

Amekious. 



[For the convenience of the reader the following tr.inslation of tho form 
of excommunication as given by Sir Henry Spelman is inserted.] 

EXCOMMDNICATIOX. 

By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, ami of the 
holy canons, and of the pure and holy Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, "and of all heaTeuiy 
intelligences, angels, and archangels, thrones, dominions, and powers, cherubim, and ser- 
aphim, and of the holy patriarchs, prophets, and all apostles and evangelists, and holy 
innocents, who in the sight of the Lamb have been found worthy to sing the new song; 
and of the holy martyrs and holy confessors, and holy virgins, and of all the holy and 
elect of God together, we do excommunicate and anathematize this thief, the malefactor N., 
and do separate him from the threshold of the holy Church of God, that he may be given 
over to be tormented with everlasting punishments, with Dathau and Abiram, and with 
those who said unto the Lord God, " Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy 
ways ; " and as fire is extinguished by water, so let his lamp be extinguished, world with- 
out end, unless he shall repent and make satisfaction. Amen. 

Curse him, God the Father, who created man. Curse him, the Son of God. who suf- 
fered for man. Curse him, the Holy Spirit, who is poured forth in baptism. Curse him, 
the holy cross, which Christ ascended for our salvation, triumphing over tlie enemy. 
Curse him, the holy mother of God, and perpetual virgin, jiary. Curse him. St. Michael, 
the receiver of holy souls. Curse him, all angels and archangels, principalities and pow- 
ers, and all the host of the heavenly army. Curse him, the worthy multitude of patriarchs 
and prophets. Curse him, St. John, the forerunner, and particularly the baptizer of 
Christ. Curse him, St. Peter, and St. Paul, and St. Andrew, .and all the apostles and 
disciples of Christ, together with the four evangelists, who by their preaching converted 
the whole world. Curse him, the wondrous company of martyrs and confessors, that have 
been found acceptable unto God by their good works. Curse him, the bands of holy virgins, 
who for the sake of the honor of Christ have counted worthless the vanities of the world. 
Curse him, all saints, who from the beginning of the world unto the end of time, ai'c found 
beloved of God. Curse him, heaven and earth, and all holy things abiding therein. 

Cursed be he wheresoever he shall be, whether in the house, or in the field, or in the 
way, or in the footpath, or in the wood, or in the water, or in the church. 

Cursed be he in living, in dying, in eating, in drinking, in hungering, in thirsting, in 
fasting, in slumbering, in sleeping, in watching, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying 
down, in working, in resting, [in the calls of nature,] and in blood-letting. 

Cursed be he in all the powers of his body. Cursed be he inwardly and outwardlv. 
Cursed be he in his hair. Cursed be he in his brain. Cursed be he in the crown of his 
head, in his temples, in his forehead, in his ears, in his eyebrows, in his eyes, in Lis cheeks, 
in his jaws, in his nostrils, in his teeth, in his giuns, in his lips, in his throat, in his 
shouldys, in his arms, in his wrists, in his hands, m his fingers, in his breast, in his heart, 
and in all the inner parts of his body to his stomach; in his veins, in his groin, in bis 
thighs, in his genitals, in his hips, in his knees, in his legs, in his feet, in his joints, and in 
his toes. Cursed be he in all the structures of his limbs ; from the crown of his head to 
the sole of his foot; let there be no soundness in him. 

Curse him, Christ, the Son of the living God, in iiU the authority of his majesty ; and 
let heaven, with all the intelligences that abide therein, rise m> against him for tiis damna- 
tion, unless he shall repent and make satisfaction. Amen. So be it. Be it so. Amen. 

ExcoMMU.vicATiON'. — By the authority of God the Father Almighty, and of tlie Son, and 
of the Holy Ghost, and of the blessed Mary, mother of God, and of all the saints, and of 
the holy Canon : We excommunicate, we anathematize, and we separate from the thresh- 
old of the holy mother Church, these malefactors, N., and those who sympathize and 
participate with them ; and unless they shall repent and render satisfaction, let their 
tamps be put out before the living, for ever and ever. Be it so. So be it. Amen. 

Thc-<e forins of excommunication follow the etuendations of law--, approved 
by "William tlie Conqueror, in a manuscript volume called the Tcxtus I'offenais, 
and appear to have originated at that very period, because nowhere in earli- 
er times, so far as I know, is found the invocation of the Virgin Mary. 



496 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE SCHOOL QUESTION OP 1842. 

Hon. John C. Spencer — The LegisUUure of 1S42 — Appointment of Committees — Com- 
mittee on Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools — Hon. William B. Maclay — 
Hon. John I. Dix — Governor Seward's Message — Report on the School Question — 
Proceedings of the Legislature — Mr. Maclay's Bill Passed. 

The dis.appointinent of the advocates of Mr. Spencer's school 
bill was very great. Mr. Spencer, with the perseverance which 
formed a prominent feature of his character, had sought to win 
support to the measure by the elaborate report presented to the 
Legislature in April. He was charged by opponents with hav- 
ing " coquetted with the New York delegation all winter, to 
obtain their aid in its passage." He had appeared, on one occa- 
sion, before that delegation, to whom he submitted and advo- 
cated his plan. Dr. William Eockwell, Joseph B. Collins, and 
Theodore Sedgwick being present on behalf of the Public School 
Society. 

The postponement of the question by the Senate until Janu- 
ary, 1843, caused the election of the members of the Legislature 
for that year to be regarded, as already stated, with moi-e than 
usual interest by all parties. The candidates of the Whig, as 
well as those of the Democratic party in the city of New York, 
were respectively addressed by the friends of the Public School 
Society in a series of interrogatories. Their support was with- 
held from any candidate in favor of any change in the existing 
system of public instruction, and a refusal to reply to the ques- 
tions proposed was deemed as favoring such change. 

The excitement in respect to the " school question " was very 
great, and the election of the successful candidates turned upon 
that issue. Upon the assembling of the Legislature in January 
following, and hcfore the organization of the two Houses, the 
question engaged the thoughts, and was the topic of constant 
conversation among leading Democrats at the Capitol. As a 



GOVEEXOK SEWAEd's MESSAGE. 497 

party, they had much to lose by the contiuued agitation of the 
question ; and yet, having a majoi-ity in both branches, they had 
also to incur the responsibility of its settlement. With this 
view, and anticipating that the subject would be laid before the 
Legislature by Governor Sewaed, in his message, more than 
usual care was taken in the organization of the Committee on 
Colleges, Academies, and Common Schools, to which that por- 
tion of the message was referred. In the House of Assembly, as 
soon as the new Speaker (Levi S. Chatiield) had been chosen, he 
announced among his political friends his determination of 
appointing William B. Maclay, of Xew York, as chairman of 
the Committee on Schools. Horatio Seymour (afterwai'd Gov- 
ernor of the State), and other leading men, were then members 
of the body. Mr. Maclay had already served in the House dur- 
ing the sessions of 1840 and 1841. At the jireceding session, 
the House of Assembly had chosen, by ballot, three of its mem- 
bers as a committee to investigate the affairs of the New York 
and Erie Eailroad Company. Mr. Maclay was a member of this 
committee, and was absent from the city of New York in the 
prosecution of the duties assigned him during the election of the 
past autunm, and had been elected without any pledge or com- 
mittal to any of the parties. Tlie presumption was, that, under 
his direction, a full and dispassionate inquiry would be made in 
relation to the public schools in the city of New York. He at 
tirst declined to act as chairman of the Committee on Schools, 
and urged that Gen. John I. Dix, then a representative from the 
county of Albany, should be appointed, alleging that his capacity 
and integrity would insinre confidence, among those who were 
either unwilling or unable to examine for themselves, in the 
conclusions at which he should arrive, while the committee 
would have the advantage derived from liis past experience as 
superintendent of the schools of the State. This view was ac- 
quiesced in, but, on consultation with General Dix, he declined 
to accept the position, and the programme of the committee 
remained as originally proposed by the Speaker, with the advice 
of Michael HoflTman, and other experienced members of the 
party to which he belonged. 

As had been anticipated, Governor Seward devoted a consid- 
erable portion of his message to a discussion of the subject of 
public instruction in the city of New York. The recommenda- 
32 



498 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tions thus presented are given in full in the foHowing extract 
t'roni tlie message : 

It was among my earliest duties to bring to the notice of the Legislature 
the neglected condition of many thousand children, including a very large 
proportion of those of immigrant parentage in our great commercial city — 
a misfortune then supposed to result from groundless prejudices and omis- 
sions of j)arental duty. Especially desirous, at the same time, not to disturb 
in .any manner the public schools, which seemed to be etEcicntly conducteil, 
although so many for whom they were established seemed to be unwilling 
to receive their instructions, I suggested, as I thought, in a spirit not inhar- 
monious with our civil and religious institutions, that, if necessary, it might 
be expedient to bring those so excluded from such privileges into schools 
rendered especially .attractive by the syrapjithies of those to ■whom the task 
of instruction should be confided. It has since been discovered that the 
magnitude of the evil was not fully known, and that its causes were very 
imperfectly understood. It will be shown to you, in the proper report, that 
twenty thousand children in the city of New York, of suitable age, are not 
at all instructed in any of the public schools ; while the whole number in 
all the residue of the State, not taught in common schools, does not exceed 
nine thousand. What had been regarded as individual, occasional, and 
accidental prejudices, have proved to be opinions pervading a large mass, 
including at least one religious communion equally with all others entitled 
to civil tolerance — opinions cherished through a period of sixteen years, and 
ripened into a permanent conscientious distrust of the' impartiality of the 
education given in the public schools. This distrust has been rendered still 
deeper and more alienating by a subversion of precious civil rights of those 
whose consciences are thus offended. 

Happily, in this as in other instances, the evil is discovered to have had 
its origin no deeper than in a departure from the equality of general laws. 
In our general system of common schools, trustees chosen by tax-paying citi- 
zens levy taxes, build school-houses, employ and pay teachers, and govern 
schools which are subject to visitation by similarly elected insijectors, who 
certify the qualifications of teachers ; and all schools thus constituted par- 
ticipate in just proportion in the public moneys, which are conveyed to them 
by commissioners also elected by the people. Such schools are found dis- 
tributed in average spaces of two and a half square miles throughout the 
inhabited portions of the 'State, and yet neither popular discontent, nor 
political strife, nor sectarian discord, has ever disturbed their peaceful In- 
structions nor impaired their eminent usefulness. In the public school sys- 
tem of the city, one hundred persona are trustees and inspectors, and, by 
continued consent of the Common Council, are the dispensers of an annual 
average sum of $35,000, received from the common school fund of the State, 
and a sum equal to $95,000, derived from an indiscriminating tax upon the 
real aud personal estates of the city. They build school-houses chiefly from 
the public funds, they appoint and remove teachers, fix their compensation, 
and i)rescribe the moral, intellectual, and religious instruction which one 



GOVERNOR SEWAHn's MESSAGE. 499 

1/ 
eighth of the rising generation of the State shall be required to receive. ' 

Their powers, more effective and far-reaching than are exercised by the 
municipality of the city, are not derived from the community whose chil- 
dren are educated and whose property is taxed, nor even from the State, 
which is so great an almoner, and whose welfare is so deeply concerned, but 
from an incorporated and perpetual association, which grants, upon pecu- 
niary subscription, the privileges even of life-membershijj, and yet holds in 
fee-simple the public school edifices, valued at eight hundred thousand dol- 
lars. Lest there might be too much responsibility, even to the association, 

that body can elect only one half of the trustees, and those thus selected 
appoint their fifty associates. 

The philanthropy and patriotism of the present managers of the public 
schools, and their efficiency in imijarting instruction, are cheerfully and 
gratefully admitted. Nor is it necessary to maintain that agents thus select- 
ed will become unfaithful, or that a system that so jealously excludes popu- 
lar interference must necessarily be imequal in its operation. It is only 
insisted that the institution, after a fair and sufficient trial, has failed to gain 
that broad confidence reposed in the general system of the State, and indis- 
pensable to every scheme of universal education. No plan for that purpose 
can be defended, except on the ground that public instruction is one of the 
responsibilities of the Government. It is, therefore, a manifest legislative 
duty to correct errors and defects in whatever system is established. In the 
present case, the failure amounts virtually to an exclusion of all the children 
thus withheld. I cannot overcome my regret that every suggestion of 
amendment encounters so much opposition from those who defend the pub- 
lic school system of the metropolis, as to show that, in their judgment, it 
can admit of no modification, either from tenderness to the c onscie nces or I 
regard to the c ivil rig hts of those aggrieved, or even for tlie^ reclamation of -■ 
those for whose culture the State has so munificently provided ; as if soci- 3 
ety must conform itself to the public schools, instead of the public schools 
adapting themselves to the exigencies of society. The late eminent Superin- 
tendent, after exposing the greatness of this public misfortune, and tracing 
it to the discrepancy between the local and general systems, suggested a 
remedy, which, although it is not urged to the exclusion of any other, seems 
to deserve dispassionate consideration. I submit, therefore, with entire will- 
ingness, to approve whatever adequate remedy you may propose, the expe- 
diency of restoring to the people of the city of New York — what I am sure 
the people of no other part of the State would, upon any consideration, 
relinquish — the education of their children. For this purpose, it is only 
necessary to vest the control of the common schools in a board, to be com- 
posed of commissioners elected by the people ; which board shall apportion 
the school moneys among all the schools, including those now existing, 
which shall be organized and conducted in conformity to its general regula- 
tions and the laws of the State, in the proportion of the number of pupils 
instructed. It is not left doubtful that the restoratiojjiL_to the common 
schools of the city of this simple and equal feature of the common schools 
of the State would remove every complaint, and bring into the seminaries 



500 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

/ the ofl'spring of want and misfortune, presented by a grand jury, on a recent 
(* occasion, as neglected children of both sexes, who are found in hordes upon 

^ the wharves and in corners of the streets, surrounded by evil associations, 

disturbing the public peace, committing petty depredations, and going from 
i) bad to worse, until their course terminates in high crimes and infamy. 

, y This proposition to gather the young from the streets and wharves into 

the nurseries which the State, solicitous for her security against ignorance, 
has prepared for them, has sometimes been treated as a device to appropri- 
ate the school fund to the endowment of seminaries for teaching languages 
and faiths, thus to jierpetuate the prejudices it seeks to remove ; sometimes 
as a scheme for dividing that precious fund among a hundred jarring sects, 
and thus increasing the religious animosities it strives to heal ; sometimes 
as a jjlan to subvert the prevailing religion, and introduce one repugnant to 
the consciences of our fellow-citizens ; while, in truth, it simply proposes, 
by enlightening equally the minds of all, to enable them to detect error 
wherever it may exist, and to reduce uncongenial masses into one intelligent, 
virtuous, hai'monious, and happy people. Being now relieved from all such 
misconceptions, it presents the questions v/hcther it is wiser and more hu- 
mane to educate the oft'sijring of the poor, than to leave them to grow up in 
ignorance and vice ; whether juvenile vice is more easily eradicated by the 
Court of Sessions than by common schools ; whether jjarents have a right to 
he heard concerning the instruction and instructors of their children, and 
taxpayers in relation to the expenditure of public funds ; whethei-, in a 
republican government, it is necessary to interjjose an independent corpora- 
tion between the people and the schoolmaster ; and whether it is wise and 
just to disfranchise an entire community of all control over public educa- 
tion, rather than sutfer a part to be represented in proportion to its numbers 
and contributions. Since such considerations are now involved, what has 
hitherto been discussed as a question of benevolence and of universal edu- 
cation, has become one of equal civil rights, religious tolerance, and liberty 
of conscience. We could bear with us, in our retirenient from public ser- 
vice, no recollection more worthy of being cherished through life, than that 
of having met such a question in the generous and confiding spirit of our 
institutions, and decided it upon the immutable principles on which they 
are based. 

This portion of the Message of the Governor was referred to 
tlie Committee on Colleges and Schools. Some time having 
elapsed, and no report having been made by the committee on 
the subject, a resolution was offered in tlie Assembly by Hon. 
John L. O'SuUivan, one of the New York city delegation, ask- 
ing that tlie Standing Committee on Colleges, &c., be discharged 
from the further consideration of the subject of common schools 
in the city of New York, and that the same be referred to a 
select committee. This motion was resisted by Mr. Maclay, 
who placed his opposition on two grounds : 1st. That he was 



ME. maclat's eepoet. 501 

unwilling tliat any one should suppose that he bad been indiffer- 
ent to the subject whicli had been referred to tlie Standing Com- 
mittee, or afraid to act upon it ; 2d. That the Secretary of State, 
as would appear by a reference to his annual report, had prom- 
ised a distinct report upon the subject of common schools in the 
city of New York, which had not yet been communicated to the 
House, and which the committee, as a matter both of use and 
propriety, desired to wait for. The motion of Mr. O'Sullivan 
was lost. 

There was an evident disposition, on the part of the domi- 
nant party in the Lcgislatiu-e, to leave the subject with the com- 
mittee to which it had been referred. On the 13th of January, 
Senator A. B. Dickinson introduced, in the Senate, a bill, which 
was substantially that of Mr. Spencer, but failed to obtain its 
reference to a select committee. On the lith of February, Mr. 
Maclay submitted to the House the following report, accompa- 
nied by a bill, which was subsequently amended and enacted : 

In Assembly, February 14, 1842. 
REPORT 
Of the Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common ScJwols, on so much of 

the Governor's Message as relates to the. Common Schools in the City of New 

Torlc. 

Mr. Maclay, from the Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common 
Schools, to whom was referred that portion of the Governor's Message which 
relates to the common schools in the city of New York, together with sun- 
dry petitions praying for an alteration of the existing system of common 
schools in said city, and a bill entitled " An Act to Extend and Improve the 
Benefits of Common School Instruction in the City of New York," keports : 

That the matters referred involved important inquiries, which have been 
diligently made by the committee, with the view of presenting to the House 
such conclusions as might, if adojited, tend to correct existing evils in the 
system of common school instruction in the city of New York, and at the 
same time extend its benefits. 

The importance of universal education in a republic is so manifest, that, 
while it has continually engaged the care of the Legislature, every one who 
has been elevated to the Executive chair of the State has pressed it with 
zealous earnestness uj)on the representatives of the people. Even while the 
revolutionary war was still unfinished, that revered patriot, George Clinton, 
in his annual speech of 1783, thus addressed the Legislature : 

In the present respite from the more severe calamities and distresses of 
the war, I cannot forbear suggesting to you a work which, I conceive, ought 
not to be deferred as the business of peace : the promotion and encourage- 
ment of learning. Besides the general advantages arising to society from 



502 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

liberal science, as restraining those rude passions wbicli tend to vice and 
disorder, it is the peculiar duty of the government of a free State, -R-here the 
highest employments are open to citizens of every rank, to endeavor, by the 
establishment of schools and seminaries, to difluse that degree of literature 
which is necessary to the due discharge of public trusts. 

The same revered Executive, in 1798, in his last message, felt it his duty 
to call the attention of the Legislature to the fact, that the benefits arising 
I'lora the establishment and endowment of academics were principally con- 
fined to the children of the opulent, and to recommend the foundation of 
common schools throughout the State, as happily adapted to remedy this 
inconvenience, and to dispense the blessings of knowledge to the whole con-.- 
munity. 

His successor, John Jay, concurring entirely in the views of his predeces- 
sor, recommended universal education as the most effective means of multi- 
plying the blessings of social order, and diflusing the influence of moral 
obligation. > 

The communications of the illustrious and patriotic Tomi^kius bear 
ample testimony to his adherence to the liberal and statesmanlike views of 
his predecessors. 

In his address to the Legislature in 181G, he reminds them that, as guar- 
dians of the property, liberty, and morals of the State, they were required, 
by every injunction of jjatriotism and wisdom, to endow, to the utmost of 
the resources of the State, schools and seminaries of learning. From that 
period until now, the constitutional duty of the Executive to suggest for the 
consideration of the Legislature such matters as are in his judgment expe- 
dient, has not been deemed to have been fully discharged, without similar 
manifestations Of enlightened zeal for the general difi"usion of the benefits 
of education among all classes of the community. The unanimity of the 
long line of honored statesmen who have presided over the interests of the 
State in regard to this subject, while it is among the most delightful themes 
of contemplation, affords the most conclusive evidence that the policy is 
firmly established in the affections of the people. However they may have 
differed upon other measures of importance to the public weal, on this sub- 
ject there has existed no contrariety of op)inion. 

The powerful arguments used by successi-RC Executives in defence of this 
system, and the cheerfulness with which the people have submitted to addi- 
tional burdens to sustain and extend it, would seem to render unnecessary 
any observations of your committee in favor of public education ; but they 
cannot refi'ain from noticing a suggestion, that the difficulties in regard to 
the education of the yoimg in the city of New York resulted from its being 
adopted among the responsibilities of Government, and that the Legislatui'e 
ought not to extend encouragement to this great object, but leave it, like 
religion, to the voluntai'y and unregulated action of the people. 

This suggestion proceeds upon an erroneous supposition, that the per- 
formance of acts of utility and beneficence to othersjin the aflairs of this 
transitory life, is considered as of equal obligation upon the consciences of 
men as the observance of those religious rites and duties which relate to 
their own eternal happiness in the life to come. 



MK. maclat's eepokt. 503 

But experience is an instructive teacher on tliis as on every otlicr subject. 
There are States in this Union which consent, and States which refuse, to 
establish a system of common schools ; while deplorable ignorance ijrevails 
in the latter, knowledge and morality are found in the former, and just in 
proportion to the efficiency and universality of their system of public in- 
struction. Even in the city of New York, containing within its bounds so 
great an amount of wealth and liberality, experience has fully shown the 
danger of trusting to any visionary hope that adequate provision for the . 
instruction of the poor could be obtained by voluntary contributions alone. 
The Puljlic School Society is only sustained by moneys derived from the 
common school fund, and taxes levied ujion the peojjie by law.' Our statute- 
book bears concurrent testimony with the codes of other civilized countries, 
'that the force of law must concur with the injunctions of religion, to clothe 
the naked, feed the hungry, relieve distress, and educate the offspring of the 
poor. 

All that appertains to public instruction in the city and county of New 
York, is substantially under the control of an incorporated institution known 
as " The Public School Society.'' The extraordinary powers of this Society 
have been ably and elaborately set forth in two reports which were made to 
the Legislature at its last session. This Society was incorporated in 1805. 
The late Superintendent of Common Schools, after recaiiitulating the differ- 
ent laws which have been passed in relation to it from that period to the 
present time, thus concludes the summary : 

Thus, by the joint operation of the acts amending the charter of the 
Society, of the statutes in relation to the distribution of the school moneys, 
and of the ordinance of the Common Council, designating the schools of 
the Society as the principal recipients of those moneys, the control of the 
public education of the city of New York, and the disbursement of nine 
tenths of the public moneys raised and apportioned for schools, were vested 
in this corporation. It is a perpetual coiijoration, and there is no power 
reserved by the Legislature to repeal or modify its charter. It consists of 
members who havi; contributed to the funds of the Society ; and, according 
to the provisions of the last act, the payment of ten dollars constitutes the 
contributor a member for life. The members annually choose fifty trustees, 
who may add to their number fifty more. 

From the petitions of many thousand inhabitants of New York, it ap- 
pears that objections are widely prevalent against this organization of pub- 
lic schools in that metropolis, and that the system so far fails to obtain the 
general confidence, that a very large numlier of children are left destitute 
of instruction. By the report of the acting Superintendent of Common 
Schools, made at the present session of the Legislature (Assembly Document 
No. 12), it appears that the whole number of children in the State (exclu- 
sive of the city of New York) between the ages of five and sixteen, is 
583,347 ; and of that number, 562,198, being more than ninety-six hun- 
dredths, attend the common schools ; while in the city of New York, out 
of the number of 05,571 children between the same ages, the whole number 
reported by the commissioners of that city as attending the schools was only 
41,385, being less than sixty hundi'cdths of the number, although the share 



504 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

of common school moneys distributed by the State and expended in the 
city, amounting to $35,415.10, was equally large in proportion with that 
expended iu other counties of the State. But in addition to that sum, an 
equal amount of $35,415.10, together with the additional sum of $60,000, 
was raised by the Common Council, swelling the total amount entrusted 
with the Public School Society, for the purpose of education in one year, 
to the sum of §130,830.20 ; while the whole sum expended in all the rest of 
the State, and by means of which 502,198 scholars arc taught, is only 
$581,555.75 ; making the expense in the city of New York more than $3.15 
for the instruction of each scholar, while in the other parts of the State it 
is less than $1.04 for e?.ch scholar. In other words, the expense of instruc- 
tion under the public school system in New York is more than three times 
the expense of instruction under the district school system. 

The comparison between the number of children attending school in the 
country and the city is still more favorable to the former, if the supposition 
of the acting Superiutendent of Common Schools be correct. There are, he 
says, upon an average, about fifty-five children instructed iu each of the dis- 
tricts reporting; and assuming an equal average number to be under in- 
struction in each of the 339 districts from which no reijorts have been 
received, the aggregate number of children between five and sixteen, exclu- 
sive of the city of New York, not taught in any district school, would 
amount to only about 8,000. 

Apart from these considerations, it can no longer be concealed or denied 
that the failure of the public schools to accomplish the objects contemplated 
^by the establishment, results, in a great degree, from a disinclination on the 
part of many parents to entrust these schools with the education of their 
children. The fact is, indeed, abundantly shown in the number of petitions 
now before the Legislature for a change in the present system, that it 
requii'es no additional proof. During the last sixteen years, the Public 
School Society, as it appears from its own admissions, has Jiad to defend its 
monopoly against the struggles of discontented masses of the population. 
Evidence more conclusive and aflecting is seen in the multitudes of children 
in the streets and on the wharves of the city, growing up to the rights and 
responsibilities of citizens, but strangers to the simplest elements of learn- 
ing, and acquiring only the education of vice. The rule of universal expe- 
rience is, that people in the country are less zealous for the difl'usion of edu- 
cation, and submit with less willingness to the burdens imposed for its 
maintenance, than those residing in cities. 

But here the rule is reversed. The statistics of the school system 
throughout the State show that ignorance is clearing oif, like a thick fog, 
from the agricultural districts, and settling with ominous portent over the 
emporium of the State. 

Now, those who oppose any change of the system, have attempted to 
account for so extraordinary a result by explanations ingenious and plausi- 
ble. But, so long as facts are facts, it will strike every man of ordinary 
reflection, that there is a deeper cause than any they have felt at liberty to 
assign or admit. That cause is complex, not simple. 



MR. maclay's report. 505 

In the first place, there is something exceedingly incongruous with our , 
republican habits of thinking, in the idea of taking the children of a popu- 
lation approaching half a million of souls, taxing them at the same time for 
the support and maintenance of the schools, and, -when both the children , 
and taxes are furnished, withdrawing both out of the hands of guardians ' 
and taxpayers, and handing them over to the management of an irresponsi- 
ble private chartered company. Such a concentration of power into mam- 
moth machinery of any description is odious to the feelings, and sometimes 
dangerous to the rights, of freemen. The genius of our institutions is, to J 
distribute power where it can be done, and, where it cannot, to define and 
restrict it. When thus distributed, it may not be capable of producing the 
same amount of good, but then its capacity for evil will be diminished in 
the same ratio ; and, if it go wrong, the remedy is always more simple, 
apparent, and easy of attainment. 

In the next place, the population of the city of New York is by no 
means homogeneous ; on the contrary, it is the object of education to make 
it so. Any system based upon the supposition that that homogeneousness 
now exists, and all will therefore absolutely conform, or can be obliged to 
conform, assumes the end to be attained, and overlooks the means of its 
accomplishment. 

The error is the same which lies at the basis of established churches ; 
and the failure of the public schools, however assiduous or efiicient these 
schools may be, arises from the very cause which prevents, in this country, 
the existence or toleration of an established system of religion. 

The Public School Society have alleged that they are not more a monop- 
oly than the different boards for hospitals and other charters in the city of 
New York. But there is this manifest difi"erence in the two cases, which 
strips the argument of any force or pertinency : the inmates of these chari- 
table institutions are cast upon the State, and she must find guardians for 
them. Not so the children of the city. They are surrounded by their 
parents, guardians, and friends, who have opinions which demand respect 
and rights which cannot be disregarded. 

The committee, after mature reflection, are unable to accord their assent 
to the inference which the advocates of the Public School Society derive 
from this argument. In the first place, supposing — which is untrue — ^that 
the constitution of the Public School Society, and its peculiar and over- 
shadowing powers and privileges, were analogous to the other institutions 
referred to, the abuses or important olijections of the one could not be dis- 
proved or corrected by admitting that the others were monopolies. Many 
contend that the banking institutions of the State are satisfactorily conduct- 
ed, and accomplish the purposes of their establishment ; but what should 
we think of their understanding, should they advance this as an argument 
to prove that the actions of many of these institutions had not resulted in 
disgrace and calamity ? When confined within narrow boundaries, possess- 
ing limited powers, affecting few interests, and conducted with devoted 
assiduity and energy, a corporation may, and often does, accomplish much 
public good. But the concentration of vast powers, the enlargement of the 



606 THE PUBLIC BCHOOL SOCIETY. 

sphere of operation, and the disregard or violation of popular rights, or 
even popular sentiment, Tvill render any corporation intolerable. 

It is too late to argue that private chartered corporations, with extraor- 
dinary powers and privilege.s, are more suitable or efficient agents for public 
objects than the community acting under general laws. But the question is 
not upon the merits or defects of other institutions ; it is, whether the Pub- 
1 lie School Society has or has not failed to accomplish the great object of its 
I establishment — the universal education of the children of the city of New 
York. That it has signally failed, has been shown by the statistics of the 
schools ; and there is, moreover, incontrovertible proof in the fact that nearly 
lone half of the citizens of the metropolis protest against the system, and 
demand its modification. 

The withholding of public confidence has been felt by the Public School 
Society itself, and they have endeavored humanely, but fruitlessly, to re- 
move it. They heretofore employed benevolent females to induce the poor 
to send their children to the schools. They ue.xt obtained from the Com- 
mon Council an ordinance of a compulsory nature ; and they have now 
public agents, at salaries, who are engaged in the labor of recruiting for the 
schools ; but all in vain. 

Such, then, is the evil to be corrected. But what is the remedy ? The 
committee confess that this, as in every similar instance, is the most difficult 
question. Nevertheless, it is apparent that the evil began with a departure 
from the confessedly equal and just system of common school education 
which prevails in all the other j^arts of the State ; and it can only be efJect- 
ually and satisfactorily corrected by bringing home the education of the 
young of the city to the business and bosoms of their parents. The com- 
mon school system of the State successfully and admirably accomplishes 
that object ; and the committee therefore recommend that the system shall, 
as far as it is practicable, be extended to the city and county of New York. 

In accordance with these views, they submit a bill, providing that, here- 
after, there shall be elected, in each ward of the city, three commissioners 
and two inspectors of common schools, and extending to the city so much 
of the general law of the State as relates to the powers and duties of these 
officers. This change, in harmony with the general system, contemplates 
the division of the city into a convenient number of school districts, and 
directs that the people shall elect trustees, who shall, in regard to common 
schools therein erected, establish, maintain, and regulate common schools in 
such districts, subject to the general regulation of the school commissionera, 
who are to apportion the public moneys among the several schools in the 
ratio of persons interested therein. 

In this recommendation the committee unanimously concur. 

In accordance with the foregoing views and recommendations, your com- 
mittee have instructed their chaii'man to introduce a bill. 

The following review of the report of Mr. Maelay apj)earcd 
in the Neio York Evangelist of March 3d. After quoting tlie 
material portions of tlie repoi't, the review continues: 



REVIEW OF MK. MACLAt's EEPOET. 507 

It is not our jjurpose to enter into a protracted discussion of the princi- 
ples whicli should characterize any system of public education, and the 
measures requisite to accomplish this object of fondest pursuit with every 
citizen who values the jirogressive develoijment of the powers of human 
society under a free government, and who regards as the most important 
lever in the overturoiug of all systems of despotism, and abodes of crime, 
the intellectual and moral cultivation of the people. We wish to present a 
few facts in relation to that point to which the committee has attached the 
greatest importance : Has the Public School Society fulfilled its trust ? And 
we here remark, that the report of the committee contains many palpable 
errors, which are calculated to give a very unfavorable character to the 
existing system of public schools in this city, which we feel it our duty and 
privilege to correct. 

I. The repoi-t of the committee represents that the number of children in 
the State, exclusive of this city, of the school age, between five and sixteen, 
ia 583,347 ; attending school, 502,198, or ninety-sis per cent. In the city, 
there are 65,571, while the number represented as attending school was 
41,385 — less than sixty per cent. 

In the first place, we contend the accuracy of these returns, and for sev- 
eral reasons. The carelessness and negligence of inspectors, the desire to 
make the largest returns, for the purpose of obtaining larger rates from the 
comptroller, not from fraud, but circumstances favoring these returns — and 
their acknowledged incorrectness. In proof of these positions, we coj)y, 
from the report of the Commissioners of Common Schools of this city for 
1841, the following curious facts. See also report of Superintendent of 
Common Schools, Schedule F, in full. 

In 1824, the number of children residing in the districts was 883,500 ; 
number under instruction, 4Q2,940 ; being an excess of children taught over 
those residing in the districts of 19,440 ! 

In 1825, children in the districts, 395,586 ; children under instruction, 
425,586 ; excess, 30,000 ! 

In 1827, children in the districts, 419,216 ; children taught, 441,826 ; 
excess of pupils over children in the districts, 23,640 ! 

In 1839, in twenty-seven counties in the State, there was an excess of 
more than 25,000 children reported as receiving instruction over the chil- 
dren of the legal age in the districts ! 

It would be arguing but little for the good sense of our readers, were we 
to comment upon such gross errors as these, and to attempt to convince 
them that the returns of last year are as liable to be full of errors as those 
of preceding years. But what an overpowering argument in favor of the 
district system ! It actually educates from twenty to thirty thousand chil- 
dren more than reside in the State ! 

II. Upon the report, then, which we may fairly presume to be incorrect, 
the committee enter into a comparison between the State and this city, and 
represent that, of 65,571 children of the legal age, only 41,385, or a little 
less than sixty per cent., receive instruction, making a consequent deficiency 
of 24,186. 



508 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The limit prescribed by law to tlie school age is from five to sixteen 
years of age. Now, it is a fact so evident that it is almost superfluous to 
present our corrected statement, that, in the country, children are engaged 
at agricultural labors during the summer, and attend school in winter the 
full time allowed by law ; while, in the city, that mass of the people who 
take advantage of the public schools are poor, and require the pecuniary 
assistance of the children to obtain their own subsistence. Hence, they are 
withdrawn from school at about twelve years of age ; and it is a recorded 
and well-known fact, that only seven per cent, of the children in the public 
schools are over twelve years of age. If, then, we regard the school age as 
consisting of eleven years — from five to sixteen — we must deduct four elev- 
enths from the duration of pupilage among the city population, it being 
here but seven years. This will reduce the deficiency 33,844, and leave less 
than 500 unijrovided for. But three elevenths will be more nearly correct, 
the number over twelve years making nearly this difference ; and we have 
but 6,383 uninstructed — about one fourth of the number stated by the com- 
mittee. 

In addition to the fact thus shown, the children instructed in private 
schools will leave but few of the juvenile i}art of our population who 
receive the " education of vice " spoken of by the committee, because the 
doors of the Public School Society are shut against them. And when it is 
recollected that many of these children are poor, we can easily see the social 
and domestic causes which tend, more or less, throughout the Union, to 
make the actual attendance at school much less than the number on register. 

But this is not all. We have presented some of the ridiculous errors 
which crowd the returns of the district system in the country ; we will now 
take a single specimen from the towns of the State, and bring forward our 
neighboring city of Brooklyn, which enjoys that system, to show the rela- 
tive percentage of attendance — assuming that the returns from cities are 
more correct than those from among scattered portions of the pojjulation. 

The report of the Commissioners of Common Schools for 1836 exhibited 
the following state of the schools : 

In the First District, there were 1,651 children ; under instruction, 210 — 
or twelve and three fourths per cent. 

In the Fourth District, 215 children ; under instruction, 55 — a fraction 
over twenty-five per cent. 

In the Sixth District, 300 children ; under instruction, 51 — a fraction 
over one sixth, or si.xteen per cent. 

Lest we should appear to select a very unfavorable year by which to 
make the comparison, we again refer to the report of the Superintendent of 
Common Schools for 1840 and 1841, by which it appears that, in 1840, there 
were 6,200 children, of whom 3,120, or thirty-four and one sixth per cent., 
were under instruction. In 1841, there were 7,966 children in the districts, 
of whom 2,274 — only twenty-eight and four sevenths per cent. — were under 
instruction. 

If these things are done in Brooklyn, what might we not assume of parts 
of the country where the population is distributed over wide districts ? 



REVIEW OF ME. MACLAy's EEPOET. 509 

in. The district system is more expensive than that which now exists in 
this city, and we are obliged in this respect also to differ from the report of 
the committee. They report that the expenses of instruction in this city is 
$3.15 for each child, while in the districts it is less than $1.04 per scholar. 
How such statements can be placed before an intelligent Legislature, is 
somewhat remarkable ; but they must be corrected. 

1. The amount of money paid by the State, out of its treasury, is $1.04, 
while no mention is made of the amount raised by the inhabitants of the 
districts themselves. See §§ 61, 63,' 63, 65, 68, 78, 79, 85, 86, and others, of 
Article Fifth, Title I., chapter xv., part 1, of the Revised Statutes, in rela- 
tion to district schools. The money paid by the State is the deficit in the 
necessary expenses of the district, and is not the entire expense of the 
schools. 

3. The money paid by the State to the Public School Society is 
$35,415.10; number of children reported, 41,385; the expense to the State 
being less than one dollar. The balance raised by the Common Council cor- 
responds in nature to that raised by the districts ; the city being regarded 
as one vast district, and the commissioners the acting trustees of the school 
moneys. 

3. The number of children in the schools of this city being received as 
reported, we have the total expenses of these schools, $115,799.43, divided 
among 41,385 children, or the whole charge about $3.70 ; while the full 
expenses under the district system, in funds raised by the districts and by 
the State, is $3.15 — the cost of our public schools, as erroneously stated by 
the committee. 

4. We refer again to the Brooklyn commissioners for another fact. 

In the Second District, 33 children were instructed, and the money paid 
by the commissioners was $114.81 — or $3.03 and a fraction. 

In the Sixth District, 51 children instructed ; $196.75 paid from school 
fund — or a few cents less than four dollars. 

The total expenditure, however, from the public fund, for 1,197 chil- 
dren, was $1,604.36 — or $1.34 and a fraction for each child — considerably 
more than the sum stated by the committee, independent of the sum raised 
by tne respeative districts. 

IV. It will be seen at a glance, by any one who appreciates the necessity 
of fairness in making comparisons between different localities and between 
different classes of the population, that inferences drawn from data so incon- 
gruous as those furnished by thinly-settled and densely populated districts, 
must be defective and hazardous when great changes in public policy are 
predicated upon them. _ A brief comparison between New York and cities 
and towns where the district system exists, is, therefore, the only true 
method for determining the relative efficiency and value of the two systems 
under discussion. 

To avoid tediousness in these comparisons, we will take the aggregate 
of several towns — Albany, Brooklyn, Hudson, Troy, Utica, Schenectady, 
Rochester, and Buffalo. In 1840, the number of children was 38,135 ; under 
instruction, 13,183— or 3,761 children less than one half, or forty-three and 
one third per cent. 



510 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Ill 18-11, children residing in the same towns, 29,908 ; under instruction, 
13,195— or only forty-four and one ninth per cent. 

From these facts, gleaned from the public records of the State, we may 
learn that the district system in the towns is less favorable to the intellect- 
ual growth of the young than the Public School Society of this city ; and 
when we keep in view the numerous chances of error as displayed by the 
returns before given from the country districts, we hazard nothing in saying 
that the closest scrutiny only makes more apparent the great superiority of 
our present excellent schools. 

The report of the commiftee states that the population (according to 
their erroneous manner of extending the school age in this city to sixteen 
years, instead of confining it to twelve, as we have shown is the proper 
limit) of children instructed in the public schools, is sixty per cent. ; while 
the last comparison just given shows that, in the thickly-populated towns 
under the district system, the proportion is only from forty-three to forty- 
five per cent. — a difference of twenty-five per cent, in favor of our cxistijig 
institutions. The mean percentage for several years is about thirty in 
Brooklyn, under the district system; and sixty in New York, under the pub- 
lic schools ; we have a difference of one hundred per cent, in favor of the 
Public School Society. In Williamsburgh, only fourteen and one third per 
cent, are returned as under instruction ! 

V. It is folly to expect efficiency in any system which is not under the 
administration of competent and faithful directors ; and the important fea- 
ture of supervision and visitation speaks incomparably for the praise of the 
zealous and worthy trustees of our Public School Society, when contrasted 
with the maladministration and paralysis which characterize the district 
system. The last report of the trustees states that they had made 14,143 
visits to the schools under their charge during the previous year ; averaging 
130 visits to each school! In Brooklyn, which we prefer to quote as an 
exami)le, on account of its contiguity, eight schools had been visited three 
times, or one visit to three schools during a whole year ! 

With such incontestable facts before us, we are astonished that any one 
can for a moment attack an institution of such decided superiority ; and 
much more, that a committee of the Legislature should present such a mass 
of ex parte and perverted statements to the consideration of that body. 

VI. The report states $180,000 were paid to the Public School Society 
during one year. Now, this is the amount of the money distributed to all 
the institutions for common school instruction, of which the Society re- 
ceived 5120,371 ; making a difference of about eight per cent, in this state- 
ment also, in favor of the Society. We see no reason why exaggeration 
should mark every step of this report, in even the slightest particulars. 

We might multiply facts ad infinitum almost, but the foregoing are sufB- 
cient to demonstrate the erroneous and palpable absurdities which have 
crept into the report of the committee, and which we must correct iji order 
to counteract the tendency it would otherwise have to injure our public 
institution in the estimation of our fellow-citizens throughout the State anl 
the country at large. 



REVIEW OF MR. MACLAy's EEPORT. 511 

Vn. But, while these facts are before us, Tpe cannot omit to bring for- 
ward the testimony of the Commissioners of Common Schools of Brodklyn, 
in favor of our public school system, and which is worthy of most serious 
consideration from the fact that they wish to be relieved from the incubus 
of the district system. They remark as follows : 

We may be proud of the beauty and healthfulness of our local position, 
contrasted with our elder and sister city. New York ; but in our public 
school system we are far, very far behind her, in all its essential elements. 
Having Visited many of the scliools under the charge of the Public .School 
Society in that city, with a view of obtaining information which might be 
of service in conducting our own, we deem it but a just tribute to say, that 
we regard them as admirable models of imitation, and think, if she has any 
institutions of which she may boast, those public schools are entitled to the 
foremost rank. 

That the defective condition of our schools results mainly from their 
being conducted on the isolated district system, we entertain no doubt ; nor 
is this a hasty conclusion. This conviction, long since entertained, has been 
deepened by time and investigation ; for, however well adapted that system 
may be to a country or village population, our own experience, and that of 
other cities in our State, have fully evinced that it is not adapted to the 
exigencies of a city population. We therefore hope that tlie attention of 
your board will be early directed to obtain from the Legislature of our State 
an act for the organization of a Board of Education for our entire city ; and, 
in making this suggestion, we feel assured that we embody a sentiment pre- 
vailing to a wide extent in our community. Indeed, we may summarily 
say, that the reasons which would so obviously forbid an attempt to con- 
duct the municijjal administration of our city, by nine distinct corporations, 
acting without concert, are equally applicable in couducting a system of 
popular education for our youth. 

Our population is proverbially floating in its habits, and the wave that 
lands a class of it, peculiarly needing common school instruction, in one dis- 
trict to-day, to-morrow conveys them to another. If the parent finds no per- 
manent resting-place, the children should be able to find their level on the 
floor and in the healthful atmosphere of a well-conducted school-room; and ■ 
this would be realized had we such a system as has been suggested. 

In view of these facts, which crowd upon us at every step of our exami- 
nation, we are more forcibly impressed with the belief that the district sys- 
tem would be a destructive blow to the cause of education in our city. 
And if we are to regard the unimpeachable evidence coatained in the 
archives of the State, we must resist every step which is taken to impose it 
upon us, for we are firmly convinced that it is incompetent to promote the 
great purposes of education in our city. 

Vin. The advantage of having a general board, in preference to leaving 
this cause to the action of the popular will, is denied by the committee, and 
is scornfully treated as an anti-democratic principle, which is, in the words 
of Mr. Spencer, " entirely hostile to the spirit of our institutions." We 
would not be understood as impeaching the capacity of the people to man- 
age the education of their own children, but wc must record the deplorable 
truth, that the almost universal experience of the country system shows it 
to be incapable of inspiring that interest in its operations which, the com- 
mittee apprehend, will be its inevitable tendency. We hazard no unwar- 
rantable assertions, but appeal again to the experimcntum crucis of fact and 



512 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

recorded testimony to bear us out, and present a comparative statement 
■whicli will be its own commentator. 

We have before repudiated the idea of comparing a densely-populated 
and commercial seaport like New York with thinly-settled agricultural dis- 
tricts, and preferred to compare cities and towns under the district system 
with this city. Brooklyn being, in part, a commercial city, with a consider- 
able shipping interest, and the citizens being linked to New York by social 
and business ties which make it a part of this city, in one sense, because 
many reside in one who do business in the other, is the most jjertinent 
instance which can be adduced. What, then, are the facts as before stated 
in relation to these towns, and particularly Brooklyn ? According to the 
report of the Superintendent of Common Schools for 1840 and 1841, about 
forty-four per cent, of the children were under instruction ; while in Brook- 
lyn (taken as a single instance), which more nearly resembles New York 
than any other city in the State, by the report of the commissioners for 
1836, 1,197 children, out of a population of 4,756, or twenty-five and one 
fifth per cent., received instruction in these schools. Now, if the system is 
calculated to bring out the action of the people in favor of the schools, it 
would be manifested by the number of children sent, the prosjjerity of the 
schools, the number of times visited, and the progress made by the schol- 
ars ; while all of these data prove beyond dispute that very little regard is 
paid to the schools by parents or instructors, and the j'opular rights of 
parents to educate their own children is disregarded by them, and the 
young are abandoned to the withering influence of apathy and ignorance. 

We regard the whole of this movement, therefore, in appealing to the 
democratic feelings of the people and of the Legislature, as an insidious 
effort to carry this proposed change to its consummation, in order to accom- 
plish indirectly what the intelligence and patriotism of the whole commu- 
nity shrank from with dread and amazement — the favoring of a large and 
politically powerful sect, who know their strength and are determined to 
use it to the utmost advantage. The tendency of opening the administra- 
tion of the schools as proposed, will inevitably be, to make them the sub- 
ject of political influences in the election of commissioners and inspectors, 
and of scctaVian cupidity in the exercise and operations of the schools. To 
deny this, would be to deny the history of mankind, the universal expe- 
rience of the human race, and to argue in opposition to that predominant 
principle of the soul which is the main-spring of its action, self-love, wheth- 
er it be private or public, individual or collective, confined to persons or 
guiding the policy of nations. This controlling principle will lead to meas- 
ures having party and sectarian aggrandizement for their object, which will 
disregard the sacredness of the public weal, or the unfettered and unbiassed 
character and objects of public expenditures. 

Facts, too positive to admit of a shadow of denial, come again to our 
aid. 

At our last election for members of the Legislature, a religious sect, upon 
whose united strength at the ballot-box depends the decision of every elec- 
tion, made the alteration of our public school system a matter of conscien- 



EEVIEW OF MR. MACLAy's BEPOKT. 513 

tious scruples, and, accordingly, could not give their vote to any man who 
would not favor their demands for a change. Thus, " fearing to offend 
God " by neglecting facilities, as citizens, to produce this change, they pre- 
pared and voted upon a ticket of their own choice ; and it is a fact emi- 
nently worthy of notice and serious consideration, that ten members of the 
New York Legislature were placed in their seats by the votes of this sect 
who unite to place their religious preferences and claims in contact with the 
ballot-box — the chairman of the committee himself being one of them ; a 
sect which has thoroughly identified itself with this change, and whose 
journals declare that their course is regarded with anxiety and encourage- 
ment by the members of the same faith in the Old World. With this glar- 
ing fact before us, will any presume to doubt that repetitions of this con- 
duct will be continually recurring whenever oiiportuuities present them- 
selves ? Here, then, is this principle of self-love illustrated beyond dispute, 
in the effort at sectarian aggrandizement at the ballot-box. 

It may be objected, that the bill does not contemplate any sectarian 
appropriation. But we ask. Will the committee, or will any one, deny to 
"the peojjle" the free exercise of a right which they are so zealous in 
thrusting into their hands ? Will they interfere in the free choice of " the 
people " in educating their children as they will, after they have opened the 
course to them ? 

Another feature in this movement is to be much deprecated : the opera-, 
tion of the law will be to place in the hands of one sect the disposal of six 
or eight hundred per cent, more of the school fund than belongs to them by 
virtue of their tax-paying ratio. We hope we shall not subject ourselves t(i 
the imputation of harshness or meanness in making the following compari- 
son, but we think it is pertinent and forcible. We take this illustration 
because it is the strongest, and will exhibit the princii)Ie in its true light. 

That part of the population which has originated and strenuously car- 
ried on this contest against the present system, and whose immediate benefit 
is contemplated by it — the Roman Catholic — is, according to their own 
authenticated statements, about one tenth of the population of the State. 
Grant that they number one seventh in the city, we would therefore have a 
population of 45,000 Roman Catholics. We will allow one half as males 
(which is too much), we have 22,500 ; one half of these regarded as adults, 
would give 11,250 persons of an age qualified to hold property by law. 
Now, if we assume that one tenth of these are holders of real or personal 
taxable property to the amount of $5,000 each, we have, as the aggregate 
amount held by this class of the population, $0,250,000, or two and a half 
per cent, of the real and personal taxable estate of the city. Taking this 
standard as being nearly correct, two and a half per cent, of the school fund 
would be a little over $3,000 as their pro rata proportion of the public 
money, if shared in the ratio of taxes paid. 

In the absence of data which exhibit the relative amount paid to the 

Comptroller by different denominations, such exhibits not coming within 

the provisions of a democratic people in the public records, we think we 

have been liberal in estimating, first, the number of property-holders as one 

33 



514 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tenth ; and second, when we bear iu mind that a large part of this denomi- 
nation are poor emigrants, we do not hazard much in saying that their 
aggregate property is not over that above estimated. 

Now, although they amount to one seventh of the population, we will 
assume that only one twentieth of the children of the public schools are 
Roman Catholic, which will be about 2,000 ; and these, at the cost of their 
education, receive the benefit of nearly twice the amount paid by their 
parents to the jjublic fund. 

We would not have entered into such a comparison, especially where we 
are obliged to make estimates, because it may be regarded as invidious, but 
the frequent aiJjjeals about " taxpayers' rights " have induced us to do it in 
order to show that the rights of a large proportion of taxpayers who dissent 
from them will be invaded, by taking from them and their children a large 
annual sum, and appropriating it to the support of religious principles and 
doctrines to which they can never subscribe. Lest we should be accused of 
proceeding on false assumptions, we introduce the testimony of Bishop 
Hughes, who is better acquainted with the condition of his people than our- 
selves. On page 24 of his speech at Carroll Hall, he remarks : 

They (the Public School Society) proposed to purchase the only school- 
house our humble means have enabled us to erect during sixteen years. 

In a speech at Washington Hall he spoke of 

The poor, the degraded, and indigent children, who were deprived of 
education by the Public School Society. 

On page 11 of the address of the Roman Catholics, we find the follow- 
ing language : 

Although most of us are poor, still the poorest man amongst us is 
obliged to pay taxes from the sweat of his brow, in the rent of his room or 
little tenement. 

We hope we shall give no oflence to any ; but when a great and serious 
charge is enforced by arguments based upon pretensions of which these ex- 
tracts are the real truth, we are obliged by our duty as citizens, if we regard 
no higher incentive, to bring out and submit to the consideration of our 
fellow-citizens and the Legislature, every thing which may tend to the equi- 
table and righteous adjustment of this dispute. 

Having shown that they cannot, according to their own statements in 
reference to their " humble means " — which are made the ground of appeal 
to the action of their fellow-citizens — pay a larger proportion of the taxes 
than wc have estimated, we dejirecate any measure which will throw into a 
•determinate sectarian channel any portion of the public fund, as it would 
be dangerous in precedent, hazardous in adoption, and destructive in its 
operations. 

We also submit, in this place, another fact : the Roman Catholic Orphan 
Aeylum has been receiving, for a number of years, an annual appropriation 
from the common school fund, which last year amounted to $1,525.46, in 
addition to the advantages of the public schools. Hence, this appropria- 



REVIEW OF MR. MACLAt's EEPOET. 515 

tion, and any additional sum, diverted from its public use, would be an un- 
constitutional and unjust taxation of all sects for the sectarian schools of 
one denomination. In other words, they would receive the largest appro- 
priation, because they would have the largest number of public school 
pupils, while they pay only a trifling percentage of the taxes. The injus- 
tice of this need only be shown to be felt by all. 

We have predicated upon pretty good premises that they pay two and a 
half per cent, of the taxes, while they are one seventh of the pojmlation. 
According to the report of the committee, there are 65,571 children of the 
legal age in the city ; one seventh of the children would be 9,308, who 
would receive the appropriation. In other words, one class of the pojiula- 
tion, who pay one fortieth, or two and a half per cent, of taxes, would 
receive one seventh, or fourteen and two sevenths per cent, of the public 
fund. Stated in dollars and cents, it would be one seventh, $18,000, instead 
of one fortieth, or $.3,000. If our citizens are willing to be taxed according 
to their religious belief, and receive back again in the same ratio, so let it 
be ; but we do not wish to see the people pay taxes as citizens, receive 
money as citizens, and expend it as sectarians. 

The operation of this principle will more or less affect every denomina- 
tion according to their wealth or numbers, while the richest, who have no 
children at the public school, will not receive their proportion at all. 

, The foregoing estimates are not given as being strictly correct. But as 
an alteration in one item will require a corresponding change in its cor- 
relative estimates, the result will not be found to vary much from that above 
advanced. We have attained a proximate truth sufficiently correct for all 
practical purposes. 

The argument that they are taxpayers because consumers, is no stronger 
than the other ; for if we take the relative amount of property held, we 
may easily form an opinion of the relative amount of consumption, the 
property, in general, being regarded as the index to the capability and 
social rank of its possessors. 

The Constitution of this State, section 3 article 3, provides that 

The free exercise and enjoyment of religious professions and worship, 
without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed in this State 
to all mankind. 

Here we have freedom of opinion guaranteed, and the laws of the land 
will extend that protection which all must receive ; but there is a wide dif- 
ference between protection and patronage. This is a distinction it will be 
well to observe, for protection is not intended to encourage a demand for 
patronage, which would violate the constitutional rights of others, by tak- 
ing from one class of citizens the taxes which "belong to them," and appro- 
priating them to the support of another. It would not better the law to 
make it applicable to all, for then all sects would receive a patronage from 
the Government for the education of their children, which would be but the 
incipient step to encroachments of a more alarming character. But while 
the distribution of the public fund is regulated as contemplated by the act, 
a direct patronage would be extended to the poorest sect, which, as an 



516 ' THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

inevitable necessity, 'would receive the largest share of the public money, 
because it has the largest number of children who would become its recipients. 

But what would be done, in the midst of this sectarian squabble, with 
those who do not belong to any religious denomination ? Are they to have 
no consideration ? Are their rights to be disregarded, and their children 
be obliged to attend sectarian institutions, or grow up without instruction ? 
These are questions which merit some thought, at least when we know that 
a very large part of the community are not actual professors of any religious 
belief. ****** 

An important statement made by the committee is, that the people have 
lost confidence in the Public School Society, and desire a change. Now, 
they must be imacquainted with the views and feelings of the people of 
this city, or they would not have hazarded such an assertion. So far as our 
observation tends to convince us, and the almost unanimous voice of the 
intelligent, virtuous, and high-minded portion of the community may be 
regarded as expressive of their feelings, we fearlessly assert that the Public 
School Society does enjoy the confidence of the higher classes of the people ; 
while the following items, taken from a large number of others, contained 
in a document of the highest authority, will show whether the confidence 
of the poor and laboring classes has been withdrawn from the public 
schools : 

Of the parents of children who attend these schools, there are, black- 
smiths, 493 ; bakers, 148 ; butchers, 224 ; carpenters, 323 ; cartmen, 943 ; 
cabinetmakers, 503 ; laborers, 1,477 ; masons, 416 ; printers, 158 ; shoe- 
makers, 945 ; seamen, 248 ; tailors, 579 ; widows, 1,461 ; washerwomen, 
253 ; weavers, 200 ; ship-carpenters, 176. 

In drawing to a conclusion, we recur to the question with which we 
started : Has the Public School Society fulfilled its trust ? and we answer, 
If facts, and evidences, and records, and the testimony of its opponents 
themselves, are to be regarded, we can emphatically say. It has. 

The committee regard as an important efi'ect of education, its tendency 
to make society as equal and homogeneous as possible ; and they might well 
have added, that the institutions for education must themselves possess this 
feature, which is one of the most valuable of the characteristics of the pub- 
lic schools of our city. A family of children residing in the Third Ward 
may remove to the Seventeenth, and enter the same class and pursue the 
same lessons which they left in the other school. Thus a uniform and per- 
fectly homogeneous system of education diffuses its light and benign influ- 
ence over the whole city, and says to all, " Tenias ! Come, without money 
and without price ! " It is impossible for us to conceive how the district 
system, with its local dissimilarity, and different methods of operation and 
instruction and books, and conflicting sentiments, can be any other than the 
most discordant and heterogeneous. 

Mr. Barker moved that the bill be recommitted, with instruc- 
tions to add to it a section providing for a reference of the sub- 
ject to the electors of the city of New York at the next charter 



PE0CEED1NG8 IN THE ASSEMBLY. 517 

election, and after the same shall have passed the Legislature, 
and that it should not become a law unless a majority of the 
electors voting gave their votes in its favor. 

Mr. Barker supported his proposition by stating that it was 
not usual for him to interfere in the concerns of other counties. 
But the members from Kew York, Herkimer, and Genesee 
(Messrs. Maclay, Loomis, and Smith) would at least deem the 
proposition a democratic one. The matter was local. There 
was as much propriety in submitting the question to the people 
as io the case of the Croton "Water Works Bill. 

Mr. Weir, of New York, continued the debate, and con- 
cluded by asking the mover to withdraw his resolution. Mr. 
Barker declined, saying that he was too much of a Democrat to 
do BO. 

Mr. Maclay said he trusted that the good sense of the House 
would reject the proposition, whatever the mover might think 
of it. It was true, as a general remark, that in this State, where 
elections occurred at brief intervals, where public measures of 
the least importance were discussed with great freedom, and 
where any man of ordinary observation might anticipate, with a 
reasonable degree of certainty, the course of public opinion, 
these appeals to the people were entirely unnecessary, except on 
very important and rare occasions. He did not deem this to be 
one of those occasions. 

In saying so, he desired to be understood as yielding to none 
in a sincere wish, neither to go below nor beyond the wishes of 
his constituents, but to reflect, as truly as he was able, their sen- 
timents and opinions. In this connection, however, it was wor- 
thy of remark, that the people of the city, neither by petition 
nor through the press, had asked that this matter be referred to 
them for a decision. He had taken some pains, during that and 
the preceding session, to inform himself on this subject, and he 
could state that he had never heard an individual express a 
desire for such a refei-ence as was proposed. The public mind 
had settled down upon the conviction that the common school 
system of the city of New York was in contravention of the lib- 
eral spirit of our free institutions, and not calculated to diffuse 
the benefit of education as widely as was desirable and essential. 
The time for action had now come, and he besought his political 
friends in the House not to commit so great an error as to suffer 



518 THE rUELIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

this question to be mingled with important political questions 
which were to come up at a future election. He appealed to 
such as regarded the education of the masses as one of the great 
securities of free government, to contrast the condition of tlie 
city and countj^ as presented in the reports from the public offi- 
cers, and especially in the fact that, in N^ew York alone, there 
were nearly three times as many (twenty thousand) children who 
attended no school whatever, as in the whole State beside. It 
was in the jDower of the Legislature to apply the correction, not 
by procrastination, but by a law which would bring tliese chil- 
dren within the public schools without infringing the conscien- 
tious rights or opinions of any of our fellow-citizens. 

The debate was continued by Messrs. Davezac, Powell, 
Smith, Warren, Humphrey, Loomis, Grout, Swackhamer, Bar- 
ker, E. G. Baldwin, and D. R. F. Jones. The result M'as the 
rejection of all anicndments, and the reference of the bill to tlie 
Committee of the Whole. 

Late on the evening of the 12tli of March, the bill was taken 
up for discussion. Mr. McKee moved that the House adjourn, 
which was lost by a tie vote. Mr. Mead expressed the hope that 
the bill would be postponed, owing to the lateness of the hour 
and the fewness of the members present. Mr. Baldwin, of New 
York, and others, opposed the passage of the hill, to wliom Mr. 
Maelay replied, stating that there were two classes or divisions 
of persons in New York as related to this subject. One class 
was composed of those who were satisfied with the present 
school system, and the other of those who desired a change. 
To the former, the hill proposes to leave the schools as they 
were ; to the latter, it gave schools regulated as common schools 
were in every other part of the State. It was as fair a proposi- 
tion, as considerate to existing interests, as could be presented, 
and he trusted the House would act upon it with as little delay 
as practicable. Upon a division, it was found that a quorum 
did not vote, and the House adjourned. 

On the 21st of March, the bill coming up on its third read- 
ing, Mr. E. G. Baldwin addressed the House in opposition to its 
passage, and concluded by mo\'ing to postpone the final question 
until the next day. 

Mr. Maelay expressed a hope that the motion would not pre- 
vail, and moved that it be laid upon the table, which was car- 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE ASSEMBLY. 519 

ried. Mr. D. S. Wright then moved that the bill be recommit- 
ted to the Committee on Colleges, &c., with instructions to add 
a provision submittiag the question to the decision of the people 
of the city of New York at an election. The motion was lost 
by a vote of twenty-one in the affirmative and fifty-six in the 
negative. 

Mr. Lawrence moved the reference of the bill to the Com- 
mittee on Colleges, with instructions to report the following 
amendments as an additional section : 

And the ■ said supervisors shall, in the apportionment of the moneys 
appropriated and raised for the support and encouragement of common or 
district schools in the city of New York, apportion and divide the same to 
and among the several wards, according and in proportion to the average 
number of children over 5 and under 16 years of age, who shall have actu- 
ally attended the common or district schools therein the preceding year, 
wliich shall have been kept open at least nine months in the said year. 

Mr. Baldwin, of New York, moved to amend the amend- 
ment, by addin*^ thereto the words, " and that no religious doc- 
trine or tenet shall in any manner be taught, inculcated, or prac- 
tised, in any of the common or district schools in the city of 
New York." 

Mr. Maclay resisted the amendment of Mr. Baldwin, on the 
ground that it was not contained in the general school law of 
the State, and was a stigma sought to be fastened upon the 
friends of the measure then under discussion, as well as upon 
people of the section of the State which he in part represented, 
and Avho were as worthy of being trusted without any such 
enactment as the inhabitants of any other portion of the State. 

Tlie amendment of Mr. Baldwin was, however, ado]')ted by a 
majority of tive ; but when the question recurred, and was taken 
on the original motion of Mr. Lawrence as thus amended, it was 
lost. The bill was finally passed in the Assembly, by a vote of 
sixty-four in the affirmative and sixteen in the negative. 

After the Speaker had declared the bill passed, a suggestion 
was made, that it required a vote of two thirds of all the mem- 
bers on altering the powers of the Corjwration of New York, 
and an appeal was taken from the decision of the chair. 

Mr. Maclay had anticipated this objection, and had referred 
the chairman of the Committee on Two Thirds Bills to the fol- 



% 



520 TUE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

lowing precedents, to sliow that acts in relation to Supervisors 
had been modified by subsequent general acts : The People 
ex rel. Phcenix vs. The Supervisors of the City and County of 
New York, 1 Hill's Eeports, 3G2-3C8 ; The People ex rel. Up- 
ham m. Whiteside,, 22 Wendell's Reports, 14, 15 ; Warner and 
Kay vs. Beers, 22 Wendell's Eeports, 103-189 (in Error), with 
opinion of Bradish in this case. Mr. Humphrey, of Tompkins 
county, chau-man of the Committee on Two Thirds Bills, rose iji 
his place, and stated that it was the opinion of the committee, 
and his own, that the bill before the House was a majority bill. 
The appeal was then withdrawn, and the bill sent to the Senate, 
and in that body referred to the Committee on Colleges, &c., 
consisting of Mr. II. K. Foster, of Oneida, John Hunter, of 
Westchester, and Erastus Boot, of Delaware. 

The vote iu the House can scarcely be regarded as the 
strength of the opposition to the measm-e. That opposition was 
reserved for the Senate. In that body, all of the senators from 
what then constituted the First Senate District, composed of 
i^ew York, Richmond, and Kings counties, Messrs. Furman, 
Franklin, Varian, and Scott, were opposed to any change in the 
school system of New York. Mr. Foster, the chairman of the 
Senate committee, called upon Mr. Maclay, and stated that, 
while he himself approved of the bill, it was not usual to at- 
tempt to carry a local bill through the Senate in opposition to 
the wishes of the representatives from the district to be aflected 
by it. In this dilemma, Mr. Maclay stated that the defeat of the 
bill at the present time, as was well known, would enure to the 
benefit of their political opponents, and that, aside altogether 
from the merits of the question, it was not uncharitable to sup- 
pose that this consideration had its weight with Messrs. Furman 
and Franklin. The case was diflferent with Messrs. Scott and 
Varian, the Democratic senators. If they could show any objec- 
tion to the bill on the score of public good, it was entitled to be 
considered and received. For this purpose, Mr. Maclay pro- 
posed that a meeting should be called at the room of Senator 
Hunter, and that he and Mr. Foster, Messrs. Yarian and Scott, 
and himself, should bo present, when the whole matter could be 
discussed moi-e freely and dispassionately than in the Senate. 
The meeting was accordingly held, all the parties just named 
lieing present. Mr. Maclay proposed that the bill should be 



THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1842. 521 

read section by section, and that any objection to any portion of 
it sliould be made ; and, were none made, the sections not 
objected to should be deemed to be approved. This was accord- 
ingly tlie course adojjted. Mr. Variau objected to the whole 
bill, and was opposed to any change whatever in the then exist- 
ing laws. Mr. Scott stated that he was fearful that, if the elec- 
tion for school officers and trustees took place at the same time 
as the other elections in the city of New York, that the streets 
of New York would be drenched in blood, and he therefore pro- 
posed that, if the bill was to be pressed to a vote in the Senate, 
a provision should be added to it by which the officers to govern 
the schools should be elected in the month of June in each year. 
In reply, Mr. Maclay expressed his own preference for a separate 
election of school officers, but that he had omitted it in the bill, 
under an apprehension precisely the reverse of those entertained 
by Judge Scott. So far from believing that any such uncom- 
mon interest or excitement would attend the election of these 
officers, he feared that the people, as a general thing, would neg- 
lect the duty of voting, and that, on this account, he had pro- 
vided the election should take place at the same time as that for 
othei' officers. He would, however, cheerfully yield his opinion 
on this point. He accordingly 'drew a section providing for the 
election of school officers in the month of June following, and 
this was approved by Mr. Foster, and subsequently added to the 
bill, which was passed April 9th, and received the signature of 
the Governor. It is as follows : 



To Extend to tlie City and County of Keic York the ProvUions of the General 

Act in Relation to Common Schools. 

The people of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- 
bly, do enact as follows : 

Sec. 1. There shall be elected in each of the wards of the city and 
county of New York, two commissioners, two inspectors, and five trustees 
of common schools, who shall be elected by ballot, at a special election to 
be held on the first Monday of June in each year, by the persons qualified to 
vote for charter officers in the said wards, and to be conducted in the same 
manner, by the sapie inspectors, at the same ward districts, and subject to 
the same laws, rules, and regulations as now govern the charter elections in 
said city. 

The commissioners of common schools so elected shall constitute a Board 
of Education for the city of New York, a majority of whom shall consti- 



522 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

tute a quorum ; they shall elect one of their number president of said board, 
who shall preside at the meetings thereof, ■which shall be held at least as 
often as once in three months ; and they may appoint a clerk, whose com- 
pensation shall be fixed and paid by the supervisors of said city and county. 

The commissioners so elected in each ward shall be the commissioners 
of schools thereof, with the like powers and duties of commissioners of 
comijon schools in the several towns in this State, except as hereinafter pro- 
vided. 

The said inspectors of common schools so elected in the several wards 
shall have the like powers and be subject to the same duties with the insiiec- 
tors of common schools of the several towns of this State, except as herein- 
after provided. 

The trustees of common schools so elected in their respective wards shall 
be the trustees of the school districts which may be formed and organized 
therein, with the like powers and duties as the trustees of school districts in 
the several towns in this State, except as hereinafter provided. 

Sec. 3. All such provisions of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth articles 
of Title Two, chapter fifteen, part first, of the Revised Statutes, and of the 
several acts amending and in addition to, and relating to the same, not 
inconsistent with the provisions in this act contained, shall be, and the same 
are hereby, declared ajjplicable to the city and county of New York. 

Sec. 3. For all the purposes of this act, each of the several wards into 
which the said city and county of New York now is, or may be hereafter, 
divided, shall be considered as a separate town, and liable to all the duties 
imposed ; and entitled to all the powers, privileges, immunities, and advan- 
tages granted by the said third, fourth, fifth, and sixth articles of Title Two, 
chapter fifteen, part first, of the Revised Statutes, to the several towns in 
this State, so far as the same are consistent with this act. 

Sec. 4. The forty-fourth section of the act entitled " An Act to Amend 
the Second Title of the Tifteenth Chapter of the First Part of the Revised 
Statutes, Relating to Common Schools," passed May 26, 1841, is hereby 
repealed ; and all the other sections of the said act not inconsistent with the 
provisions of this act, are hereby declared apjjlicable to the city and county 
of New York. 

Sec. 5. No com2:iensation shall be allowed to the commissioners, inspec- 
tors, or trustees of common schools for any services performed by them ; but 
the commissioners and inspectors shall receive their actUijl and reasonable 
expenses while attending to the duties of their office, to be audited and 
allowed by the supervisors of said city and county. 

Sec. 6. The said commissioners of common schools of each ward are 
hereby authorized to appoint a club, whose compensation shall be settled 
and paid by the Board of Supervisors. 

Sec. 7. Whenever the trustees elected in any ward sljall certify in writ- 
ing to the commissioners and inspectors of common schools thereof, that it 
is necessary to organize one or more schools in said ward, in addition to the 
schools mentioned in the thirteenth section of this act, it shall be the duty 
of said commissioners and inspectors to meet together and examine into the 



THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1842. 523 

facts and circumstances of the case ; and if they shall be satisfied of such 
necessity, they shall certify the same under their hands, to the said Board 
of Education, and shall then jjroceed to organize one or more school dis- 
tricts therein, and shall procure a school-house, and all things necessary to 
organize a school in such district, the expense of which shall he levied and 
raised pursuant to the provisions of section nine of this act ; and the title 
to all lands purchased by virtue of this act, with the buildings thereon, shall 
be vested in the city and county of New York. 

Sec. 8. Whenever the clerk of the city and county of New York shall 
receive notice from the Superintendent of Common Schools of the amount 
of moneys apportioned to the city and county of New York, for the support 
and encouragement of common schools therein, he shall immediately lay the 
same before the supervisors of the city and county aforesaid. 

Sec. 9. The said supervisors shall annually raise and collect )iy tax, upon 
the inhabitants of said city and county, a sum of money equal to the sum 
specified in such notice, at the same time and in the same manner as the 
contingent charges of the said city and county are levied and collected ; 
also, a sum of money equal to one twentieth of one per cent, of the value 
of real and personal property in the said city, liable to be assessed therein, 
to be applied exclusively to the purposes of common ■ schools in said city; 
and such farther sum as may be necessary for the support and benefit of 
common schools in said city and county, to be raised, levied, and collected 
in like manner, and which shall be in lieu of all taxes and assessments, to 
the support of common schools for said city and county. 

Sec. 10. The said supervisors shall, on or before the first day of May in 
every year, direct that a sum of money equal to the amount last received by 
the chamberlain of said city and county, from the common school fund, be 
deposited by him, together with the sum so received from the school fund, 
in one of the incorporated banks of the said city and county (each bank to 
be designated by the said supervisors), to the credit of the commissioners 
of common schools in each of the said several wards, in the propoition to 
which they shall respectively be entitled, and subject only to the drafts of 
the said commissioners respectively ; who shall pay the amount ajiportioned 
to the several schools enumerated in the thirteenth section of this act, to the 
treasurer of the societies or schools entitled thereto, or to some person duly 
authorized by the trustees of such societies or schools to receive the same. 

Sec. 11. So much of the seventh article of Title Second, chapter fifteen, 
part first, of the Revised Statutes, and the several acts amending and in 
addition to. and relating to the said article, as is specially applicable to the 
city and county of New York, and all other acts, and all provisions therein 
providing for, or directing, or concerning the disbursing or appropriation 
of the funds created for or applicable to common school education in the 
city and county of New York, and all and every provision for raising any 
fund, or for the imposition of any tax therefor, so far as the same are incon- 
sistent with this act, are hereby repealed. 

Sec. 13. All children between the ages of four and sixteen, residing in 
said city and county, shall be entitled to attend any of the common schools 



524 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

therein ; and the parents, guardians, or other persons having the custody of 
care of such children shall not be liable to any tax, assessment, or impo- 
sition for the tuition of any such children, other than is hereinbefore pro- 
vided. 

Sec. 13. The schools of the Public School Society, the New York Orphan 
Asylum School, the Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum School, the schools of 
the two Half-Orphan Asylums, the school of the Mechanics' School Society, 
the Harlem School, the Yorkville Public School, the Manhattauville Free 
School, the Hamilton Free School, the Institution for the Blind, the school 
connected with the Almshouse of the said city, and the school of the asso- 
ciation for the benefit of Colored Orphans, shall be subject to the general 
jurisdiction of the said commissioners of the respective wards in which any 
of the said schools now are, or hereafter may be, located, subject to the direc- 
tion of the Board of Education, but under the immediate government and 
management of their resisective trustees, managers, and directors, in the 
same manner and to the same extent as herein provided in respect to the 
district schools herein first before mentioned in said city and county ; and, 
so far as relates to the distribution of the common school moneys, each of 
the said schools shall be district schools of the said city. 

Sec. 14, No school above mentioned, or which shall be organized under 
this act, in which any religious sectarian doctrine or tenet shall be taught, 
inculcated, or practised, shall receive any portion of the school moneys to be 
distributed by this act, as hereinafter provided ; and it shall be the duty of 
the trustees, inspectors, and commissioners of schools in each ward, and of 
tlie deputy Superintendent of Schools, from time to time, and as frequently 
as need be, to examine and ascertain and report to the said Board of Edu- 
cation whether any religious sectarian doctrine or tenet shall have been 
taught, inculcated, or practised in any of the schools in their respective 
wards ; and it shall be the duty of the commissioners of schools in the sev- 
eral wards to transmit to the Board of Education all reports made to them 
Iiy the trustees and inspectors of their respective wards. The Board of 
Education, and any member thereof, may at any time visit and examine any 
school subject to the provisions of this act, and individual conmiissioners 
shall report to the board the result of their examinations. 

Sec. 15. It shall be the duty of the said Board of Education to apply 
for the use of the several districts such moneys as shall be raised to erect, 
purchase, or lease school-houses, or to procure the sites therefor ; and also to 
apportion among the several schools and districts provided for by this act, 
the school money to be jiaid over to the commissioners of schools in each 
ward, by virtue of the tenth section of this act, and shall file with the cham- 
berlain of said city and county, on or before the fifteenth day of April in 
each year, a copy of such apportionment, and stating the amount thereof to 
be paid to the commissioners of each ward ; which apportionment shall be 
made among the said several schools and districts according to the average 
number of children over four and under sixteen years of age, who shall 
have actually attended such school the ijrecediug year. But no such school 
shall be entitled to a portion of such moneys that has not been kept open at 



THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1842. 525 

least nine months in the year, or in which any religious sectarian doctrine or 
tenet shall have been taught, inculcated, or practised, or ■which shall refuse 
to permit the visits and examinations provided for by this act. 

Sec. 16. The commissioners of schools of the respective wards, when 
they have received from the chamberlain of said city and county the money 
apportioned to the several schools and districts in their several wards, shall 
apply the same to the use of the schools and districts ia their several wards, 
according to the apportionment thereof so made by the said Board of Edu- 
cation. 

Sec. 17. The said commissioners of each ward shall, within fifteen days 
after their election, execute and deliver to the supervisors aforesaid a bond, 
with such sureties as said supervisors shall approve, in the penalty of double 
the amount of public money appropriated to the use of the common schools 
of their respective wards, conditional for the faithful perfomiauce of the 
duties of their office, and the proper application of all moneys coming in 
their hands for common school purposes ; such bond shall be filed by the 
said supervisors in the office of the County Clerk. 

Sec. 18. This act shall take effect immediately. 



526 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

HISTORY FROM 1840 TO 1853. 

Position of tlie Society — Yiews of the Board of Trustees — Policy of the Board — 
Trustees' Hall Completed — Annual Exhibit — Powers of the Society under the 
Law of 1842— Erection of New Buildings — Amendments to tlie Law — High 
School — School for Italians — Change of Official Year — Public Schools Nos. 17 
aud IS — Josiah Holbrooli — Natural History — Text-Books — Uniformity of System 
— Committee on Condition of the Schools — Corporal Punishment — Female Asso- 
ciation — Death of Robert C. Cornell, President of the Society — Proceedings of 
the Society — Public School No. 18 — Beard of Education and Normd Schools — 
Controversy of the Board of Education with tlie Society, relative to New Build- 
ings — Proceedings of both Boards — Speeches of Hiram Ketcluim, John L. Mason, 
and Joseph S. Bosworth, Esqs. — Law of March 4, 1848 — Death of Lindley Mur- 
ray. President of the Society — Sale of Property in Oak Street — Deficiency — 
Application to the Board of Education — Transfer of Property Proposed — Amend- 
ments to the School Law — Union of tlie Board of Education and the Society Pro- 
posed — Loan — Sale of Property iu Twenty-Fifth Street — Sale of Public Scliool 
No. 10. 

The importance of the controversy relative to the school 
fund, and the uncertainty which lumg over the result, served as 
;in obstacle to any marked ctange in the systein, while the de- 
mand upon its resoui'ces had already reached a point at which 
the Society found itself encumbered with about $103,000 of in- 
debtedness. The long-cherished plans of the trustees were there- 
fore compelled to await the issue of the contest before any fur- 
ther considerable outlay could be made for the expansion and 
elevation of the system. 

The decision was, however, obtained in 1842, by the passage 
of the act creating the Board of Education, and the alternative, 
which had been impending so long, had fallen upon the Society. 
It was, to wait patiently until the structure they had reared 
should become remodelled and made to harmonize with the new 
scheme, or to continue under the restrictions it imposed, as long 
as might be, and then surrender its ti-ust to the city. Tiie light 
in which the new law was regarded may be seen from the fol- 
lowing observations contained in the annual report for 1842 : 



VIEWS OF THE SOCIETY. 527 

After a successful career of thirty-seven years, during whicb. it lias beeu 
their lot, under the blessing of Divine Providence, to be the humble instru- 
ments of conveying the benefits of moral and literary instruction to many, 
very many thousands of the children of their fellow-citizens, both native- 
born and of foreign origin, it has pleased the Legislature of our State to 
enact a statute which, the trustees fear, will result in subjecting their noble 
institution to the blighting influence of party strife and sectarian animosity. 

The glory of their system— its uniformity, its equality of privilege and"" 
action, its freedom from all that could justly oflend, its peculiar adaptation 
to a floating population embracing an immense operative mass, imable, from 
their circumstances, to devote many years to educational pursuits — is 
dimmed, they fear, forever. 

The boast of our city, that in her piiblic schools the children of the rich 
and the poor, of the American and the foreigner, all mingled as a band of 
brothers, imbibing feelings and acquiring sentiments of an equality of rights 
and privileges, both as citizens of this great republic and children of our 
common Father, in whose sight all the people of the earth are as one, is 
overthrown. 

How far and how long the board may be able to continue their schools 
under the intricate provisions of the " act," they are, at this time, unable to 
ascertain. It may be sufficient to say, that the simple, comprehensive, and 
compact system matured through so many years of assiduous examination 
and careful adaptation tu its object, is about to be impaired, if not de- 
stroyed, by the introduction of another of complex character — a system 
which, if not impracticable, is, in their judgment, ill-suited to. a city popu- 
lation. 

Some of .the fears entertained by tlie trustees were not long 
after realized, by the changes gradually introduced, and the im- 
pediments which arose in the way of their success. The history 
of the " district system " in New York City has yet to be wiit-* 
ten, and its progress and development will exhibit the operation 
of one of the grandest educational exj:)eriments ever made. 

The trustees of the Public School Society, although prevent-^ 
ed, by a prudent caution, from entering upon any plans for 
increasing the number of their schools, or advancing the grade 
of studies, improved the time by a jealous and careful scrutiny 
of the schools, and the endeavor to remove every thing that 
could impair their usefulness, or diminish the confidence of the 
community in the system. It was their constant aim to pre- 
serve, ill all its integrity, a scheme of popular education ren-' 
dered eminently honorable by the names of distinguished men 
who had been interested in it from its inception, and to hand it 
down to their successors in a form massive and enduring, and as 



528 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

faultless as i:>ractical wisdom, enlightened pliilanthropj, and lib- 
eral endowment could make it. 

During the year 1840, the building erected for the use of the 
Society as a Trustees' Hall was completed, and furnished in a 
plain but appi-opriate style. Apartments were assigned for the 
offices, depository, and two primary schools. A portion of the 
building was also adapted for the use of a clerk, who had charge 
of tlie house, and assisted in the general business of the Society. 

In 1842, Samuel F. Mott resigned his office as treasurer, and, 
at a meeting of the Board lield July 14th, Anthony P. Halsey, 
the secretar}', was elected to fill the vacancy ; and, at the same 
meeting, Joseph B. Collins was chosen to fill the post vacated 
by Mr. Ilalsey. 

The average number of pupils in the schools, as appears by 
the annual exhibit, was 24,071, of which 1,329 were colored chil- 
dren. 

The question of power soon arose as to the right of the Soci- 
ety to erect new buildings under the law of 1842, and to appro- 
l^riate moneys for certain purposes which were specially pro- 
vided fur under the supervision of the Board of Education. The 
system had been brought to such uniformity and harmony, that 
a scholar could leave one school and go into a class in another, 
and there continue the same lessons, in the same books, as 
thougli he had only changed the teacher ; but the new law 
entrusted the schools to the ind-ependent government of the local 
boards of school officers of the wards. The trustees were anx- 
ious to prevent this system from becoming established, and 
authorized the Executive Committee to secure, if possible, the 
repeal of the law, or, at least, such declaratory amendments as 
should continue the jjower of the Society to erect buildings, and 
to do all the other acts contemplated by its charter. The com- 
mittee j^ressed the matter upon the attention of the Legislature, 
and that body, at its next session, adopted such amendments as 
seemed to meet the wants of the Society. 

One of the measures which had long been contemplated by 
the trustees, was the establishment of a High School, or l^ormal . 
School, of elevated character, for the preparation of teachers ; 
and, during the year 1843, the proposition was icnewcd, and 
received the attention of the board. 

In the early part of the same year, a proposition was made 



SCHOOLS FOR ITALIANS. 529 

for the establishment of schools for Italians, to be conducted on 
principles similar to those of the schools for Germans. The 
matter was refeiTcd to the Primary School Committee, who sub- 
mitted to the Executive Committee, on July 6th of that year, 
the following report : 

The Primary School Committee, to whom was referred the subject of 
opening a school to educate exclusively Italian children of this city, 

RESPECTFULLY REPORT : 

1. The desired object can be better attained by the attendance of the 
Italian children at our primary schools ; for experience proves that a foreign 
language can be more readily acquired liy a person in attending a school 
where his own language is unknown, " necessity " being the most speedy 
and thorough teacher. 

2. In educating children in our schools, it is intended to give them hab- 
its and feelings adapted to our institutions and Government ; and when a 
foreigner adopts our country as his home, it is expected that he should sub- 
scribe to our forms, and particularly to our system of education, which is 
intimately and inseparably connected with our forms of government. 

3. When foreigners are in the habit of congregating together, they 
retain their peculiar national customs, prejudices, and feelings ; they there- 
fore remain much longer unsettled, and are not as good members of society 
0,9 they would otherwise be. This is ajsparent to all who are acquainted 
with our German school. Children attending that school, as is well known, 
retain their national costume, manners, and feelings ; while those German 
children who mingle promiscuously in other schools, lose all trace of nation- 
ality. 

,4. Children, like adults, are clannish. It is difficult to conduct a school 
composed of foreigners, with a foreign teacher, without exciting continual 
prejudices between it and our other schools. 

Finally, information has been obtained which induces the committee to 
believe that the more intelligent class of Italians do not desire such a school, 
and that, like most of the better class of Germans, they would prefer that 
those of their countrymen who come here with good intentions should be 
Americanized as speedily as possible. This result, in the opinion of thi.'i 
committee, vrill be most easily and promptly attained by the attendance of 
their children at our primary schools. 

The report was accepted and adopted, and the committee dis- 
cliarged from the further consideration of the subject. 

Inconvenience had arisen from the fact that the annual meet- 
ings of the Society, and the close of its fiscal year, occurred dur-- 
ing the month of May, while those of the Board of Education 
corresponded with the other public departments of the city, and 
dated from the 1st of January. Application having beea made 
34 



530 • THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCrETY. 

to the Legislature, the time was changed by a law passed on the 
23d of March, 1844. The time of the stated meetings of the 
trustees was also specified to be the tirst Fridays of Jarmary, 
April, July, and October. 

During the year 1843, Public School No. 17, in Thirteenth 
street, near the Seventh avenue, was built upon the ground pur- 
chased some time previously ; and, in 1844, No. 18 was estab- 
lished by the hiring of premises for the two upper departments. 

A new and very attractive feature was introduced into the 
schools in the summer of this year. Mr. Josiah Holbeook, who 
was zealously devoted to the introduction of scientific lessons, 
had, for several years, resided the greater part of his time 
in the city, laboring to promote a taste for the natural sciences 
among tiie children of the various schools and institutions. 
After having given undoubted proofs of the success of his 
method of teaching and illustration, the subject was formally 
recognized by the board, and one hoiir a week was approi^riated 
to the preparation of maps, drawings, specimens of minerals, 
geometrical solids, diagrams, &c., for exchange with the pupils 
of schools in other cities and towns, thus stimulating a system 
of artistic and scientific exchange, which called out the sympa- 
thies and the enthusiasm of the pupils. The annual report for 
1845 makes the following record of the new studies thus intro- 
duced : 

At the suggestion of Mr. J. Holbsook, to whose untiring exertions the 
cause of education is hirgely indebted, the board has authorized the school 
sections to permit a limited portion of time to be occupied by the pupils in 
preparing specimens of ■writing, mapping, and drawing, -with a view to the 
exchange of such specimens for those of other schools in this and the other 
States. It was thought that such an interchange of the results of mental 
and artistical labor on the part of the children would excite a healthful 
rivalry, and produce a more rapid and full development of their faculties. 
Through the above-named gentleman, numerous specimens of tlie kind re- 
ferred to were forwarded to the " Department of Common Schools," in the 
office of the Secretary of State at Albany ; and, in acknowledging the 
receipt, Mr. Randall, the General Deputy Secretary, has paid a high but 
well-merited compliment to the pupils of the public schools. In his letter 
to Mr. Holbrook, this enlightened, practical, and most indefatigable officer 
says : 

The young gentlemen and ladies who have furnished these neat and 
beautiful specimens are entitled to the approbation not only of the depart- 
ment, but of every enlightened friend of education. They will be carefully 



JOSIAH HOLBROOK. 531 

preserved for tlie examination and inspection of the members of the Legis- 
lature, and others upon whom the interests of elementary instruction are 
dependent for encouragement and support. And I beg to assure the young 
ladies and gentlemen engaged in these interesting and improving pursuits, 
that their progress and attainments will be watched with the utmost anxiety 
and solicitude by this department, and by those having in charge the numer- 
ous pulilic schools throughout the State ; that the specimens they have 
already furnished, and may hereafter furnish, will be laid before the general 
convention of superintendents at Syracuse, in April next, and compared 
wilh similar specimens from other parts of the State ; and that in this, as 
in every other branch of intellectual science, they must be careful above all 
things to bear in mind that, whatever attainments they may make are to be 
regarded only as a successive series of means for the improvement of their 
mental and moral being, their advancement in sound knowledge, and their 
progress in wisdom and goodness. 

In consequence of the condition of the treasury of the Soci- 
ety, and a question as to how far the full development of this 
system would involve the board in expenditure, were a grand 
central school-exchange to be established, the plan of Mr. Hol- 
brook was encouraged by the grant of certain facilities, and a 
room for his collections of specimens, but no considerable ex- 
pense was incurred. Mr. Holbrook continued his labors with 
great success, so far as his means enabled him, and visited other 
cities and localities. He continued his explorations and collec- 
tions from time to time until the year 1851, when his usefiil and 
honorable career was closed by a fatal accident, while he was 
alone upon a geological tour. On a visit to Virginia, near 
Lynchburg, he went out in the pursuit of his favorite objects, 
and was not again seen until his body was found at the river's 
side, at the foot of the cliff. It was supposed that he went too 
near the edge of the precipice, and fell from the brink upon the 
rocks beneath. His death was much lamented by thousands 
who had been stimulated to intellectual activity by his lessons ^ 
and his plans. ^ 

The new system of ward schools having been in operations, 
about two years and a half, some of its defects had become ap- 
parent, and, among others, the want of uniformity in the text- 
books, instruction, and classification. The report of January, 
1845, contains the following remarks upon this dissimilarity : 

Convinced, by every year's experience, of the great importancs to the 
rising generation in the humble walks of life, of uniformity in the books 
used in the schools, and in the course of instruction adopted in them, it is a 
matter of regret to the board that a similar uniformity does not prevail in 
all other schools for that class of our city. Limited, by their circumstances, 



532 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

to a comparatively short period for the acquisition of school learning, and 
being eminently migratory in their character, the trustees liave ever found 
great economy in time and mental labor by maintaining a system which fur- 
nished the same books and the same method of instruction throughout their 
widely-spread establishment. With the industrious poor man, time is em- 
phatically money ; with his children, so far as education is concerned, it is 
more than money. Not only the individual welfare of the future citizen 
calls loudly for the profitable oecui)ation of the brief period allotted to edu- 
cation, but it is vitally essential to the best interests of our common 
country. 

At a special meetinc^ of the board, held September 12, 1843, 
a committee of " one from each section, chosen by the section," 
was appointed, to examine and report upon the condition of the 
schools. This committee was continued from year to year, and 
presented reports and recommendations upon the various topics 
which were suggested by their investigations. In the early part 
of 1845, they submitted reports, one of which related to corpo- 
ral punishment in the schools. Tlie following resolution was 
adopted on the recommendation of the conmaittee : 

Hereafter no corporal punishment, by blows or otherwise, shall be in- 
flicted on any pupil or pupils in presence of the school, or during school 
hours, but after the school is dismissed, and then in the presence of the 
assistant or monitors, or both, with such number of large scholars as may 
be necessary for witnesses in case of complaint of any aggrieved party ; and 
in no case shall such punishment be inflicted until after proper admonition, 
parental in its character, be given, with a view of convincing the delin- 
quents of the impropriety of their conduct, and the necessity of reforma- 
tion ; and no stripes or blows to be applied to the head, or any part of the 
body other than the back, near the shoulders. 

A proposition to give a pecuniary reward to the teacher who 
should successfully conduct his or her school without corporal 
punishment, was rejected ; but a resolution granting a certificate 
for the disuse of the rod twelve months, was adopted. 

In March, 1845, the " Fejiale Association " communicated 
to the board tliat they were prepared to surrender the rooms in 
No. 5 which they had occupied for their school, and to discon- 
tinue it. The section of JSTo. 5, and the Property Committee, 
were authorized to attend to the transfer, and the principal sum 
devised by Col. Henry Eutgers, on which the Society had paid 
$45 annual interest, became the property of the Society. 

During the month of May, the Society was again bereaved 
of its presiding officer, Robekt C. Cornell being called to rest 



DEATH OF EGBERT C. CORNELL. 633 

fi-om his earthly labors. Appropriate resolutions were passed 
by the board, and the following " minute " was entered upon 
the record : 

It becomes the painful duly of the board to record on their minutes a 
notice of their late president, Robert C. Cornell. 

On Tuesday, May 20, 1845, Mr. Cornell went to his office apparently in 
good health, resumed his official duties ■with his accustomed assiduity, and 
was constantly occupied in the discharge of those duties until half-past 2 
p. M., when he became suddenly indisposed, was assisted to a carriage, and 
conveyed to his residence, where, in the bosom of his family, he departed 
this life at about half-past 7 o'clock of the same day. Thus it may be said 
of him, with almost literal accuracy, that, like the grass, he passed away. 
" In the morning they are like grass which groweth up. In the morning it 
flourisheth, and groweth up ; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth." 

He was educated in this city to mercantile pursuits, and, by a diligent 
attention to" them for a number of years, acquu'ed what he deemed a compe- 
tent fortune, and was influenced to retire from business, not for the purpose 
of self-indulgence, or to wear out a life then in its prime in indolence, under 
the name of repose, but in order to devote his time, his talents, and his 
laborious exertions to the cause of benevolence. 

In this laudable occupation he had been almost entirely engaged for a 
number of years, when, at the earnest solicitation of this board, he became 
its presiding officer. 

It is not our purpose to record the eulogy of his character as a citizen or 
a philanthropist ; other institutions, and the community in which he lived, 
and which he adorned, will not fail, in grateful remembrance of his services, 
to perform this service. But the board unanimously and cheerfully bear tes- 
timony that, in their intercourse with their late president, they have found 
him, in personal disposition and bearing, amiable, courteous, obliging, and 
gentlemanly ; as a " man of business," clear-headed, sagacious, and intelli- 
gent, possessing habits of exact punctuality, accuracy, industry, and never- 
tiring perseverance. Every piece of business in which he engaged seemed 
to claim his undivided attention until it was acomplished ; and he never left 
any business for to-morrow which could be done to-day ; and, above all, he 
was a man of truth and integrity, and perfectly fearless in the discharge of 
his duties. 

At a meeting of the board in May, 1844, Mr. John R. Hurd 
called attention to the fact that an important location for a school 
remained unoccupied, in the vicinity of Forty-second street and 
the Sixth avenue. Messrs. Peter Cooper, John E. Ilurd, and 
William Dusenberry were appointed a committee to select a 
location. Messrs. J. S. Hom'c, H. S. Benedict, and William 
Dusenberry were named as a " section " to take charge of the 
school when it should be opened. In May, 1845, the Committee 



534 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

on Locations reported in faVor of four lots in Forty-seventh 
street, between the Eighth and Ninth avenues, which were 
directed to be purchased, at the price of $1,900. The erection 
of a building was referred to the Executive Committee. The 
house was built, and known as No. 18. 

At the annual meeting of the Society, January 13, 1840, the 
othce of president, which had been tilled by George T. Ti-imble 
p-ro tempore, was assigned to Lindley Moeeat, who discliarged 
the duties of presiding officer only two years. 

In April, a communication was received from the Board of 
Education, in which it was stated that certain teachers of the 
Fourteenth Ward schools were refused admission to the Normal 
Schools of the Society, although they were entitled to the privi-- 
lege by the recent amendments to the school law. Messrs. A. 
P. Halsey, John T. Adams, John E. Ilui-d, James N. Cobb, 
Peter Cooper, and Joseph B. Collins, were appointed a commit- 
tee to confer with the representatives of the Board of Education. 
The following resolution was referred to the same committee : 

yfhereas. By the act of the Legislature of New York passed the 18th 
day of April, 1843, power is granted to the New Tork Public School Soci- 
ety to establish Normal Schools ; and, 

yVhereas^ By the act of said Legislature, passed the 7th day of May, 
1844, said jiower is distinctly recognized, and said Normal Schools are in- 
cluded among the number entitled to draw money from the public treasury 
for their supjiort, on condition of such schools affording instructions to all 
such pupils as may be intended for teachers in any schools established under 
the acts aforesaid ; therefore, 

Eeaohed, That it is expedient and proper for this board to proceed forth- 
with to establish such Normal School or schools as may be suited to the pur- 
poses named in said " act " of May 7, 1844, to be kept open five days in 
each week, and to be placed under such supervision, and to be conducted 
under such rules and regulations, as this board may from time to time 
direct. 

The Normal Schools were freely opened to the teachers of the 
ward schools, and so continued until the adoption of the system 
by the Board of Education, when they were much extended and 
improved. 

A controversy arose, in the month of February of this year,. - 
between the Society and the Board of Education, as to the 
power of the Society to erect new buildings and open new 
schools, under the provisions of the amended law of 1844. The 



POWERS OF THE SOCIETY. 635 

question originated in the Board of Edncation, by a preamble 
and resolution, offered on the 11th of Febrnary, by Mr. Ileni-y 
Nicoll, commissioner of the First Ward, as follows : 

W/iereaf, It is expedient for this board to have more particular informa- 
tion in relation to several matters than is contained in the report of the 
Public School Society, made on the 11th instant ; be it therefore 

Sesolcal, That the trustees of the Public School Society be, and they are 
hereby, requested to report to this board the number of new school-houses 
erected by the said Society since the 7th day of May, 1844, as welt as those 
now in the course of erection, with all grounds purchased for school pur- 
poses, with the character, location, and cost of the same ; and that they also 
report to this board whether the title to any of the said school-houses or 
grounds has been vested in the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the 
city of New York. 

Mr. Thomas Addis Emmet, one of the commissioners for the 
Twelfth AVard, offered the following resolution, which was like- 
wise adopted : 

Seaoked, That the Public School Society be also requested to furnish 
this board with the date of organization and locatijn of schools under their 
care, established since the 31st of January, 1845. 

On the Sth of April, the reply of tlie Society was transmit- 
ted to the board by Joseph B. Collins, the secretary, which was 
laid on the table for further consideration ; and, on June 10th, 
the subject being renewed, it was referred to a special commit- 
tee, consisting of Messrs. Robert F. Winslow, of the Eleventh 
Ward, John M. Seaman, of the Seventeenth Ward, and John L. 
Mason, of the Fifteenth Ward. On the 20th of January, 1847, 
the committee submitted their report adverse to the right of the 
Public School Society to " establish any new school " under the 
amended law of May 7, 1844. The facts and reasonings of the 
report came up subsequently on the adoption of the report, and 
were presented by able counsel for both parties, whose argu- 
ments are given below. The recommendations of the committee 
were the following : 

1. Resolved, That, in the opinion of the Board of Education, the Public 
School Society has no right, since the passage of the act entitled " An Act 
more EtTectually to Provide for Common School Education in the City and 
County of New York," jjassed May 7, 1844, to establish any new school ; 
and that, if any such schools have been or may be established, they are not 
entitled to participate in the apportionment of the school moneys. 



536 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

3. Besolocd, That tlie Public School Society be required to specify, in 
their annual I'eturns of scholars to be made to this board, for the apportion- 
ment of the school moneys, the number of scholars ■who have attended and 
are connected with any schools established by them since May 7, 1844. 

3. Eesoleed, That the said trustees be required, in their annual reports of 
moneys received and disbursed by them for the support of their schools, to 
specify how much has been expended for the support of any schools estab- 
lished by them since May 7, 1844, including in such expenses not only the 
salaries of their teachers, but also the prices, if any, paid for the rent of 
buildings or lots, or in the purchase of lots and erection of buildings, or in 
the payment of interest on moneys expended for that purpose. 

The report was laid ou the table, and ordered to be printed ; 
and, OU the 10th of March, the president laid Leibre the Boai'd 
of Education a comniuuication from the president of the Public 
School Society, asking an opportunity to he heard before the 
board before any action should be had on the report of the Spe- 
cial' Committee. On the reading of this communication, Mr. 
Nicoll oflered a resolution ordering a special meeting of the 
board on the following Wednesday, March 17, for the jntrpose 
of hearing the Public School Society by theii' committee. The 
board accordingly met, and IIieam IvETcnDii, Esq., on behalf of 
tiie Society, made the following remarks : 

Ma. Pbesident and Gentlemen op the Board op Education : By a 
report of a committee of your board, dated January 30, 1847, the following 
resolution is recommended to your adoption : 

Eesohed, That, in the opinion of the Board of Education, the Public 
School Society has no right, since the passage of the act entitled " An Act 
more Effectually to Provide for Common School Education in the City and 
County of New York," passed May 7, 1844, to establish any new school ; 
and that, if any such schools have been or may be established, they are not 
entitled to a participation in the apportionment of the school moneys. 

It is quite natural that rhe Public School Society should feel a deep 
interest in the deliberations and final action of your board upon this resolu- 
tion. The Society has, therefore, respectfully requested your board to allow 
an expression of their views, which request has been kindly and promptly 
i^anted ; and therefore, on behalf of the Societj', I now appear to solicit 
your attention for a few moments. 

The Board of Education is entrusted with the school fund, for distribu- 
tion in the mode pointed out bylaw. The Public School Society is entitled 
to a portion of this fund, and the great practical question is, By what rule 
shall the amount be ascertained which the Society is entitled to receive ? 
Shall the Society draw from this fund according to the number of children 
over four and under sixteen years of age, who shall have actually attended 
the schools of the Society the preceding year without charge ? or shall it 



SPEECH OF HIKAil KETCHTJM. 537 

draw only for the cliildren of the above description taught in such of those 
schools as were established on or before the 7th day of May, 1844 — the date 
of the act — and were in existence at that time ? Confessedly there -have 
been schools opened and established by the Society since the passage of tlie 
act, in which children have been gratuitously educated. Are these schools 
entitled to a participation in the fund ? 

The answer to these questions must be looked for in the law itself. That 
law contains the declaration of trust under which the Board of Education 
receives the money. The law provides the nde of duty ;is well for this 
board as for the Public School Society. 

To the law, then, let us look. The 13th section of the act of 1844 says : 
" It shall be the duty of the Board of Education to apportion all the school 
moneys, excejjt so much as shall have been raised for the purpose of estab- 
lishing and organizing new schools, to each of the several schools provided 
for by this act and the acts mentioned in the preceding section, according to 
the number of children over four and under sixteen years of age, who shall 
have actually attended such school without charge the preceding year." 

Among the schools provided for by the act are those of the Public 
School Society. The exception quoted, of so much money." as shall have 
been raised for the establishing and organizing new schools,"' refers to the 
money raised under the act for the special purpose of building school- 
houses, which is a distinct fund from the school fund proper. The 13th sec- 
tion further provides for any school that shall have been organized since the 
last annual apportionment. The provision is for any school. Then comes 
the exception : " But no school shall be entitled to the portion of the school 
moneys in which the doctrine or tenets of any Christian sect shall be 
taught," &c. 

Now, the Legislature have prescribed who shall not receive from the 
school fund ; and, according to every sound rule of construction, it is not 
competent for any persons acting under the law to add to the negative ex- 
ception. The general words of the law embrace all children taught in the 
schools within the prescribed ages. The exception excludes children taught 
in schools where sectarian doctrines are inculcated. None others can be ex- 
cluded. Therefore, children educated in the schools opened since the pas- 
sage of the act of May, 1844, cannot be excluded. 

But how shall the Board of Education be informed of the number of 
scholars taught in the schools of the Public School Society ? The 36th sec- 
tion of the act provides for the transmission of this information. " The 
trustees shall, on or before the 15th day of February in every year, make 
and transmit a report in writing to the Board of Education." What infor- 
mation shall it contain ? The same section furnishes the answer. 

1. The whole number of schools within the jurisdiction of the Society — 
specially designating the schools for colored children. 

This certainly means, within the jurisdiction at the time of tlie report, 
and not at the date of the passage of the act. 

3. The length of time each school shall have been kept open. 

3. Tlie whole number of scholars over four and under sixteen years of 



538 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

age, which shall have been taught free of expense to such scholars in their 
schools during the year preceding the 1st day of February. 

4. The average number that has actually attended their schools. 

5. The amount of moneys received during the last year from the com- 
missioners of school money, or from the chamberlain of the city, and 
the purposes for and the manner in which the same shall have been ex- 
pended. 

6. A particular account of the state of the schools, and of the property 
and aflairs of each school under the care of the Society. 

Now, it win be seen that the trustees of each ward, and the trustees of 
the Public School Society, are alike bound to report the number of schools 
within their jurisdiction, and the condition of th« schools at the time of 
making their reports. 

Then, if the schools of the Public School Society, opened and estal> 
lished since the passage of the act of 1844, are within the jurisdiction of the 
Society, it would seem to follow, conclusively, that these schools are entitled 
to participate in the school moneys. If they are not -within such jurisdic- 
tion, it follows not only that they are not entitled to participate, but that 
the trustees of the Society, in reporting the new schools and claiming a por- 
tion of the school fund, have sulijeated themselves to a penalty under sec- 
tion 37. 

The next inquiry is, whether the schools established by the Public 
School Society since the 7th of Maj^, 1844, are within the jurisdiction of the 
Society. If they are not, the Society has no legal title to them or control 
over them. Those who deny this jurisdiction, deny it on the ground that 
the Society has no right to establish such schools. L«t us look at the ques- 
tion of right. 

What is now the Public School Society, was, originally, incorporated as 
" The Society for Establishing a Free School in the City of Nev/ York, for 
the education of such poor children as do not belong to, or are not provided 
for by, any religious society." By the 2d section of this act, passed April 
9, 1805, the trustees of the coqjoration were authorized to establish two or 
more free schools in the city of New York, whenever the Society might 
judge it expedient. Here, then, we have a purely benevolent Society organ- 
ized and incorporated. Here i3 the Society, disconnected from any grant of 
money, from the school fund, or any other public fund, operating actively 
with the means supplied by its members and private contributions. 

Thus existing, it had a right by law — the law of its creation — to build 
as many school-houses and open as many schools as it pleased. Now^ with 
great respect, I inquire. When was this original corporate right ever taken 
from the Society ? While I am on this original act, allow me to make an- 
other suggestion. The Public School Society is called, in the report of the 
committee, " a close corporation." The Cth section of the original act 
enacts that the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen, and Assistants of the city of 
New York shall and may be ex-ojficio members of said cor23oratio)i, and that 
any person who shall subscribe and contribute to the benefit of the said 
Society the sum of eight dollars, shall, by virtue of such contribution, be a 



SPEECH OF HIBAM KETCHTJM. 539 

member of the said corporation. Is that a close corporation ? Sliow me 
one more open. 

By an " Act for the Encouragement of Free Schools in the City of New 
York," passed July 37, 1807, there was granted by the Legislature to this 
Society the sum of $4,000, for the purpose of erecting a certain building or 
buildings for the instruction of poor children ; and every year thereafter, 
until the pleasure of the Legislature should be otherwise expressed, an annu- 
ity of $1,000 was granted to the Society, " for promoting the benevolent 
oljjects of said corjjoration." 

In 1808, tli4 title of the corporation was changed to that of the " Free- 
School Society of New York," and its powers were extended " to all chil- 
dren the proper objects of a gratuitous education." 

Farther grants to the Society, for the purpose of erecting suitable accom- 
modations for the instruction of poor children, were afterward made by the 
Legislature. So that the Legislature not only gave the power to build, but 
the means to execute the power. One of the grants of means is contained 
in the 2d section of the act of 5th April, 1817, which allows the Society to 
appropriate any surplus school money, after the payment of teachers, &c., 
to the erection of buildings for schools. By the act of 28th April, 1826, the 
title of the Society is again altered to that of " The Public School Society 
of the City of New York," and the power is again conferred on the trustees 
" from time to time to establish in said city such additional Bchools as they 
may deem expedient." 

From this recital, it will be seen that the power to build school-houses 
and establish additional schools was always possessed by the Publi* School 
Society, and is still possessed, imlcss the power is taken away, as contended, 
by the act of 1844. 

Here let it be remembered, that this right is a chartered right, originally 
granted, and subsequently confirmed. For the means to purchase ground 
and build school-houses, the Society is, and ever has been, dependent upon 
private or public bounty. The exercise of the right to build assuiBes 
the possession of the means to do so. Now, supjiosing the means are in 
hand, cannot the Society employ those means in the erection of new school- 
houses ? 

It will be observed that I am not now upon the question whether or not 
the Legislature has furnished the means to build— that will be considered in 
another place — but whether this body has taken away the power to build ? 
Has not the Society the same power in this respect that it had when the 
original act was passed ? 

It is admitted, in the report of the committee, that the section of the act 
of 1826, authorizing the Society to establish such additional schools as it 
might deem expedient, is now in full force, unless it is repealed by the 50th 
section of the act of 1844. This same admission might also be extended to 
the 2d section of the original charter, ■which, as we have seen, gives the 
trustees power to establish two or more free schools in the city of New 
York. The " 50th section of the act of 1844 repeals the acts of 1842 and 
1843," and all other acts specially applicable to public or common schools 



540 THE PUBLIC 6CH00L SOCIETY. 

in tlie city and county of New York, as far as tlie same are inconsistent with 
the provisions of this act. 

The argument is, that the power to establish new schools, in the Public 
School Society, is inconsistent with the act of 1844, and is, therefore, re- 
pealed. Admitting, for the present, that the Legislature could, in this man- 
ner, without the notice required by the statute, divest a coii^oration of a 
chartered right, the first question is, Did the Legislature regard the power 
to establish new schools as inconsistent with the act of 1844 ? 

The committee say it appears to them, " from an examination of the act 
of 1844, in connection with the act of 1842, that the Legislature intended 
to vest the power of establishing new schools exclusively in the school offi- 
cers named in these acts." 

" The first section of the act of 1842," say the committee, " provides for 
the election of commissioners, inspectors, and trustees of schools in the sev- 
eral wards of the city, and declares that these officers respectively shall have 
the like powers, and be subject to the same duties, with the commissioners 
and inspectors of common schools, and the trustees of school districts in the 
several towns of the State, except as thereinafter provided. 

" Now, by reference to the powers and duties of commissioners, inspec- 
tors, and trustees of common schools in the several towns of the State, it 
will be seen that the whole power of esstablishiug common schools, aud the 
whole charge of them, is vested in these officers, and in them exclusively." 

That is to say, the common school system of the State takes in all the 
children, in every district. Therefore, when that system is extended to the 
city of Wew York, as it was by the act of 1843, it is equally comprehensive 
here — it embraces all the children of the city. I mean to state the argument 
correctly. 

Now, I wonder that the learned committee did not see that their argu- 
ment proved too much. For, if this argument be sound, the very existence 
of the Public School Society, all its chartered rights, are inconsistent with 
the new system, upon the reasoning employed. But did the Legislature so 
regard it ? No ; for this very act of 1843 puts the schools of the Public 
School Society " under the jurisdiction of the commissioners of the respec- 
tive wards in which any of the said schools now are, or hereafter may be, 
located, subject to the direction of the Board of Education, but under the 
immediate government and management of their respective trustees, man- 
agers, and directors, in the same manner and to the same extent as herein 
provided in respect to the district schools herein first before mentioned, in 
said city aud county," &c. Here, then, the act of 1843 expressly provides 
for schools of the Public School Society thereafter to be located. Such new 
erections were not at that time regarded as inconsistent with the extension 
of the common school system of the State to the city of New York. 

The 7th section of this act provides for the organization of schools under 
the new system, and provides that none such shall be organized unless it 
can be certified " that it is necessary to organize one or more schools in said 
ward, in addition to the schools mentioned in the 13th section ; " that is, in 
addition to the schools of the Public School Society then or thereafter to be 



SPEECH OF IlIEAM KETCHIJM. 541 

located in the respective wards. The act, however, did not, in express 
terms, provide any means for the erection of any new buildings by tlie Pub- 
lic School Society. This omission was evidently undesigned ; for, in the 
amendment of the act, in 1843, it is provided that "the trustees of the Pub- 
lic School Society may appropriate all moneys received by them by virtue 
of the act, to any of the purposes of common school instrnction, including 
the support of normal schools," which they were authorized by law to do 
before the passage of this act ; provided always, that the fee of all real 
estate purchased under the act " shall vest in the city and county of New 
York." 

Consequently, then, the new system introduced by the act of 1843 was 
not deemed by the Legislature inconsistent with the establishment of new 
schools by the Public School Society. Nor was it so deemed when the 
amended act of 1843 was passed. 

Did the Legislature of 1844 mean to say the establishment of new 
schools by the Public School Society was inconsistent with the provisions 
of the act passed by that body ? It is said this power was granted exclu- 
sively to the school officers named in the act. By the 8th section of this 
act, before the organization of any new ward school, it must appear that an 
additional school is necessary ; that is, additional to the schools already 
organized. If there are a sufficient number of public schools in the neigh- 
borhood of the contemplated organization, then no additional school shall 
be organized. The power, then, of the Public School Society to open new 
schools, is not inconsistent with the power of the ward officers to organize 
additional schools. If it were true, as a fact, that the new system must 
necessarily occupy the whole ground of common school education, then, of 
course, the power to build new school-houses must be exclusive ; but this is 
not true as a fact ; the new system occupies not the whole, but additional 
ground. Now, the question comes. Additional to what ? I answer;, Addi- 
tional to the schools, among others, of the Public School Society — a corpo- 
ration having schools, and possessing a chartered right to establish new 
schools. 

But the committee describe the mode pointed out by the 8th section of 
the act of 1844 for the organization of a new school, and say : " In order, 
then, to establish a new school, a majority of the school officers of the ward 
must, in the first instance, determine that it is needed ; and then they must 
apply to the Board of Education, stating the reasons of their apijlication ; 
and the Board of Education must investigate the matter, and grant or deny 
the application, as they may deem best.'' 

" Surely," say the committee, " such careful provisions in regard to the 
establishment of new schools is entirely inconsistent with the idea that the 
same power is concurrently given to a close corporation, with no responsi- 
Ijility as to the manner of its exercise." 

Why are these careful provisions prescribed in the act ? Because the 
money is to be raised by a special tax, imposed upon all the property of the 
city, for the express purpose of buying the land and erecting the school- 
house. This tax is imposed, in effect, by the very men who make the scru- 



542 THE PCBLIO SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tiny. The formalities, tliercfore, are required to determine the question, Is 
the high and extremely delicate function of government, the imposition of 
a tax, to be exercised ? But if the Public School Society have the money, 
derived from private or public bounty, what objection can the Legislature 
have to its appropriation in the organization of a new school ? especially as 
such organization may prevent the necessity of laying a tax to erect an 
additional school. Such appropriation is not, certainly, inconsistent with 
the power vested by law in the ward officers to organize additional schools. 

That the intention was to provide for the establishment of additional 
schools only, is obvious enough from the reading of the statute ; but, beyond 
this, the contemporaneous history of the school controversy exemplifies the 
same truth. The schools of the Public School Society were always the 
favorites of the commissioners of school money, of the Corporation of the 
city, of the Legislature of the State, and of the public at large. 

There were never any complaints made against this Society for infidelity 
in the expenditure of the many thousands of dollars entrusted to it. There 
were never any .allegations that it did not furnish a good and an economical 
education to the many thousand children instructed in its schools. Every 
investigation made — and there were many — showed that the management, 
order, and discipline of the public schools in the city were far preferable to 
those of country schools. The Legislature never meant to say or do any 
thing indicating an unfriendly feeling to the Public School Society. There 
were no facts to authorize such feelings ; but it did come out, in the investi- 
gations made by the Legislature, that there were many children in the city 
of New York who, from prejudice or some other cause, did not receive the 
advantages which the Society profiered. The new system was therefore 
enacted, not to destroy the old schools or retard the operations of the Soci- 
ety, but to provide additional schools, which should take up the scholars 
whom the Society could not or did not reach. 

Thus the two systems were intended — and wisely so — to operate side by 
side, under the supervision of this board. 

And now let us ask. Does not experience show that the two systems mu- 
tually stimulate each other, to the great advantage of the pupils instructed 
in the schools? I am informed that the public schools were never better 
attended, and were never more useful ; and it will, I am sure, be admitted, 
that the ward schools have been greatly aided by the example of the public 
schools. 

It is thus apparent that the Legislature did not intend to repeal the clear 
chartered right of the Society to multiply the number of its schools. 

Having shown that the Legislature never regarded the right of the Pub- 
lic School Society to open new schools as inconsistent with the provisions 
of the act of May, 1844, and therefore that there never was an intention to 
repeal the portions of the charter conferring this right, the next question is, 
Could the Legislature, if it had been so disposed, repeal the charter ? 

The report of the committee, in discussing this point, refers to the case 
of McLaren »s. Pennington, 1 Paige's Reports, 107. 

The following is a put of the marginal note in this case : 



SPEECH OF HEGAM KETCHUII. 543 

The privileges and franchises granted to a private corporation are vested 
rights, and cannot be divested or altered, except with the consent of the 
corporation, or by a forfeiture declared by a proper tribunal. 

A State cannot pass any law which alters or amends the charter of a pri- 
vate corporation, without the consent of such corporation. 

" Yet," the committee say, " it is a principle equally well settled, that 
public corporations, or those whose jKiwers are a jmblic trust, to be executed 
for the common weal, arc entirely within the control of the Legislature ; 
that these powers are not vested rights as against the State, but that they 
may be abrogated as well by a general law affecting the whole State, as by 
a special act altering the powers of the corporation." In support of this 
principle, reference is made to the case of The People ts. Morris, 13 Wend., 
325, 331. 

This was a case of alleged interference witli rights granted in the char- 
ter to the village of Ogdensburgh, St. Lawrence county. The defendant 
was indicted for selling spirituous liquors and permitting the same to be 
drunk in his grocery store, without having obtained a license as a tavern- 
keeper. He admitted the sale of liquor, &c., but justified, under a license 
from the trustees of the village, to " keep a grocery and victualling house 
in the village, in which to sell fruit, victuals, and liquor." The act of in- 
corporation of the village authorized the trustees " to regulate and license 
grocers and keepers of victualling-houses and ordinaries, where fruit, 
victuals, and liquor shall be sold to be eaten or drunk in such houses or gro- 
ceries." Under this authority, a license was granted to defendant, and paid 
for by him. 

The Supreme Court did not sustain the justificatiou of the defendant 
under the village liceuse, and they put themselves ujjon the ground that 
political power, conferred hy the Legislature, could not become a vested 
right as against the Government, in any individual or body of men. 

Then the question is. Is the right to educate children, granted by the act 
of 1805 and confirmed by the act of 1826, political power, within the sense 
of this decision ? If it be, it would seem to follow that the powers of our 
colleges and universities, granted by charter, which are po-ners to educate, 
are political powers, and not the subjects of private right. Yet we see that 
a very different doctrine was held by the Supreme Court of the United 
States, in the great case of Dartmouth College »s. Woodward, 4 Wheaton, 
C18. In that case, there was a charter granted by the British crown to the 
trustees of Dartmouth College. An act of the Legislature of New Hamp- 
shire was passed, altering the charter in a material respect, without the con- 
sent of the corporation. This act was declared to be unconstitutional and 
void. This case, I contend, is analogous to the one now under considera- 
tion. The powers granted to the Public School Society are not political 
powers. 

I have considered this point because I have been called to it by the posi- 
tion taken by the committee, and have thus been led to the discussion of the 
legal rights of the Society ; not that I suppose the time will ever come when 
there will be a disposition to exercise these rights in opposition to the will 



544 THE PDBLIO SCHOOL SOCtETT. 

of the Legislature. The Society would probably shrink from a conflict with 
the Legislature. 

It is thus manifest that the Public School Society has a chartered right 
to build school-houses and opeu schools ; that it was never the intention of 
the Legislature to take away or interfere with that right ; and that it had 
no right to take away such chartered right without the consent of the Soci- 
ety — wliich consent has never been given. 

Then the proposition of the committee, that the Public School Society, 
since the act of May 7, 1844, has no right to establish any new school, is 
untrue. As an abstract proposition, it is confessedly untrue. 

The next proposition of the committee is, that, if any such schools have 
been or may be established, that they are not entitled to jDarticipate in the 
apijortionment of the school moneys. 

This, too, is untrue ; for the Society has a legal right, as has been shown, 
to draw for all scholars, between the ages of four and sixteen years, edu- 
cated free of expense in the schools within its jurisdiction. The schools 
opened since May 7, 1844, are confessedly within the jurisdiction of the 
Society, so that there is no longer room for argument. 

But the great practical question, after all, is, Whence can the Society 
obtain the means of opening new schools ? 

1st. It can borrow money and mortgage its property for the payment 
thereof, under the act of 1829. Of this there can be no doubt in the mind 
of any man who will look at that act. The money so legally borrowed is 
the property of the Society ; and, having means, it can establish new 
schools. 

2d. The Society can participate in the apportionment of the school 
moneys, in the same manner and to the same extent as the ward schools. 
The manner is pointed out in section 6 of the act of 1844. The extent is 
defined in section 12 : 

It shall be the duty of the Board of Education to apportion all the 
school moneys, except so much as shall have been raised for the purpose' of 
organizing and establishing new schools, to each of the several schools pro- 
vided for by this act, according to the number of children, over four and 
under sixteen years of age, who shall have actually attended such school 
without charge the preceding year. 

The Society's schools and the ward schools alike draw from the fund, 
according to the number of children taught ; they participate pir capita. 
There is, then, no doubt as to the rule by which the money shall be -received. 
For what purposes can it be used ? Section 13 provides that, if the money 
apportioned agreeably to that section shall exceed the necessary and legal 
expenses of either of the schools or societies provided fur in the act, the 
balance shall be paid into the city treasury. 

Then the Public School Society can use the money it receives to pay its 
necessary and legal expenses. What are these ? The neces; ary expenses of 
a school for sujiplying gratuitous education to all children -whom it can 
accommodate and instruct, are easily indicated. There must be one or more 
teachers ; there must be fuel, school furniture, stationery, and a house. All 



SPEECH OF HIEAM KETCHUM. 545 

these must be paid for, and the expenses therefor are necessary expenses. 
They are legal expenses, too, if the objects named arc within the scope of 
the puqDoses for which the fund was originally created by law. Now, what 
are these purposes ? Section 5 of the act of 1844 defines them ; they are, 
purposes of common schools in the city of New York. This section pro- 
vides that there shall be raised by tax a sum equal to that received from the 
school fund, and also one twentieth of one per cent, on all assessable proji- 
erty in the city of New York, and to be applied exclusively to the purposes 
of common schools in said city. Then, if salaries of teachers, fuel, school 
furniture, stationery, and a house — objects all of which are necessary to the 
existence and operations of common schools — are comprehended in the pur- 
poses of common schools, the expenses necessary to procure them are both 
necessary and legal expenses, under section 12 already referred to. 

What objects were included in the pui-poses of common schools in the 
city of New York, before the passage of the act of May, 1844 ? 

I first notice the act entitled " An Act Relating to Common Schools in 
the City of New York," passed November 19, 1834. The provisions of this 
act require that an equal amount received from the school fund shall be 
raised by tax ; and the aggregate amount shall be deposited in a bank, to 
the credit of commissioners of the school fund. The act farther provides, 
that the institutions or schools entitled to receive said school moneys shall, 
once in three years, be designated by the Corporation of the city of New 
York, who shall have power to jirescribe the limitations and restrictions 
under which said moneys shall be received by said institutions or schools, or 
any of them. 

Under this law, the Corporation of the city of New York, by ordinance, 
designated the institutions and schools which should participate in the 
fund ; and they provided that every other institution and school, besides the 
Public School Society, should receive only a sufiicient amount to pay teach- 
ers employed, but that this Society was authorized to apply any surplus, 
after paying the salaries of teachers, to the erection of buildings for schools, 
and to all the useful purposes of a common school education. By the judg- 
ment, then, of the Corporation, the school fund, without any special desig- 
nation thereto by the Legislature, could be appropriated to the erection of 
buildings, and all the needful purposes of education in common schools. 
By an act passed April 35, 1839, the Corporation of the city of New York is 
authoi'ized annually to raise and collect by tax a sum equal to one eightieth 
of one per cent, of the value of the real and personal property in the city 
liable to assessment, to be applied exclusively to the purposes of common 
schools in the said city. 

By another act, passed April 13, 1831, the Corporation is authorized to 
lay an additional amount, to be applied exclusively to the purposes of com- 
mon schools in said city. 

Thus the Legislature authorized the funds to be raised, defining the 
object to be, generally, for the purposes of common schools, but not specify- 
ing what i^articular objects were comprehended within those purposes. The 
Corporation could prescribe the limitations and restrictions under which 
35 



546 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

each society or school should receive the I'aud, but it could not enlarge'tho 
purposes for which the fund was created. 'With this power only, the Cor- 
poration settled, by ordinance, that building school-houses, purchasing sta- 
tionery, &C., were purposes of common schools, as well as the payment of 
teachers. Under this practical construction of the law, before the act of 
1842, the school moneys for this city were distributed, for nearly twenty 
years, without objection or complaint, either from the Superintendent of 
Common Schools or the Legislature, who were annually informed of the 
mode of distribution. 

The same language, to designate the object of the fund, is employed in 
section 5 of the act of 1844, as was previously employed in the acts of 1829 
and 1831. Does it not, then, follow, that this fund can be now used for like 
purposes — ^that the fund, siniDarly created and described, had been used 
with manifest approbation ? 

If there were no other enactment in the act of 1844 for raising money by 
tax, then, beyond all controversy, this question must be answered in the 
afBrmative. The words, " the purposes of common schools," in the 5th sec- 
tion, would embrace all the puqjoses of common schools ; and " the neces- 
sary and legal expenses " of the Public School Society would be those ex- 
penses to which it was subjected in accomplishing any or all of these pur- 
poses. 

But it is said the act of 1844, besides the fund composed of the school 
moneys, and the equivalent tax raised in the city, and the farther tax of one 
eightieth of one per cent., to be applied exclusively to the puii»ses of com- 
mon schools, provides a mode, in the same section 5, for raising and collect- 
ing an additional sum for erecting, purchasing, or leasing school-houses, and 
procuring sites therefor, and the fitting up thereof. Now, because the 
objects last specified are specially provided for in the act, it is said they 
cannot be embraced in the provisions for creating the other fund, although 
the terms of those provisions are sufficiently comprehensive to embrace the 
same objects. With great respect, I deny this conclusion ; it is unsound and 
illogical. The additional provision for raising money for some of the pur- 
jjoses of common schools, shows that, in the judgment of the Legislature, 
more funds were required for these purposes ; but it by no means proves 
that the same purposes were not comprehended under the general expres- 
sion, "purposes of common schools." The new system required new houses, 
and it demanded more aid for this purpose than could be supplied by the 
fund as formerly constituted. To supply houses, therefore, for this new sys- 
tem, required an additional source of revenue ; but the opening of that 
source did not change the character of the old fountain of supply ; that 
remains as before. 

Under the act of 1844, then, the Board of Education receives the school 
money ; it apportions it among the schools and societies mentioned in tlie 
act, to be by them applied to the purjjoscs of common schools in the city 
of New York. The purposes of common schools have been . defined by 
established usage. What these purposes are, is settled by approved custom. 
Among others, they are, the payment of teachers' salaries, the purchase of 



SPEECH OF HIRAM KETCHTJM. 547 

stationeiy, fuel, and school furniture, the hiring of rooms, tiiid the erection 
of buildings for schools. 

Although the erection of buildings for schools is clearly one of the pur- 
poses of common schools, yet, in the apportionment of school money for a 
single year, as this board is bound to apjjortion, it might, perhaps, admit of 
a doubt whether a jmrpose so permanent, looking forward to many years in 
the future, could properly be provided for in such annual apportionment. I 
say, it might admit of a doubt, unless the board can find evidence, in the 
act itself, that such erections were contemplated by the Legislature. Is 
there such evidence in the act of 1844 ? The last sentence in the 11th sec- 
tion of this act is in these words :. 

Titles to all school property, real and personal, hereafter purchased from 
all moneys derived from the distribution of the school fund, or raised by 
taxation in the city of New York, shall be vested in the Mayor, Aldennen, 
and Commonalty of said city. 

This sentence contemplates that real estate might be purchased with 
money derived from tlie distribution of the school fund. How could there 
be any such money, unless there liappened to be a surplus after the payment 
of teachers, &c. ? This surplus had generally been found in the schools of 
the Public School Society. If the surplus could not be used in the erection 
of school-houses, it would have to go back to the city treasuiy. If — as 
seems to be contemplated in the sentence quoted — it could be used for the 
purchase of real estate, the title to that estate was made to vest in the Cor- 
poration. To me it seems that the words quoted are entirely insensible, 
unless they recognize the fact that, as in all former times since 1817 had 
been the practice, the Pubhc School Society should have the right to vest 
the surplus in* real estate. It will be remembered that section 11 makes pro- 
vision for the schools of the Public School Society, and other corijorate 
schools, and it was not necessary to use the sentence quoted, in order to 
vest the title to the real estate purchased for ward schools in the Corpora- 
tion ; that had been done before, at the end of section 9. Connect these 
considerations with the fact that, in the amendatory act of 1843, the power 
to use the school fund for the purchase of real estate was clearly given to 
the Public School Society, and the title to such estate was made to vest in 
the Corporation, and it seems to me the intention of the Legislature cannot 
be doubted. 

Yet still I confess that intention has not been as clearly expressed as I 
could desire ; and if this board entertain a serious doubt as to its right to 
allow the Public School Society to use the school moneys for the erection 
of schcol-houses, altliough the title should be vested in the Corjjoiatior, 
then I would respectfully suggest that it unite with the Public School Soci- 
ety in an application to the Legislature, now in session, to pass a short 
declaratory act, making that clear which now seems obscure. 

In such an act I am willing that there should be inserted a provision that 
the Public School Society should not erect a new building, unless the loca- 
tion were approved by this board. 

It will be readily seen that, under the increased expenses of the Society, 



548 THE PUBLIC BCHOOL SOCIETY. 

growing out of the new order of things, there will probably be very little 
surplus moneys remaining in its hands ; yet I respectfully suggest that the 
same.right to use that surplus, heretofore enjoyed, should be still retained. 
With these remarks, the whole subject is respectfully submitted. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Ketclium's speech, Mr. Mason 
offered a resolution, heing an amended form of the first recom- 
mendation of the committee, as follows : 

Jic'solced, That, in the opinion of the Board of Education, the Public 
School Society has no right, since the jjassage of the act entitled " An Act 
more Effectually to Provide for Common School Education in the City and 
County of New York," passed May 7, 1844, to establish any new schools 
entitled to participate in the ai^jjortionment of the school moneys. 

Mr. Mason sustained his resolution in a reply to Mr. Kctch- 
nm, as follows : 

Mr. President : Before proceeding to the discussion of the resolution 
which has just been read, I beg leave to submit one or two preliminary 
remarks. 

In the first place, I am happy that this discussion has taken place, and 
that this board so promptly acceded to the request of the Public School 
Society, to allow them to be heard on the subject of this resolution by their 
committee. Such a course was due to that Society, composed as it is of so 
many of our most respectable citizens, and exercising so important an influ- 
ence upon the public education of the city. It was due also to this board, 
that, before deciding on a step so important as that involved in the resolu- 
tion, it should patiently hear and examine both sides of the question. 

In the next place, the impression has been made in some quarters that 
the resolution and the report of the committee on which it is founded, pro- 
ceeds from a feeling of hostility on the part of the board toward the Public 
School Society, and that a desire exists to injure and weaken the Society. 
For myself, I utterly disclaim any such feeling. The Public School Society 
is, in my judgment, entitled to the warmest gratitude of this community. 
For a number of years the common school education of the city was, for the 
most part, committed to this Society ; and it has, with great ability and 
fidelity, discharged the high trust confided to it ; and I would resist to the 
utmost of my power any attempt to interfere in the least degree with any 
of the powers conferred upon it with regard to those schools which existed 
at the time of the passage of the act of 1844 ; and these I believe to be the 
sentiments of the board. 

But the question is a naked question of law, involving the interpretation 
of the statute under which we are constituted, and one which it is abso- 
lutely necessary for us to settle, in order properly to fulfil the duties we have 
to perform. 

I have listened, this evening, to the able argument of the learned advo- 



SPEECH OF MR. MASON. 549 

cate of the Public School Society ia opposition to the resolution and report 
of the committee now under consideration, but he has failed to convince me 
that the position taken by the committee is erroneous. On the contrary, I 
have no doubt that the construction given by the committee to the act of 
May 7, 1844, is the true one. 

Let us clearly understand the question involved ; for, with great respect, 
I think the learned gentleman has somewhat obscured it. 

The question before us, then, is, not whether the Public School Society 
has or has not faithfully discharged the trust confided to it. I should have 
no hesitation in answering this question in the affirmative. Nor is it 
whether, by the law of 1844, the schools of the Society are merged in the 
ward schools ; such a position has never been advanced, much less contend- 
ed for.* Nor is it whether the Society have or have not a corporate right to 
establish free schools, to be supported by the private contributions of the 
members of the Society. But the question is, whether the Society has a 
right to establish new common schools, which will be entitled, under the 
act of 1844, to participate in the school moneys, and a right to use their sur- 
plus funds, derived from the school moneys, in building or renting school- 
houses for such new schools. 

This was the question discussed in the report of the committee. The 
term " schools " was indeed used in that report without any other designa- 
tion or qualification, because it was only with common schools that this 
board has any thing to do. 

In order the more clearly to understand the subject, I will briefly advert 
to the course of legislation in relation to common schools. 

The Legislature, many years since, established the common school sys- 
tem, extending to every part of the State, except the city and county of 
New York. 

By the provisions of that system, as is well known, ditiierent officers are 
elected in the various towns of the State, each having their distinct and 
appropriate duties : commissioners, to receive the school moneys appor- 
tioned from the revenue of the common school fund, and to distribute them, 
with a like amount raised by tax, among the school districts ; inspectors, to 
examine into the qualifications of persons proposed as teachers ; and trus- 
tees of districts, to take charge of the school-houses, pay the teachers, &c. 

These officers, it is also well kn"own, have exclusive jurisdiction in these 
matters. They alone have power to establish common schools in their 
respective towns, and no other schools but common schools thus established, 
and managed by the school officers of the town and district in which they 
are situated, have a right to participate in the school moneys. 

• Allusion is here made to some of Mr. Ketclnim's remarks which do not appear 
in the printed report published by the Society. These remarks, as they appear in 
print, are somewhat modified from their original shape. The reply now presented 
immediately followed the remarks, and were founded on a few notes, many of which 
were taken while Mr. Ketchum was speaking, and have since been reduced to writing 
at the request of the Board of Education. 



550 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

This common school system, I have said, did not originally, nor until a 
yery late period, extend to this city. 

The various religious societies in the city had, for the most part, schools 
belonging to their respective denominations ; and, in the year 1805, the 
Free-School Society, now the Public School Society, was established for the 
instruction of poor children who did not belong to, or were not provided 
for by, any religious society. The schools which it formed, according to the 
original plan of the Society, were to be supiiorted by private contributions, 
and it was, in every respect, a private eleemosynary institution. 

In the year 1836, however, the character of this Society was essentially 
changed. The first section of the act of January 28, 1826, entitled " An 
Act in Relation to the Public School Society of New York," altered its 
name to that of " The Public School Society of New York ; " and the sec- 
ond section made it the duty of said Society to provide, so far as their 
means might extend, fcflr the education of all children in the city of New 
York not otherwise provided for, whether such children were or were not 
the ijroper subjects of gratuitous education, and without regard to the 
religious sect or denomination to which such children or their parents might 
belong. 

Thus an important public tnist was committed to the Society ; the com- 
mon school education of the city was placed under its control ; the duties 
and powers of commissioners, trustees, and inspectors in the county, were 
vested in its officers ; they became the executive officers of the Government 
for this important branch of public service ; new and distinct powers were 
grafted upon their original charter ; and, by a subsequent section of the 
same act, their right to draw upon the school fund was expressly recognized. 

But, in the year 1843, the Legislature saw fit to extend the common 
school system, which prevailed throughout the State, to the city of New 
York, with some modifications. 

The act of 1842 provided for the appointment of commissioners, inspec- 
tors, and trustees, with the like powers and duties with the commissioners 
and inspectors of common schools, and the trustees of school districts in the 
several towns of the State, " except as thereinafter provided." 

Now, if the jsowers and duties of those officers in the several towns in 
the State were to be exercised by them, and by them alone, and were exclu- 
sive in their very nature, they must be equally so in the city, excepting in so 
far as they are modified by the act itself; and this position by no means 
proves, as the learned gentleman insisted, that the schools of the Public 
School Society are merged in the ward schools, and all the powers of the 
Society destroyed, if, as we know to be the case, the exception provides for 
its schools. 

The 13th section of the act of 1843 expressly recognizes the schools of 
the Public School Society then in existence, protects them in the enjoyment 
of all their rights, and secures to them, in a manner that never was done 
before, their full share of the school moneys. 

But, as to all matters not embraced within the exception, the powers and 
duties of the commissioners, inspectors, and trustees, are and must be exclu- 



SPEECH OF ME. MASON. 551 

sive, or the act has no meaning. If this is not so, but the Public School 
Society could go on establishing new schools as before, it is incumbent upon 
it to show that power to do so is reserved to it in the act. 

The learned advocate of the Society has invoked the 7th section of the 
act of 1842 to his aid. It provides that, " whenever the trustees elected in 
any ward shall certify in writing, to the commissioners and inspectors of 
common schools thereof, that it is necessary to organize one or more schools _ 
in said ward, iu addition to the schools mentioned in the 13th section,of 
this act (in which section the schools of the Society are expressly named), it 
shall be the duty of the said commissioners and inspectors to meet together 
and examine into the facts and circumstances of the case ; and, if they shall 
be satisfied of such necessity, they shall certify the same, under their hands, 
to the Board of Education, and then shall proceed to organize one or more 
school districts therein, and shall procure a school-house," &c. The provis- 
ion of the act of 1844 is the same in substance, although more general in its 
terms. The 8th section provides that, whenever the commissioners, <&c., 
shall certify to the Board of Education that it is necessary to organize one 
or more additional schools in said ward, &c. It is obvious that the same 
construction must be given to these words " in addition," in the act of 1844, 
as was given to the words of like import in the 7th section of the act of 
1843, just referred to. 

It is strange that this section should have been adverted to by the 
learned gentleman. If it means any thing, it means that the power of erect- 
ing schools in addition to those then established, is vested in the ward 
officers. There are, say the Legislature, certain schools established by the 
Public School Society ; with these schools we do not wish to interfere, but 
whenever schools are needed in any ward, iu addition to those already estab- 
lished, you, the commissioners, inspectors, &c., niust judge of that, and 
establish them, if found necessary. 

To insist, as was done in the argument of the counsel, that these words, 
" in addition," mean in addition to the schools thereafter to be established 
by the Society, is begging the question. 

The 13th section of the act of 1843 was next referred to, which puts the 
schools of the Public School Scoiety under " the general jurisdiction of the 
commissioners of the respective wards in which any of the said schools now 
are or may hereafter be located ; " and it was insisted that the act provides 
for schools thereafter to be located or established. So fiir from it, the act 
merely defines under whose jurisdiction the existing schools of the Society 
shall be, in case of a division, or alteration of the bounds, of any of the 
wards ; that they shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the officers in whose 
bounds they then were, or, upon a division of the wards, they might hap- 
pen to be. 

The question then arises. Had the Legislature the right to take away 
this power from the Public School Society of establishing new common 
schools ? 

It is contended that they had not, because it was a chartered right. 

The learned counsel has spent much time in endeavoring to show that 



552 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



the Society has a chartered right to establish free schools, to be supported 
by private munificence, and that this right ia not taken away. I might 
safely concede this position, and the argument would not be advanced a 
step ; any more than it would be if he had proved— what no one denies — 
that any individual has a right to educate as many children as he pleases, 
free of expense. But that would not prove that such an individual has a 
right to use the public moneys to aid him ; nor that, if the law has once 
given him some aid, he has a vested right in it for all time to come. 

The distinction is between the corporate right to establish free schools at 
the Society's expense, and the right and duty of establishing common 
schools to be sujiported at the public expense. . 

The one we do not interfere with ; the other is, and always, from the 
nature of the case, must be, subject to legislative control. 

The established doctrine on this subject is well expressed in the case of 
the People vs. Morris, 13th Wend., 323, 341, in which the comt say that 
■■ public corporations, or those whose powers are a public trust, to be exe- 
cuted for the common weal, are entirely within the control of the Legisla- 
ture ; that these po^-crs are not vested rights as against the State, but that 
they may be abrogated as well by a general law affecting the whole State, as 
l>y a special act altering the powers of the corporation." 

The learned gentleman has been at some pains, in examining the jjarticu- 
lar facts of that case, to show that the power exercised by the defendant in 
that case, of selling spirituous liquors, was a political power ; and he con- 
tended that the right to educate children is not a political power. I would 
ask, What is a political jjower 1 What is the meaning of political ? It is 
iletined to be something which relates to public aflah's — affairs in which the 
whole public are interested. And are we to be gravely told that the regu- 
lation and licensing of grocers and victualling-houses in a village (which 
was the power referred to in the case quoted from Wendell) is a political 
power, in which the whole public are interested, and which the Government 
can regulate as they please ; but that the education of all the children of 
our city is a matter of private concern, with which the public have nothing 
to do — which the Legislature cannot regulate or control ; and that, having 
once delegated certain duties relative to it to a private corporation, they 
have placed the matter forever out of their reach ? 

The case of Dartmouth College rs. Woodward, 5 Wheaton, 518, cited by 
the counsel, does not in the least conflict with that of The People rs. Morris. 
The decision in that case was put expressly on the ground that the college 
was a private eleemosynary, and not a public coiporation, and so the gentle- 
man himself read from the case, and felt bound to insist that the Public 
School Society was a private, and not a public, corporation. If so, let it 
confine itself to those private rights originally granted to it, and not claim 
to exercise the jjowers conferred upon it as the agent of the Government, 
and there is then no question on which we are at issue. But let it not insist 
upon a pei-petual grant of public and political powers and duties, because 
its charter gives it certain private rights. 

There is, then, no constitutional objection to the establishment of the 



SPEECH OF ME. MASON. 553 

new system. It is no violation of the chartered rights of the Society. It is 
only a withdrawal of a public trust coniided to it, and Testing it in other 
hands. 

But again. The exercise by the Public School Society of the right to 
establish new schools, is entirely inconsistent witli the exercise of the same 
right by this board. It would be in the power of the Society to prevent 
this board trom ever establishing any new schools. 

Our proceedings are public, and necessarily slow. The ward oiHcers 
must first determine that a school is necessary ; they must then apply to this 
board, which meets ordinarily but once a month ; the matter is referred to a 
committee, who may report at the expiration of one month, perhaps two. 
The site for a buUding must then be purchased, and appropriations made, 
which generally take another month. In the meanwhile, before the ward 
officers have fairly commenced operations, the Public School Society, whose 
deliberations are more secret, may have purchased ground and erected a 
building in the very neighborhood of the one proposed to be established by 
this board, and render the establishment of a school by the ward officers 
entirely unnecessary and inexjjedient. I do not mean to say that the Soci- 
ety would take such a course. I do not believe they would. I merely state 
the case by way of illustration, to show what could be done, and thus test 
the accuracy of the position taken by us on this subject. It cannot be that 
the Legislature meant that this power should be exercised simultaneously by 
both bodies. 

The soundness of the position taken by the committee will further 
appear by the course of legislation with regard to the school moneys. 

The words " school moneys " are used throughout the act of May, 1844. 
The term is a technical one, and is defined, in 1 E. S., 196, 1st ed. § 3, to 
mean the revenues of the common school fund which are annually distrib- 
uted for the support and encouragement of common schools. 

These moneys are paid into the hands of the commissioners for schools 
in the several towns of the State, and, together with the moneys raised by 
tax in the towns, are ai)portioned by the commissioners among the several 
school districts, and paid to the trustees (1 B. S., 470, 1st ed. §§ 5-6), who 
are required to aiJijropriate them to the payment of teachers' wages (;ih. 481, 
§§ 8-9) ; and the moneys received from both these sources are designated 
by the general term of " school moneys." 

The sums necessary for purchasing the sites for school-houses, for build- 
ing, hiring, or purchasing school-houses, keeping them in repair, furnishing 
them with necessary fuel and ajjpendages, are provided for by additional 
tax imposed upon the inhabitants at a school-district meeting {il. 478, § 61, 
sub. S). 

By an act passed April 17, 1838 (Laws, 1838, p. 220), the sum of one 
hundred and ten thousand dollars of the income of the United States de- 
posit fund is directed to be annually distributed to the support of common 
schools, in like manner and upon the like conditions as the school moneys 
are or may be distributed. 

There are also various other acts to be found in the statute-book, show- 



554 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ing how sacredly the school moneys are appropriated to the teachers' wages ; 
as, for instance, a law passed in 1837 (Laws, 1837, ;[), 233), authorizing the 
inhabitants of school districts to levy a tax for the purchase of a book to 
record the proceedings of the trustees ; and another law, in 1841 (Laws, 
1841, p. 236), authorizing a special tax, not exceeding $20 in any one year, 
to purchase maps, globes, black-boards, and other school apparatus — all 
showing that the " school moneys," so called, could not be used in these 
■ways, but that they are sacredly appropriated to the support of teachers. 

The Public School Society would have had no right at any time to appro- 
priate the school moneys received by it to any other purpose, but for the 
permission given in the act of April 5, 1817, referred to by the counsel. 

The act of May 7, 1844, makes the same distinction between " school 
moneys," properly bo called, and the sums necessary for establishing and 
organizing new schools. 

The 5th section provides that the supervisors shall annually raise, by tax, 
a sum of money equal to the city's share of the school moneys received from 
the general fund, and also one twentieth of one per cent, of the real and 
personal estate in the city, to be applied exclusively to the purposes of com- 
mon schools in said city. 

That these purposes are not erecting, or leasing, or purchasing sites for 
school-houses, or school-houses themselves, is manifest from what follows in 
the same section, which j)rovides that the Corporation shall raise by tax 
such further sum as may be necessary for these last-mentioned objects, and 
also for fitting up of the school-houses. 

The sums first designated in section 5 are, by the 6th section, directed to 
be deposited to the credit of the commissioners of common schools in the 
several wards, and of the societies and schools enumerated in the 11th sec- 
tion (including the Public School Society), in the proportion to which they 
shall respectively be entitled. 

By the 7th section, the balance of the funds to be raised, pursuant to 
section 5, for the erection, jjurchase, or leasing of school-houses, and procur- 
ing the sites therefor, and fitting uj) thereof, are placed at the disjjosal of 
the Board of Education, by approjjriation, for the establishment and organi- 
zation of schools, as provided in the 8th section. 

The 8th section provides for the establishment of new schools by the 
Board of Education, and by none other ; and these schools are denominated 
by the 3d section, " ward schools." 

Here, then, are two distinct funds, both placed under the control of the 
Board of Education : the first consisting of the funds annually raised for 
the support of common schools, and denominated " school moneys " 
throughout the act. In these moneys the Public School Society partici- 
pates according to the number of its scholars, in common with the ward 
schools, and the other schools and societies mentioned in the act. 

The second fund is a special one, to be raised from time to time, for 
establishing and organizing new ward schools, and them alone. 

Now, if we turn to the 11th section, we shall find that the schools of the 
Public School Society, with the other schools mentioned in the section, 



SPEECH OF ME. MASON. 555 

" participate in the apportionment of the ' school moneys ' in the same man- 
ner and to the same extent " as are provided with regard to the ward 
schools. 

The next section (13th) shows in what manner and to what extent the 
ward schools, and, of course the schools of the Public School Society, are 
entitled to participate in the school moneys which may be apportioned to 
them. 

If, by reason of peculiar circumstances, any of the newly-organized 
schools are entitled to a larger sum than they will receive under the appor- 
tionment, then the Board of Education are required to make for them such 
further allowance out of the said school moneys as may be just and proper. 
But " if the school moneys apportioned agreeably to this section shall ex- 
ceed the necessary and legal expenses of either of the schools or societies 
provided for in this act, the board shall authorize the payment only of such 
necessary and legal expenses ; any balance remaining in deposit at the end 
of each year shall be paid by the Board of Education into the city treasury, 
and any deficiency to meet the necessary and legal expenses of either of the 
said schools or societies shall be supplied by the Common Council, in antici- 
pation of the annual tax for the support of common schools, as provided by 
section 5 of this act." 

Now, what are these "necessary and legal expenses" to which the school 
moneys are to be applied ? < 

The words must have the same meaning in their application to the Pub- 
lic School Society and the ward schools, because the Society j)articipates in 
these moneys only in the same manner and to the same extent as the ward 
schools. 

The learned gentleman contends that the Public School Society has the 
right, under the term " necessary and legal expenses," to build new school- 
houses whenever it shall deem proper. If this is so, and if the building of 
new school-houses is a necessary and legal expense, within the meaning of 
the act, then, if the cost of erection of a new school-house should exceed 
the sum apportioned to the Society, the Board of Education would be 
bound to certify the fact to the Common Council, and the Common Council 
would be bound to provide for the deficiency by tax, and the way is clear 
for the Society to extend their schools when and where they please. 

By parity of reasoning, the officers of the ward schools have a right to 
establish new schools of their own motion, without the interference of the 
Board of Education, because the ward schools and the Public School Soci- 
ety stand on the same footing precisely with regard to these school moneys. 
If the building of new school-houses is, upon a just construction of the act, 
one of the " necessary and legal expenses " of the Public School Society, it 
must be also one of the necessary and legal expenses of the ward schools ; 
and we are thus driven to a conclusion entirely at variance with the whole 
scope and tenor of the act, and with many of its positive provisions. 

No person who reads the act can doubt for a moment what are the 
" necessary and legal expenses " of the ward schools, to which the school 
moneys may be applied. They are, upon the most liberal constniction, the 



656 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

annual expenses required to keep up the school — payment of teachers, fuel, 
ordinary repairs, stationery, &c. ; and they cannot be applied to LuUding or 
hiring school-houses for new schools, because the power of establishing new 
schools, and raising the requisite funds for that purpose, is placed in the 
Board of Education. 

If, tlien, the ward schools have no power to expend the school moneys 
annually apportioned to them in the establishment of new schools, how can 
the Public School Society make such an application of the school moneys 
apportioned to them, when they participate in these moneys ouly in the 
same manner and to the same extent with the ward schools ? 

Let the Society point out the clause or section in the act of 1844 which 
gives them this power. 

An express authority was given them thus to use the school moneys by 
the act of April 5, 1817— the act of 1843 was supposed to take it away ; the 
13th section of that act declaring that, so far as related to the distribution 
of the school moneys, the schools of the Public School Society should be 
considered as district schools of the city. 

This power was restored by the 13th section of the act of 1843, which 
authorized the trustees of the Public School Society to appropriate all 
moneys received by them by virtue of that act " to any of the purposes of 
common school instruction, including the support of normal schools, which 
they were authorized by law to do before the passage of that act : Prmided, 
however, that the fee of all real estate purchased under that act shall vest in 
the city and county of New York." 

The 11th section of the act of 1844, corresponding to the 13th section 
of the act of 1843, omits this power altogether, except as it regards the nor- 
mal-schools. Its language is as follows ; 

And said schools (i. «., the schools of the Public School Society, with 
others) shall participate in the apportionment of the school moneys in the 
same manner and to the same extent as herein provided, in respect to such 
schools as may be organized under this act, or which shall have been ol^an- 
ized under the act passed April 11, 1843, or the amended act passed April 
18, 1843, and including the support of normal schools of the Public School 
Society for the education of teachers employed, or to be employed, in any 
of the schools, subject to the provisions of this act. Titles to all school 
property, real or personal, hereafter purchased from moneys derived from 
the distribution of the school fund, or raised by taxation in the city of New 
York, shall be vested in the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of said city. 

Now, why was this power, to the Public School Society so expressly 
given in the act of 1843, stricken out of the act of 1844 ? 

Because, as we have been told, the act of 1844 is sufficiently clear with- 
out it. 

Is it so ? Was it, then, stricken out at the instance, or with the sanction 
or concurrence, of the friends of the Public School Society, because the act 
of 1844, in its other provisions and clauses, was so clear in support of the 
claims of the Society as to render this clause unnecessary ? 

AVhere are those other clauses and provisions ? The learned counsel has 
referred us to but one, but that one he has considered conclusive. It is the 



SPEECH OF MR. MASON. 557 

last sentence of the 11th section, just quoted, ■with regard to the titles of 
school property ; and the question has been asked with an air of triumph, 
Why provide for the manner in ■which the titles to real estate, thereafter 
purchased from moneys to be derived from the distribution of the school 
fund, shall be vested, if no real estate whatever can be purchased from those 
moneys ? 

To this I answer : 

1. That, if the power is given by this clause, it is only given by implica- 
tion. It is inferred from the phraseology that the Legislature intended to 
give the power ; it is not given in express terms. 

Now, it is a rule that you cannot, from a single clause or a few words in 
a statute, imply a power or authority, when there are other clauses or sec- 
tions in the statute which expressly prohibit it. The law or statute must be 
so construed, if possible, as to be consistent with itself. 

You cannot infer, from the provisions about the title to property to be 
purchased with the school moneys, that the Society had a right to expend 
their surplus moneys in the establishment of new schools, when the very 
next section requires all these surplus moneys, after defraying their " neces- 
sary and legal expenses," which, we have seen, means the ordinary current 
expanses, to be paid into the public treasury. Tou cannot, I say, infer this, 
if there is any other construction which will make the two sections har- 
monize. 

3. If we look at the 13th section of the act of 1843, we shall see, I think, 
the true reason of the section in question, and the explanation of the diffi- 
culty. 

That section providi^d that the fee of all real estate purchased under that 
act should vest in the city and county of New York. The act of 1844 was, 
passed on the 7th of May, and rei^ealed the act of 1843, or, at least, this sec- 
tion of it. On the 1st of May, 1844, the amount apportioned to the Public 
School Society, with others, had been paid. It was paid under the act of 
1843, and the Society had a right to employ it in the manner authorized by 
that act. The act of 1844 was prospective, and applied only to moneys 
thereafter to be received. It might have been a question whether, if a jjur- 
chase of real estate were made by the Public School Society after the 7th 
of May, 1844, out of moneys received on the 1st of May, 1844, it would 
have been obliged to vest the title in the Corporation, the act of 1843 hav- 
ing been repealed ; and, to obviate any doubt on this point, the section in 
the law of 1844 was doubtless passed. 

If it were necessary to adduce any authority in support of the views I 
have taken of this whole subject, it is at hand — and authority which ought 
to be, with the Public School Society, jDerfectly decisive. It is that of their 
own recorded opinions, expressed not once, or twice, or casually, or inadver- 
tently, but frequently and deliberately, from year to year. 

The position now taken by its learned advocate is, that the acts of 1843 
and 1844 have not taken away any of the powers which the Society formerly 
possessed, and were not framed with that intent, but that the right of the 
Public School Society to establish new schools with the public moneys, and 



558 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

to have tbose schools sui^ported at the public expense, still exists in full 
vigor ; that the only object of the new system was to supply the wants 
which the Society could not satisfy ; in fine, that the new system only came 
in aid of the Society, and that the two systems were intended, and wisely 
intended, to operate side by side, I think the expression was. 

Now, let us look at the published documents of the Society. 

In the thirty-seventh annual report, for 1842, published shortly after the 
act of April, 1843, they say, in reference to that act : 

It has pleased the Legislature of our State to enact a statute which, the 
trustees fear, will result in subjecting their noble institution to the blighting 
influence of party strife and sectarian animosity. The glory of their system, 
its uniformity, its equality of privilege and action, its freedom from all that 
could justly oftend, its peculiar adaptation to a floating population, embrac- 
ing an immense operative mass, unable, from their circumstances, to devote 
many years to educational pursuits, is dimmed, they fear, forever. 

How can this be, if the doctrine now contended for be true ? If this 
Society has the same power now which it formerly possessed, of extending 
its schools ad lii/itum, how is the glory of the system dimmed in the least 
degree ? Is it because the officers elected by the people can establish com- 
mon schools without the intei-vention of the Society, and that the exclusive 
right of the Society is taken away, or because the power of estaljlishing new 
schools was considered as altogether lost 2 

But to this same report is ajipended a sketch of the rise and progress of 
the Public School Society — an extremely interesting document, which ought 
to be read by all who wish to become acquainted with the history of com- 
mon school education in this city. 

On page 37 we read asfoUows : 

In April, 1843, by hasty legislation, an act was passed, materially alter- 
ing the existing arrangement and supervision of the schools and the distri- 
bution of the school moneys, &c., and contravening the special statutes 
under which this Society had hitherto acted. 

How are we to understand this, if all the powers of the Society are in 
full force, and the new system is only auxiliary to the old 2 The admission 
of new schools to participate in the school moneys is no contravention of- 
any special statutes under which the Society had acted, for new schools had 
before been admitted to a particii^ation of those moneys without a murmur 
from the Society. Besides, they had as much money under the new law as 
under the old. How, then, did the new law contravene the old, except by 
taking away some of the powers of the Society 2 and what powers were 
taken away, but those of extending their schools indefinitely 2 

Let us now turn to the thirty-eighth annual report, for 1843, published 
shortly after the act of April, 1843. In that report they say : 

At the time of their last report, the trustees were under painful appre- 
hensions as to the future prospects of the institution, induced by the then 
recent enactment of the law of April, 1843, the operation of which, they 
much feared, would paralyze the public school system, and probably result 
in the dissolution of the Society. They have now the satisfactio- "f stntin" 
that, on their application, the Legislature passed an amendatory 



SPEKCH OP MR. MASON. 559 

although not granting all that was asked for, has rendered the law alluded 
to more clear and less objectionable, by the adoption of one very essential 
and other important features. Under the act as it now stands, the board 
hope to be able not only to continue their present schools, but also to make 
gradual additions to them ; for they feel assured that the eminent advan- 
tages they derive from long experience, especially in their economical 
arrangements, will enable the Public School Society to enlarge their school 
accommodations out of an appropriation that would scarcely sustain them 
upon any other foundation. 

We can be at no loss to divine what that one very essential feature was 
which the Legislature had inserted in the law of 1843 ; for the trustees ex- 
pressly say that, by virtue of it, they would be able to make gradual addi- 
tions to their schools out of their appropriation. It was the clause in the 
13th section, before alluded to, authorizing them to " appropriate all moneys 
received by them by virtue of that act, to any of the purposes of common 
school instruction, including the support of normal schools, which they 
were authorized by law to do before the passage of that act." • 

Here, then, we have again the deliberate opinion of the trustees, ex- 
pressed in no equivocal terms, that this clause of the act of 1843 restored to 
them the power of adding to the number of their schools, which had been 
taken away by the act of 1842. 

But this is not all. Their next annual report v.-as dated January 1, 1845. 
In that rejjort they say : 

By the provision of the act of April, 1843, sufficient means having been 
placed at the disposal of the board, they availed themselves of it, and have 
erected a new public school on Thirteenth street, and also several new pri- 
mary schools in desirable locations. 

Thus reiterating the fact that their power to increase the number of their 
schools was derived from the provision of the act of 1843, which placed 
sufficient means at their disposal. 

They then add as follows : 

By the provisions of the act of April, 1844, it is understood the board 
are jirohibited from the further erection of buildings ; and it is even doubt- 
ed whether they are authorized to pay rent on school premises, or the inter- 
est on the large deljt, which, in the absence of an adequate tax, they were 
induced to incur by mortgaging several of the school-buildings from time 
to time during a scries of years past, in order to meet, as far as practicable, 
the pressing wants of a rapiiUy-increasing population. Should application 
be made to the Legislature, at its next session, for relief in the premises, it 
can hardly be doubted that it will be granted. 

Thus it will be seen that the trustees of the Public School Society took, 
from the very beginning, the same view of the law which the committee 
have done, and that they thought it so clear, that they did not hesitate to 
publish it from year to year to the world as the only true interpretation. 
They had npt then, nor until a comparatively recent iieriod, discovered that 
the new system was only an auxiliai^ to the old, designed to provide addi- 
tional schools for tJiose whom the Society could not or did not reach ; and 
it ought not to be a matter of surprise or disappointment to them if this 
board should, on examination, entertain the same opinions as to the mean- 



560 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

ing of tlie law wbich the trustees of the Society themselves have so fre- 
quently and deliberately expressed. 

The construction for which the committee have contended, is one which 
will not interfere with the schools of the Public School Society established 
before the act of 1844. It leaves them, as the law of that year left them, in 
the enjoyment of all their privileges, and with a fund amply sufficient for 
all their necessary and legal expenses. 

The trustees of that Society now have under their care eighteen public 
schools, in which were instructed, during the last year, 14,103 children, and 
fifty-six primaries, or schools for small children, having 8,108 children, and 
two public and six primai^ schools for colored children, in which 1,181 
pupils were taught ; making an aggregate of 23,393 * pupils taught in 
eighty-two schools under their jurisdiction during the last year. 

The school moneys apportioned to the several schools and societies in 
the city of New York, for the year 184G, amounted to $189,107.17; of which 
sum the Public School Society received, for their twenty public and sixty- 
two primaries, $133,184.99, or two thirds of the whole; while the ward 
schools, under the immediate care of the ward officers, received for their 
nineteen ward schools and primaries the sum of $55,856.08 ; the difference 
between these two sums and the whole amount ajjijortioned being distrib- 
uted to the orphan asylums and other corporate schools provided for by 
law. 

The resolution now before you wOl not, it is believed, affect any of the 
schools of the Public School Society, excejDt two or three primaries estab- 
lished since the passage of the act of May, 1844, nor deprive the Society of 
any part of the moneys which may be necessary to enable them to sustain 
their schools on the most liberal scale ; but I respectfully submit and insist 
that this board are bound to see that the j)ublic moneys under their control 
are not appropriated in a manner or for purposes contravening the provi- 
sions of the law which we are called upon to execute, and therefore hope 
that the resolution proposed by the committee will be adopted. 

At the close of Mr. Mason's remarks, the Board of Educa- 
tion adjourned to the following Wednesday', the 2-ith of March, 
at which meeting Hon. Joseph L. Boswoeth continued the reply 
to Mr. Ketchum, and spoke as follows : 

Mr. President : I should not have entered into this discussion with 
such formal preparation as the papers before me would seem to indicate, but 
for a single consideration. The able argument which was made before this 
board at its last meeting, in behalf of the Public School Society, has since 
been relocated to the people, by the publication of it in pamphlet form. 
This indicates that the Public School Society has great confidence in the 
soundness of its positions, and regards the questions under discussion— and 

* Sec the Fortieth Annual Report of the Public School Society, for 1S47, for these 
particulars. 



SPEECH OF ME. BOSWOETH. 561 

justly so, I concede — as questions of important public concern. Entertain- 
ing very different views from those presented in behalf of that Society, I 
have deemed it due to the questions before the board, and to the interest 
■which the people of this city have in the decision of these questions, to not 
only examine them with care, but to reduce my views to form, that I might 
reexamine them before attempting to present them here, and thus be the 
better able to judge of their accuracy. This is my apology, if any be neces- 
sary, for departing, on this occasion, from the usual manner of discussing 
questions before the board. 

The practical questions for the Board of Education to decide are those : 

To what extent has the Public School Society a right to participate in 
the "school moneys," since the passage of the act of May 7th, 1844, entitled 
" Au Act more Effectually to Provide for Common School Education in the 
City and County of New York " ? 

What portion of those moneys can this board " authorize " to be paid 
annually to that Society ? 

These questions should be determined accurately. This board has a 
duty to perform in apportioning these moneys, and its members desire to 
know what that duty is, and to discharge it faithfully and firmly. Their 
business is to execute the law as they find it, and not to pervert it, or en- 
large or restrict the clear meaning of its provisions by construction or infer- 
ence. 

By the act of May 7th, 1844, certain moneys which this board must 
apportion are designated as " school moneys, or moneys for the pui-jjoses of 
common schools ; " as contradistinguished from moneys to be raised by tax- 
ation " for the erecting, purchasing, or leasing of school-houses, and procur- 
ing the sites therefor, and the fitting up thereof." Sees. 5 and 12; and 
1 R. S., 183, sec. 2. 

The moneys usually denominated " school moneys " consist of the amount 
annually received for the use of the common schools of this city from the 
common school fund of the State, an equal sum to be raised by taxation, 
and also a further sum " equal to one twentieth of one per cent, of the value 
of the real and personal property in the said city, liable to be assessed 
therein." 

The act says (sec. 5) that these school moneys shall " be apjjlied exclu- 
sively to the purposes of common schools in the said city." 

By section 12, it is declared to " be the duty of the Board of Education 
to apportion all the school moneys, except so much as shall have been raised 
for the purpose of establishing and organizing new schools, to each of the 
several schools provided for by this act, and the acts mentioned in the pre- 
ceding section, according to the number of children over four and under 
sixteen years of age, who shall have actually attended such school without 
charge the preceding year." 

By section 14, the board is required to " file with the chamberlain of 

said city and county, on or before the first Monday of April in each year, a 

copy of their apportionment, stating the amount thereof to be paid to the 

commissioners of each ward, and to the trustees, managers, or directors of 

30 



562 THE PCBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the several scbools enumerated in the 11th section of this act." The cham- 
berlain may pay on the drafts of the commissioners or of the trustees the 
sums severally "apportioned" to them, "but no such drafts shall be paid 
unless countersigned by the president and clerk for the time being of the 
Board of Education." 

Section 6 declares that " the said Common Council shall, on ap]jlication 
of the Board of Education, and at sucli monthly or quarterly periods subse- 
quent to the 1st of Slay in each year as they may determine, direct that a 
sum or sums of money equal in the aggregate to the amount last received 
by the chamberlain of said city and county from the common school fund, 
together with the sum so received from the school fund, and also one twen- 
tieth of one per cent., as provided in the precetling section^ be deposited by 
him in one of the incorporated banks of the said city," to the credit of the 
commissioners of the ward schools, and of the schools and societies men- 
tioned in the 11th section of the act, subject to the drafts of such commis- 
sioners, and of some person duly authorized by such societies to draw fior 
them ; " the said drafts to be countersigned " by the president and clerk of 
this board, as provided by section 14. 

Such are the moneys to be apportioned, and such is the process by which 
the money is to be drawn when apportioned. 

First, the board apportions the moneys ; next, files with the chamberlain 
a copy of the apportionment ; and lastly, applies to the Common Council, 
and, on such application, the Common Council directs the chamberlain to 
deposit those moneys in bank to the credit of the commissioners, societies, 
and schools entitled to draw them ; but, when so deposited, they are to be 
drawn by authority of drafts made by such commissioners, and the author- 
ized agents or officers of the schools or societies, and countersigned by the 
president and clerk of the board. 

The provisions already cited contemplate not only an apportionment of 
all the " school moneys," but the deposit of all of them, and the receipt of 
all of them by the commissioners, societies, and schools enumerated in the 
11th section of the act. But there are other provisions which limit and 
restrict the operation of those above cited. 

The 11th section provides that " the schools of the Public School Soci- 
ety," and also other schools enumerated in that section, " shall participate 
in the apportionment of the school moneys, in the same manner and to the 
same extent as herein provided in respect to such schools as may be organ- 
ized under this act, or which shall have been organized under the act passed 
April 11th, 1843 ; or the amended act, passed April 18th, 1843." 

The question, then, is : To what extent is it herein provided that the 
schools organized under the three acta last named may participate in the 
apportionment of the school moneys ? 

They cannot participate in the school moneys to such an extent that they 
or their officers can use a dollar of such moneys to purchase a lot, erect, or 
hire a school-house. 

All moneys needed for such purposes are raised under a special power 
contained in section 5 ; and, when raised, can, by section 7, be only drawn 



SPEECH OF ME. BOSAVOKTH. 563 

by authority of a " special appropriation by the. said Board of Education ; 
and all drafts upon said funds shall be made by the president of the board, 
countersigned by the clerk, and made payable to the order of the persons to 
■whom the same shall be paid." 

If the Public School Society can participate iu these " school moneys " 
to an extent which will enable it to use any portion of them to erect or hire 
buildmgs, or purcliase lots, then it can participate in them to a greater 
extent than the ward schools can, and to an extent which will enable it to 
apply them to uses to which the ward schools are prohibited from applying 
them. 

But the 11th section says this Society "shall participate in the same 
manner and to the same extent." 

The 12th section further provides, that " if the school moneys appor- 
tioned agreeably to this section shall exceed the necessary and legal expenses 
of either of the schools or societies provided for in this act, the board shall 
authorize the payment only of such necessary and legal expenses ; any bal- 
ance remaining in deposit shall be paid by the Board of Education into the 
city treasury." 

The board, then, has a duty to perform beyond the act of apportioning, 
filing a copy of an ajiportionment made according to the number of schol- 
ars taught, and applying to the Common Council to direct a deposit of the 
moneys thus apportioned. 

If, on making such apportionment, the board ascertains from the report 
of this Society that the moneys thus apportioned exceed the amount of the 
actual annual expenses of the Society in conducting the schools for which 
the Society is entitled to draw, the board is expressly prohibited from 
authorizing the payment of only such actual expenses. When I say actual 
expenses, I assume none to have been incurred except such as will be 
" necessary and legal." The necessary and legal expenses of an honest and 
intelligent agent will not exceed the actual expenses of his agency. 

" The Board of Education shall authorize the payment only of such 
necessary and legal expenses ; " and " the Board of Education shall pay any 
balance remaining in deposit at the end of each year" "into the city treas- 
ury." 

It is the duty of the board, then, to keep all of the moneys " appor- 
tioned," beyond the amounts sufficient to defray " the necessary and legal 
expenses" of the several schools and societies within its control, until the 
end of the year ; and, at the end of each year, to pay any balance remain- 
ing in deposit into the city treasury. 

In this very provision is contained a clear prohibition against the Public 
School Society using any of the " school moneys " to establish new schools. 
It is a clear answer to their claim, to have all the moneys " apportioned " to 
scholars according to numbers paid over to them absolutely. If the Legis- 
lature intended to allow them to use suqjlus " school moneys " to erect new 
buildings and purchase new lots, why prohibit the board from authorizing 
the payment to them of all the moneys to which they would be entitled by 
an "apportionment" according to the nimiber of scholars taught? Wliy 



504 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



declare that the board shall authorize " the payment only of such necessary 
and legal expenses " ? 

If the act be construed to prohibit the Society from establishing any new 
" common schools," this provision is intelligible and easily executed. But 
if the power be conceded to the Society to establish as many new schools as 
it may deem expedient, and the right be also conceded to it to use surplus 
" school moneys," to purchase new lots, erect new buildings, and organize 
new schools, then this provision is unintelligible, as this board can never 
conjecture what its legal expenses for any current year will be ; and may 
assume to withhold moneys to which the Society has an absolute right, and 
full power to expend, when received, as may suit its pleasure. 

The argument in behalf of the Public School Society proves too much. 
If its construction of its powers be correct, it can establish as many new 
schools as it may deem expedient, and will be entitled to participate in the 
school moneys for instructing children in such new schools. If this be so, 
then its powers and rights are immeasurably greater under the act of May 7, 
1844, than they were before the act was passed. The 13th section of that 
act provides that " any deficiency to meet the necessary legal expenses of 
either of the said schools or societies shall be supplied liy the Common 
Council of the said city, in anticipation of the annual tax for the support 
of common schools, as provided in section 5 of this act. The Board of 
Education shall, in all cases, certify to the Common Council the cause of 
such deficiency, and that the same was unavoidable ; and unless such certifi- 
cate be made, the said Common Council may refuse to raise the sum re- 
quired to meet such deficiency." 

It is clearly the duty of the Common Council to supply any deficiency to 
meet the necessary legal exjjenses of the Society in conducting each and all 
of its schools which are entitled to participate in the apportionment of the 
school moneys. If, then, the Society may establish an indefinite number of 
new schools, by mortgaging their property to raise money to erect new 
buildings, may supply those new schools with teachers, books, and station- 
ery — if such acts are legal — if such new schools may participate in the 
school moneys, then it is the duty of the Common Council to raise any 
amount which may be required, in addition to the school moneys ajjpor- 
tioned to the Society, to defray the necessary expenses of conducting such 
new schools. 

On such a construction, the Public School Society has an unlimited and 
unregulated power and discretion to establish as many schools as it may 
deem expedient, and the Common Council must raise the requisite means to 
pay the expenses of conducting them. That Society, instead of being 
restricted to a right (so far as relates to its right to claim and apply public 
funds) to use only its surplus of school moneys in erecting new buildings, 
after amply compensating its teachers (as it was restricted by the act of 
April 5, 1817), has now the right to ask for, and be furnished with, the 
means to defray the necessary and legal expenses of any number of new 
schools which it may see fit to establish. A construction wliich leads to 
sucTi conclusions is absurd. 



SPEECH OF MR. BOSWORTH. 565 

The act of May 7, 1844. abrogated tlie power of the Society to establish 
new schools for the purpose of merely increasing the number of common 
schools, and, for all practical purposes, to establish any new school. That 
point I will consider presently. I state the proposition here merely for the 
purpose of observing that, on such a construction of the act, there is no 
conflict in its provisions, and that each and all of them are iutelligil^le. 

Under such a construction, the board can easily determine what sum to 
authorize to be paid to this Society. The Society can, if it has kept its 
accounts properly, report to the board how much it paid, for the year end- 
ing at the date of its last report, for teachers, books, stationery, and fuel, 
for the schools established prior to May 7, 1844 ; what amount it paid for 
rent of buildings, or for interest on mortgages of the buildings in which 
such schools were kept. The board will authorize the payment of a suffi- 
cient amount of the school moneys to defray the like amount of expenses 
for the current year. If, from any " unavoidable ' cause, they prove insuffi- 
cient to defray the necessary and legal expenses of the current year, the 
board will give the necessary certificate to make it compulsory on the Com- 
mon Council to supply the deficiency. In that way the Society is certain 
of receiving ample means to sustain and conduct efficiently all the schools 
established when this act was passed. If they determine to establish more 
schools, then it will be because they are determined to execute the duties 
which the officers elected under this act were elected to perform. It is 
made the duty of the officers elected under this act to organize new schools 
whenever and wherever they are necessary. Suppose these officers pass upon 
an application for a new school, and decide that one is not necessary in the 
place designated. The officers of the Public School Society, in their great- 
er experience and sounder discretion, determine it expedient to establish, 
and do establish, one there. The moneys apportioned to the Society, after 
paying its other expenses, are insufficient to defray any part of the necessary 
and legal expenses of this new school. How can this board certify that 
such expenses were unavoidable ? Unless this board does so certify, the 
Society has no certainty of obtaining moriey to meet the deficiency. And 
yet, if its powers are such as it has urged here, it is the duty of the Com- 
mon Council to supply that deficiency. 

The only construction which can be given to the act which will render 
its provisions harmonious, is this : The Public School Society is deprived 
of the power to increase the number of its schools. This board shall au- 
thorize the payment to it of only sufficient moneys to defray the necessary 
and legal expenses of " the schools " which had been established by it on 
the 7th of May, 1844 ; and if ajl the moneys " ajiportioned " to it are insuf- 
ficient to defray those expenses, the deficiencies shall be supplied. By that 
rule, it will participate " in the same manner and to the same extent " as 
the ward schools. By any other rule, it will participate in a different man- 
ner and to a difierent extent. 

The Society cannot strengthen its claim by invoking that provision 
which declares that the moneys appropriated shall " be applied exclusively 
to the purposes of common schools." 



5G6 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

The erection of school-bouses, the purchase or hiring of lots, is not a 
"purpose" to which the ward schools or their officers can apply this money. 
It is not a use to which it can be applied under the common school law of 
the State. There is nothing in the act to tolerate the position that such a 
class of expenditures is legitimately for common school purposes, when the 
acts of that Society are in question, and that the same kind of exjjenditures 
would not be for common school puq)oses when the acts of the ward officers 
and of this board were in question. 

Neither can that Society strengthen its claim by that part of the 12th 
section which provides that, " if any school shall have been ' organized ' 
since the last annual apportionment, ' it shall be entitled to draw for the 
scholars taught in it.' " 

That clause clearly refers to schools organized by the ward officers and 
this board. The 3d section declares that the scliools organized under this 
act shall be designated " ward schools." The 8tb, 9th, and 10th sections 
provide how these schools shall be organized. The 11th section provides 
that the various schools enumerated in it shall participate in the school 
moneys in the same manner and to the same extent as herein provided in 
respect to such schools as may be organized under this act. 

Section 13 provides for the apportionment of all the school moneys, 
" except so much as shall have been raised for the purpose of establishing 
and organizing new schools." Tlien comes the provision that, " if any 
school shall have been organized since the last apportionment," &c. 

Thus this clause incontestably refers to " any school organized under this 
act." The great object for which this act was passed was to organize new 
schools. The possibility of the Public School Society organizing a new 
school is not alluded to throughout the act. 

Nothing can be found to sujiport the claim of the Public School Society 
in the 3Gth section of the act, which requires them to report annually " the 
whole number of schools within their jurisdiction." To make an argument 
out of that provision, it must be assumed that this act contemplates that 
the number of their schools will or may be increased. I shall undertake to 
show that the act contemplates that the number of their schools may, and 
probably will, be diminished ; that some subsequent report will show a 
diminished number of schools within their jurisdiction, and that, too, 
though they perform their full and whole duty to the public, and do it'well. 

Tlie New York Orphan Asylum School, the Roman Catholic Orphan 
Asylum School, the school of the Mechanics' Society, the Harlem School, 
the Yorkville Public School, the Manhattanville Free School, the Hamilton 
Free School, the Institution for the Blind, the school of the Leake and 
Watts Orphan House, the school connected with the Almshouse, and the 
school of the association for the benefit of the Colored Orphans, also have 
the right, as well as " the schools of the Public School Society," to partici- 
pate in the school moneys in the same manner and to the same extent as the 
ward schools. The trustees or managers of these various schools and socie- 
ties are also required, liy section 36, to report annually and severally " the 
whole number of schools within their jurisdiction." And yet, by section 



SPEECH OF MK. EOSWOETH. 567 

11, it is only " the school," the single and solitary school of each of them, 
that can participate in the school moneys. Either of those societies can 
make as strong an argument on section 30, in favor of the right of a " new 
school " of theirs to participate in the school moneys, as the Public School 
Society. 

That Society cannot strengthen its claim by appealing to the concluding 
clause of section 11, which provides that " titles to all school property, real 
or personal, hereafter purchased from all moneys derived from the distribu- 
tion of the school fund, or raised by taxation in the city of New York, shall 
be vested in the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city and county 
of New York." 

Before the act of May 7, 1844, was passed, that Society held a large 
amount of moneys derived from the " distribution of the school fund," and 
raised by taxation in the city of New York, which, by the act of April 18, 

1843, that Society was authorized to expend in purchasing lots and erecting 
buildings. But the latter act required the title to all school property pur- 
chased with such moneys to be vested in the city Corporation. 

Those moneys had not been wholly expended when the act of May 7, 

1844, was passed. The act of April 18, 1843, was repealed by the act of 
May 7, 1844. 

Hence, the latter act required the Society, if it used that balance to pur- 
chase school property, to vest the title to all property, which they should 
thereafter purchase with those moneys, in the Corporation. The title to all 
they had previously bought with it had been already so vested, if the 
officers of that Society did their duty. The Legislature did not intend, by 
repealing the act of 1843, to give that surplus to the Society. That body 
intended that, though real or personal estate should be purchased after the 
repeal of the act of 1843, with that money, that the title to such real or per- 
sonal estate should be vested in the Corporation. 

This view answers the whole argument made in behalf of the Public 
School Society, so far as it was based on the terms and provisions of the act 
of 1844. 

The 50th section of this act repeals the acts of April 11, 1842, April 18, 
1843, and all other acts specially applicable to public or common schools in 
this city and county, so far as the same are inconsistent with the jjrovisions 
of this act. 

The act of 1843 was unlike the act of 1844. The 13th section provided 
that " the schools of the Public School Society " " shall be subject to the 
general jurisdiction of the said commissioners of the respective wards in 
which any of the said schools now are or liereafter may be located." The 
act of 1843 had the same provision. This clearly contemplated the estab- 
lishment of new schools by the Society. There is no such provision in the 
act of 1844. 

The loth section of the act of 1842 made it the duty of the board to 
apportion the school moneys among all the schools in proportion to the 
number taught ; and section 16 made it the duty of the ward commission- 
ers, when they received this money, to apply it at once to the use of these 



568 THE PFDLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

schools according to the apportionment. The act of 1843 had the same 
provisions. 

By the act of 1844, the money which goes to this Society is not paid to 
the ward commissioners, but is so far placed under the control of this board, 
that the board is prohibited from authorizing the payment of only enough 
of the moneys apportioned, to defray the necessary and legal expenses of 
the Society in conducting the schools entitled to participate in these 
moneys. 

Why could not that Society, after it had received an apportionment 
under the act of 1843, use those moneys to establish new schools ? The 
reasons are these: the 11th section of that act repealed all acts "and all 
provisions therein providing for, or directing, or concerning the disbursing 
or apjjropriation of the funds created or applicable to common school edu- 
cation in the city and county of New York," so far as the same were incon- 
sistent with the provisions of that act. 

That act made two funds : one, to organize new schools, which was 
placed under the exclusive control of the ward officers ; the other, to defray 
the expenses of schools fully organized. Hence, although the Society had 
more money apportioned to it, and received more money, than was required 
to defray the expenses of its established schools, it could not use the surplus 
to establish new schools. Section 9 of that act, like section 5 of the act of 
1844, directed that the school moneys thus apportioned should be applied 
exclusively to the purposes " of common schools in said city." 

The general act in relation to the common schools of the State, which, 
by the act of 1842, was extended to this city, did not provide for using such 
moneys to purchase lots, or hire or erect school-houses, but, on the contrary, 
prohibited such use of them. It was, then, inconsistent with the provisions 
of the act of 1842 for the Public School Society to use those moneys for any 
such purjjose. In 1843, the Legislature authorized them to use the school 
moneys which they received for " any of the purposes of common school 
instruction, which they were authorized by law to do," before the passage 
of the act of April 11, 1843. Tliis amendment gave authority to do that 
which the act of 1843 did not allow to be done. 

There is no such authority contained in the act of 1844. The latter act 
only gives the right to " participate in the same manner and to the same 
extent " as the ward schools. The extent to which the ward schools can 
participate, is such as will defray the expense of schools fully organized and 
established. Neither the ward officer^ nor this board can employ these 
moneys to establish new schools. 

The Public School Society, in their annual report for 1845, declared that 
they understood such to be the fair meaning and force of the act of 1844. 
At page 4 of that report, the Society expressed its own deliberate judgment 
of its powers under the act of May 7, 1844, in these words : 

By the provisions of the act of April, 1844 (meaning May 7, 1844, as 
that is the date of the passage of this act), it is understood the board are 
prohibited from the further erection of buildings ; and it is even doubted 
•whether they are authorized to pay rent on school premises, or interest on 



SPEECH OF MK. BOSWOKTH. 569 

the large debt, which, in the absence of an adequate tax, they were induced 
to incur by mortgaging several of the school-buildings, from time to time, 
during a series of years past, in order to meet, as far as practicable, the 
pressing wants of a rapidly-increasing population. 

The Society now claim not only that such opinion was erroneous, but 
that they have the power, under that act, to establish as many schools and 
erect as many buildings as they please ; that such schools will be entitled to 
participate in tlie " school moneys," and that such moneys may be applied 
to defray the expense of erecting such new buildings. The view of the law 
which the Society expressed in their annual report for 1845, was undoubt- 
edly correct ; but that view the Society now repudiate. 

The last and main ground on which the Public School Society rests its 
claims, is the power given by the act incorporating it. Its learned advocate 
contended that this Society " had a right by law — the law of its creation — 
to build as many school-houses and open as many schools as it pleased ; " 
that this right was indestructible, and that the Legislature could not abro- 
gate it. 

To the first proposition, in the broad terms in which it is expressed, I 
cannot subscribe. 

The Society, in its origin, was an eleemosynaiy institution — it was a 
charity school. The objects of its bounty were precisely defined. The act 
of incorporation (passed April 9, 1805) recites " that De Witt Clinton, and 
others, have associated themselves for the laudable purpose of establishing a 
free school in the city of New York, for the education of the children of 
persons in indigent circumstances, and who do not belong to, or are not pro- 
vided for by, any religious society." 

The 2d section of that act gave power to the trustees, for the time being, 
to establish two or more free schools, when a majority of the members of 
the Corporation, at a general meeting, by a majority of aU of them, " shall 
judge it expedient, for the more fully extending the benefits of education 
to poor children, agreeably to the benevolent design of the said associa- 
tion." 

The act of April 1, 1808, extended " the powers " of the Society " to all 
children who are the proper objects of a gratuitous education," and changed 
its name to that of " The Free School Society of New York." 

This was the whole extent of its powers down to January 38, 1836. I 
deny that the Society had the right to establish more schools than could be 
employed to teach children who were " the proper objects of a gratuitous 
education." Its powers, conferred by the law of its creation, had this 
extent, and no more. 

Conceding these powers to be irrepealable, and the argument in behalf 
of the Society establishes an abstract right, which, practically, is a mere 
abstraction, and nothing else. It can have no occasion to increase the num- 
ber of its schools to instruct children of this description. A tithe of its 
established schools will accommodate all the indigent children who are the 
proper objects of a gratuitous education. If liy that phrase is meant such 
children as cannot acquire a common school education without the exercise 



670 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

of the bounty of the benevolent members of this Society, then it may be 
answered that this city contains now no such cliildren. If there are not 
schools enough to accommodate all children, whether their parents are rich 
or poor, or do or do not belong to any religious society, then it is the duty 
of the ward officers, and of this board, to supply the deficiency. We have 
no pauper scholars in this city. None need go a-bcgging for admission to a 
common school. All are provided for. The power of the Society to pro- 
vide schools for pauper children has been reduced to a skeleton abstraction, 
by the intelligence, liberality, and humanity of our citizens. They have 
jjrovided a system under which all can be educated on common terms, with 
common rights, and without any one having the power to point to any 
other as a beneficiary. Each can feel the consciousness of a common inde- 
pendence, of equality of privileges and rights. 

In 1826, an act was passed by which this Society was made the agent or 
instrument of the public in disseminating common school education. That 
act made it its duty to " provide for the education of all children in the 
city not otherwise provided for, to the extent of its means." By that act, 
the sams agency was entrusted to that Society which, by the act of May 7, 
1844, is entrusted to the officers elected under the latter, but with this strik- 
ing difference : the latter officers are not limited in the amount of duty by 
" the extent of their means." They are required to supply all needed ac- 
commodations, and draw on their constituents for the means to defray the 
expense. It is as much within the power of the Legislature to rejjeal the 
act of 1826, as the act of 1844. The latter act has repealed the former. 
The officers elected under the act of 1844 are charged with doing the whole 
duty which the act of 1826 charged that Society to perform, so far as its 
means might extend. 

The act of January 20, 1829, gave power to that Society, on complj'ing 
with certain formalities, and on the resolution of a majority of the whole 
number of trustees at a regular meeting, confirmed by a vote of any subse- 
quent regular meeting, declaring it " necessary and proper " so to do, to 
mortgage any of its property " for the purpose of carrying into effect the 
objects of the said Society, as the same are set forth and expressed in any 
of the acts of the Legislature relating thereto." 

So far as they are authorized to mortgage, to carry into efl'ect the objects 
expressed in the act of 1826, the power is clearly repealable, and has been 
repealed. The Society has no power to mortgage their property, to run a 
race of competition with a pulilic body which is charged with the duty of 
providing for the entire common school edwcation in the city. Although 
the Society may have the al)stract right to mortgage, to raise means to erect 
buildings and open new schools to instruct poor children, who are the 
proper objects of a gratuitous education, we must do the Legislature the 
justice to suppose they could not have contemplated that the Society would 
resolve it to be "necessary and proper" so to do, after ample meaqs had 
been provided for the education of all children in the city. 

The 50th section of the act of 1844 repeals all laws inconsistent with its 
own provisions, especially relating to the public or common schools. It 



gPEECH OF MK. BOSWORTH. 571 

repeals the act of 1836, which made that Society the agent of the public to 
educate all children, and created a class of officers to perform that sacred 
duty, and no other. 

It repealed the power of the Society to mortgage their property for any 
such purpose. It repealed their power to establish "common schools," 
properly so called. 

It repealed, as the act of 1843 in effect did, the law of February 27, 
1807, which gave the Society $1,000 annually out of the excise duties. 

It repealed the act of March 30, 1811, which gave the Society annually 
an additional $500 out of the excise duties, " to promote the benevolent 
objects of the said corporation." Tlie act of 1844 makes the taxation which 
it authorizes a substitute for, and declares it to be the extent of, all assess- 
ments for common school education. 

It repeals all laws authorizing the Public School Society to receive any 
more of the school moneys than may be required to defray the necessary 
and legal expenses of the schools in existence when that act was passed, ami 
prohibits this board from authorizing the payment to it of more than such 
expenses. 

All such provisions are clearly inconsistent with the act of May 7, 1844. 

Under this construction of the act, the schools of this Society may, and 
probably will, decrease in number. So far as they are established in leased 
buildings, they will terminate with the expiration of the leases. When they 
are terminated, if a new school is needed, the ward officers and this board 
must establish one. In that event, the Society will have occasion to report 
a decreased number of schools " within their jurisdiction." They may not 
resolve it to be necessary and proper to mortgage their property to supply 
its place, when they consider that the people have elected officers, made it 
their duty to supply the desired accommodations, and given them power to 
command the means to defray the necessary expense. 

These considerations show, as I think, conclusively, that the Society has 
no power to establish new " common schools," properly so called, nor any 
right to mortgage its property for any such purpose. Its original power to 
establish free schools for the education of poor children is at best but a mere 
abstract right, without there being practically any such objects to call for 
its exercise. Its present schools will more than accommodate all of that 
description which in legal contemplation can exist, while there is a body of 
officers existing under an act which imposes the duty and furnishes the 
means of providing for the education of all children in the city. 

It is not, perhaps, unnatural that the Society should regret that its pres- 
ent powers will confine its new ojicrations to the benevolent and charitable 
designs of its founders. A laudable ambition may have disposed its mem- 
bers not only to desire the education of the indigent, but also of the chil- 
dren of those parents who may feel competent to construct a system adapt- 
ed to their wants, and which the public may so fully approve, that they will 
feel both pride and pleasure in sustaining it. 

They certainly cannot regret the substitution of a new agency for man- 
aging public instruction, unless they are conscious that they can perform the 



572 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

same high duty with more economy, and more in conformity with the pub- 
lic wants. The passage of the act of 1844 is no reflection upon the intelli- 
gence, patriotism, or fidelity of their officers. The public sense of the value 
of their seiTices is evinced by the provision, which supplies ample means to 
continue their established schools with success and efficiency. 

It is not unnatural that the people should desire the election by them- 
selves of officers who have the power of subjecting them to taxation, and 
the expenditure of their money for public purposes. It would seem all fit 
and proper that it should be so. Public attention is evidently sufficiently 
observing of the action of the school officers to indicate that, if they fail to 
meet public e.xpectation, successors will be elected to fill their places, who 
will bring to the discharge of their duties increased intelligence and effi- 
ciency. 

The possession of power by the Public School Society, equal to that of 
the ward officers, to organize new schools, can only be desired for the patri- 
otic purpose of proving the Society to be a better public agent than the 
officers elected under tlie act of 1844. Two agents equally good, when 
either one can do the whole duty, would seem to be unnecessar}-. Unless 
the Public School Society can serve the public better than their officers, the 
exercise of the same powers concuiTently by both would not promise any 
practical utility. As the law now is, I am forced to the conclusion that the 
Society has not the power which it claims, and which, for the purpose of 
removing doubts, it generously invites this board to unite with it in an 
application to the Legislature to grant to it. That is a matter which, I 
think, properly belongs to the people, by whom the members of this board 
were elected. The application, when made, should be made by them, and 
not by their officers, who were elected to execute the law as it is. 

The board cannot properly devote itself ofiicially to any thing else than 
a full and efficient discliarge of the trust confided to it, and to an impartial 
and firm execution of the law which defines its powers and prescribes the 
rule of its action. I think that the Board of Education is expressly prohib- 
ited by that law from authorizing the payment to the Public School Society 
of any greater amount of the school moneys than shall be sufficient to 
defray the necessary and legal expenses of " the schools " established and 
within its jurisdiction at the time that act was passecL 

At the close of Mr. Boswortli's remarks, the question was 
taken on the adoption of Mr. Mason's amendment, and it was 
decided in the affirmative. 

When the resohition was reported to the trustees of the Soci- 
ety, the subject was referred to the Executive Committee, with 
directions to memorialize the Legislature for a declaratory act, 
defining the powers of the Society. Tliis course was according- 
ly taken, and on the 4th of March, 1848, the following bill was 
passed, and became a law : 



DEATH OF LINDLET MUREAY. 573 

TTie People of the StaU of Neu> Yorlc, represented in Senate and AsaenMy, do 

enact an follows : 

Sec. 1. Any schools which have been established by the Public School 
Society of the city of New York, since the passage of the act entitled " An 
Act more Effectually to Provide for Common School Education in the City 
of New York," passed May 7, 1844, may be continued and supported, and 
may be allowed to participate in the public money apportioned to said Soci- 
ety, in the same manner as if they had been established before the passage 
of said act ; but the said Public School Society shall not establish any new 
school without the consent of the Board of Education. 

Sec. 2, The said Public School Society have power to purchase, erect, or 
hire other buildings in place of those now occupied by their schools, when- 
ever it shall become necessary for the purpose of said schools now existing. 

Sec. 3. This act shall take effect immediately. 

This definition of the powers of the Society set the qiiestion 
at rest, and the trustees saw that they had reached the limits of 
their sphere of labor, and that thenceforth their energies were to 
be emjDloyed in imparting the highest efficiency to the schools 
then under their care. 

The annual meeting of the board was held on the lltli of 
January, 1847, at which time Geoege T. Trimble was elected 
President, which office he held up to the day on which the Soci- 
ety terminated its existence. 

LiNDLET Murray, the late President, was, at the time, on a 
visit to the island of Madeira, whither he had sailed in the pur- 
suit of health. But the long life of usefulness which he had 
spent was drawing to its close, and, on his return voyage, he was 
called to sleep in peace, in the hope of a glorious immortality. 

In May, 1849, A. P. Halsey, the Treasurer, tendered his 
resignation, and Joshua S. Undeehill was elected as his sue-, 
cessor. 

It being deemed expedient to close the primary school in 
Oak street, and dispose of the property, an opportunity was pre- 
sented of selling it at the price of $8,000, which the Society 
accepted, and it was transferred to its new owners. 

The demands made upon the treasury became so much great- 
er than its resources, that the trustees found themselves obliged 
to appeal to the Board of Education for special appropriations to 
meet deficiencies. These deficiencies were usually provided for, 
in whole or in part, until 1850, when an application was made 
for $50,140.10, the deficit existing at that time. The Board of 



574 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Educiition granted $35,000, leaving $15,000 unprovided for, as 
liable to objection under tlie provisions of the law relative to 
expenditures for property, the title of which had not been vested 
in the city. In 1851, the application was nrged anew, and 
referred to the Finance Committee of the Board of Education, 
who submitted a report adverse to the appropriation. When 
the result was communicated to the trustees of the Society, a 
resolution was immediately presented, in the following form : 

Eesohed, That, in the opinion of the Board of Trustees of the Public 
School Society, it is expedient to repeat a tender of the transfer of the prop- 
erty held by the Society to the Common Council of New York, in accord- 
ance with the sanction of the final clause of the act of January 28, 1826, 
relating thereto. 

The resolution was laid on the table, and the committee hav- 
ing charge of the matter were dkected to visit Albany, to take 
such steps as might be found necessary to protect the rights and 
privileges of the Societj', a bill being then under consideration 
relative to the school systems of the city. The committee dis- 
charged the duty assigned them, and reported that a section had 
been introduced into the bill, which had become a law, which 
contained the following proviso : 

But nothing in this act shall take away from the Public School Society 
any right which they have heretofore enjoyed ; and the Board of Education 
are authorized to provide the Public School Society with all necessary 
moneys to make all projjer repairs, alterations, and improvements in the 
various school-premises occupied by them. 

The year 1852 brought, at its commencement, a formal com- 
jnunication from the Board of Education relative to an event 
which had already been freely discussed as impending, and 
likely to be consummated at a not distant period — the union of >. 
the t«-o systems, and the harmonizing of the whole scheme of 
common schools in the city under one Central Board. At the 
meeting of the trustees, January 26th, a communication was laid 
before them, in which it was stated that the Board of Education 
had appointed a committee to confer with a committee on behalf 
of the Society relative to a plan of union. Messrs. George T. 
Trimble, Peter Cooper, and Jofeeph B. Collins were named as 
the Committee of Conference, to which Messrs. Charles E. Pier- 
son and James F. Depeyster were subsequently added. 



SALE OF SCHOOL IN DUANE STREET. 575 

In Miiy, the board decided to borrow $40,000 on bond and 
mortgage of their property, that amount being necessary to meet 
the expenses of the scliools, and the Treasurer and Finance Com- 
mittee were directed to take tlie usual course for obtaining that 
amount. 

In November, the trustees resolved to sell the primary school' 
in IVenty-fiftli street, between Madison and Fourth avenues ; 
and in January, 1853, information being given that Duane street 
would be widened by the addition of twenty-five feet from the 
north side of the street, and that the property known as No. 10^ 
could be sold for a considerable sum, Messrs. Linus W. Stevens, 
William H. Neilson, James F. Depeyster, and George T. Trim- 
ble were appointed to report on the expediency of the sale. 
This measure became more necessary from the fact that the 
building would be reduced to so small a size as to be practically 
valueless, and also that a large ward school, under the care of 
the Board of Education, had been erected in the vicinity, at the* 
corner of North Moore and Varick streets. The committee were 
directed to take only preliminary steps toward the sale of the 
pi'operty, so that the decision of the Legislature upon the bill for 
the consolidation of the two systems should be known. In the 
event of the failure of the bill, the property should be sold. 
The bill failed at the regular session, and the property -was sold 
to Thomas Hope, for $39,900. The proceeds were to be appro- 
priated to the payment of the floating debt of the Society.. In 
accordance with the terms of the sale, the school was closed on 
the 30th of June, and the premises which had so long been occu- 
pied for the education of youth in the patlis of knowledge, vir- 
tue, and religion (the building was long occupied for a Sunday 
school), was diverted to very different purposes. 



576 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



Cn AFTER XY. 

UNION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY AND THE BOARD OF 
EDUCATION.— 1853. 

Corporate and Popular Boards of School Officers — Resources — Importance of a Uni- 
form System — Proceedings of the Board of Education — Committee of Conference 
Appointed — Basis of Union Adopted — Proposed School Bill — Proceedings of the 
Society — Legislative Compromises — Extra Session — Bill Passed — Commissioners 
and Trustees Appointed by the Society — Transfer of Property to the Corporation 
— Report of the Committee — Address of Peter Cooper — Meeting of the Board 
of Education — Reception of the Members appointed by the Society — Resolutions 
of Hon. Erastus C. Benedict, President of the Board — Remarks of William D. 
Murphy ,♦ Esq. 

The influence of the popular sentiment, combined with the 
embarrassments growing out of the dissimilarities of the system 
of the Public School Society and that established by the law of 
1842, became more apparent every year. How far the educa- 
tional scheme of a great metropolis is likely to be affected, in its 
partisan relations, where the school officers are chosen at a gen- 
eral election, longer experience in the city of New York will 
probably demonstrate. But the Board of Education having , 
been in existence about ten years, and being composed of mem- 
bers chosen by the popular suffrage, it was calculated to attract 
the sympathies of the majority of the population. The Board 
of Education exercised a control over the common school mon- 
eys, which were, in the early years of the board, carefully 
guarded. The revenue of the Public School Society was found 
to be insufficient for its expenditures, and a more frequent and 
urgent resort was had to obtaining moneys either by the sale of 
l)roperty, or on bond and mortgage. The applications made on 
several occasions to the Board of Education for the amount of 
certain deficiencies, were always warmly contested in that body, 
and, on several occasions, were granted only in part, and even 
in opposition to the recommendations of the Finance Committee, 
who reported adversely on the question of the appropriations. 



KIVALKT BETWEEN THE SCHOOLS. 577 

The rights and privileges of the Society had been clearly de- 
fined, as was SJipposed, by the amendments of 1843 and 184:4 ; 
but, notwithstanding the special provisions of " the declaratory 
act," mnch importance was attached to the issue raised, that the 
Society had no right to open new schools and erect new build- 
ings — the expansive power of the school administration being 
deemed to lie only in the Central Board, which had the power 
to grant or refuse the application of the boards of school officers 
of the several wards of the city. 

The ample means placed by law at the disposal of the board 
were partially expended in the erection of substantial school- 
houses, the first of which were somewhat similar to those of the 
Society, with the diiference that the basement-story, instead of 
being sunk four or five feet below the level of the street, was 
built above ground, thus giving improved light and ventilation. 
A competition, however, soon arose between the wards in regard'' 
to the size, character, and appointments of the school editices,^ 
until the whole system of large and noble buildings became dis- 
cussed both as an economical and ediicational necessity and ad- 
vantage. The contrast thus drawn between the imposing struc-^ 
tures of the ward schools and those of the Society was more 
marked every year. The transfer of pupils from the old to the 
new schools was constant, and yet the Society was steadily 
increasing the number of its pupils from the thousands of resi- 
dents who were annually swelling the mighty tide of population^ 
at a rate scarcely known in the history of the world. These 
and other causes had at last evidently fixed the limits of the 
sphere of usefulness in which the Society should labor. Its 
long-urged purpose of .establishing daily normal schools of a 
high and commanding character, and a high school or academy 
for collegiate education, were placed altogether beyond its grasp. 
In ten years, the schools of the new s_ystem had already outnum- 
bered those of the Society. A noble institution had been found-* 
ed, and a building erected, at a cost of about $50,000, for the 
" Free Academy," and the financial power, very far exceeding 
in amount the fondest hopes of the Society, had been exercised 
in the rapid development and execution of plans which they had 
cherished for a quarter of a century. 

An objection had long been urged against the Society. By 
its charter, it was an " association " of voluntary members. The 
.^7 



578 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

trustees and Executive, elected by the body itself, were responsible 
to tlie Society, and the elections were therefore only calculated 
to make the governing power perpetuate itself. Tlie popular 
sympathies in favor of an unrestricted system, as 0])posed to a 
" close corporation," were easily excited, and the advocates of 
change, innovation, or of denominational jiretensions, were loud 
and persistent in their condemnation of this feature in the con- 
stitution of the Society. On a number of occasions, from the 
time of the controversy with the Baptists, in 1822, down to the 
successful contest maintained against it, fi-om 1840 to 1812, the 
climax whicii gave the highest force to argument, statistics,, and 
appeals, was the fact that the Society was a " close corporation." 
Neither the labors, the discipline, -the system, nor the character 
of the Society could be impeached, except upon sectarian appeals 
for a portion of the school fund, or by men who were willing to 
make it subserve a temporary purpose for political exaltation 
and preferment. The character of its officers and members, their 
positions in business and social circles, their integrity and con- 
scientiousness, their prudence and economy, exercised even to 
the disadvantage of the schools from necessity, were beyond 
reproach or attack. Never, probably, in the history of the 
world, has an institution of such extent, and authorized to ex- 
pend so much public money annually, been conducted with such 
scrupulous care in regard to its expenditures ; and none has ever 
surpassed it in the results of its labors with the same amount of 
means. 

The most liberal and enlightened fi-iends of education in the 
city could not remain insensible to the fact, that the prejudices 
which had been aroused could not soon be ovei'come, and tliat, 
however perfect a corporate system of public instruction might 
be made, M'ere its resources sufficient, the day had passed for a 
full development of the scheme of the Public School Society. 
It became apparent that the interests of public education in the 
city demanded a uniform system, under the care of one Central 
Board, which should combine, if possible, a conservative charac- 
ter with that of the popular prestige. Tlie decision of this 
proposition left no alternative — the Public School Society must 
become a part of the new system, and surrender its independent 
trust. How far these considerations may have induced members 
of the Board of Education to restrict the revenue of the Society *■ 



PEOPOSAL OF UNION. 579 

in order to expedite the consummation, is a fair ground of con- 
jecture, and is left for the judgment of the reader. 

A resolution was offered by "W"m. Ilibbard, M.D., one of the 
commissioners for the Seventeenth Ward, in the Board of Edu- 
cation, on the 21st of January, 1S52, and submitted to the Soci- 
ety at an adjourned meeting held on the 26th of the same month, 
in the following communication : 

To George T. Trlmble, President of the Public School Society : 

Sm : At a meeting of the Board of Education, held on Wednesday even- 
ing last, the following resolution was adopted, viz. : 

Pesoked, That a committee of three members of this board be appointed 
to confer with a committee of the trustees of the Public School Society, for 
the purpose of eflfecting a union of the two systems. 

Whereupon William Hibbard, of the Seventeenth Ward, Samuel A. 
Crapo, of the Sixteenth Ward, and Edward L. Beadle, of the Fifteenth 
Ward, were appointed as said committee. 

Will you, sir, be pleased to lay this subject before the body over whom 
you preside, and signify to them the hope, on our j)art, that a similar com- 
mittee will be appointed on their part, and advise us of the result at your 
earliest convenience. 

Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

William Hibbaed, Chairman. 

Saturday, January 24, 1852. 

After a long discussion upon this important proposition, 
George T. Trimble, Peter Cooper, and Joseph B. Collins were 
appointed as the committee on behalf of the Society. On the 
9th of April, Dr. Charles E. Pierson and James F. Depeyster 
were added to the number. 

The joint committees tlms appointed held numerous sessions, 
and at length submitted several propositions on behalf of both 
parties, and, on the 1st of October, they were presented to the 
Board of Trustees. A special meeting for their consideration 
was called for the 15th of the same month, at which time they 
were read, as follows : 

The Public School Society to transfer to the city all the real and per- 
sonal estate now held by said Society, subject to all the debts, liens, and 
encumbrances thereon, the payment of which shall be assumed by the city ; 
the property bo conveyed to be forever devoted to the purposes of public 
education. 

And said Society also to surrender and discontinue its organization and 
existence. 



580 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Previous to the dissolution of said Society, it may select and appoint 
fifteen of its trustees to be commissioners at large of common schools, and 
members of the Board of Education, 'who shall serve as such during the 
continuance in office of the present members of the Board of Education. 

And thereafter there shall be, in addition to the present number of com- 
missioners, one member of the Board of Education from each ward, who 
shall be appointed by the school officers of each ward. 

The said Society to appoint, previous to its dissolution, for each of the 
wards in which one or more schools of the said Society are now established, 
three of its members, to be trustees of common schools for the wards, who 
shall be so classed that one shall serve until January 1st, 1855, one until 
January 1st, 1856, and one until January 1st, 1857, who shall possess the 
same powers and rights with, and be liable to the same duties as, the pres- 
ent ward school trustees. 

Vacancies among the trustees so appointed to be filled in the same man- 
ner as vacancies among the ward trustees are now filled. 

And, after the 1st of January, 185-, there shall be eight ward trustees to 
serve four years, two of whom shall be elected each year. 

The foregoing propositions to be presented to both boards. If it passes 
them, then both shall unite in an application to the Legislature for the pas- 
sage of a law consummating the union upon the basis of this j^rogrammc. 

A long and earnest debate arose upon this report, after which 
the following resolution was adopted : 

Resohed, That the report of the Committee of Conference just submitted 
be adopted, as a general basis for legislative action, by the Board of Trus- 
tees of the Public School Society ; Protided, that the trustees to be chosen 
under the proposed plan shall not be required to reside in the wards for 
which they are appointed to serve ; and provided, further, that the Commit- 
tee of Conference of this Society shall unite with a committee of the Board 
of Education in drafting a law to carry into effect such report, and for such 
other modifications of existing laws in relation to schools in this city as 
may be deemed advisable ; such proposed law to be submitted first for the 
approval of the Society (at a meeting to be called for the purpose) and of 
the Board of Education, and then for adoption by the Legislature. 

The ayes and nays were called, upon taking the question, 
and the gentlemen voting are recorded as follows : 

Ayes — Messrs. G. T. Trimble, Peter Cooper, J. B. Collins, 
H. H. Barrow, F. W. Downer, J. F. Depeyster, John Daven- 
port, Benjamin Ellis, W. Mandeville, A. Merwin, W. II. Neil- 
son, R. G. Perkins, M.D., C. E. Pierson, M.D., Israel Eussell, 
H. M. Schieffelin, S. "W. Seton, L. "W. Stevens, I. "W". Underhill, 
W. Underhill, J. B. Varnum, L. B. Ward— 21. 

Nays— I. S. Underhill, J. T. Adams, W. P. Cooledge, J. 



MANIFESTO OF THE SOCIETY. 581 

B. Brinsmade, J. R. Ilurd, J. W. C. Leveridge, W. E. Ver- 
milj'e — 7. 

The committee of the Board of Education submitted their 
report to that body, and, on tlie 10th of November, a committee, 
consisting of William D. Murphy, E. L. Beadle, Charles D. 
Field, Charles H. Smith, and J. E. Cary, were appointed to 
prepare the draft of a bill to be pi-esented to the Legislature. 
This committee reported on the Sth of December, and the report 
was ordered to be printed. The trustees considered the same 
I'eport at their meeting on the 17th of the same mouth, and, 
with such amendments as appeared proper, was approved, and 
ordered to be returned to the Board of Education as accepted. 
The Board of Education submitted a copy as amended at a regu- 
lar meeting of that body, and, with two slight alterations, it was 
directed to be returned, with the approbation of the trustees. 

These suggestions were happily met by the Board of Eduea-^, 
tion, and on the 14th of January, 1853, the trustees received 
official information of the action of the board. There remained 
now no point of difference between the two bodies, and the 
measure was recommended for adoption by the Society. A spe- 
cial meeting was called, to be held on the 19th, at the Trustees' 
Hall, at which time Peter Cooper was called to the chair. 

The bill, as adopted by both boards, was read, and, after a 
full discussion, the following preamble and resolution were 
adopted : 

Whereas, The Legislature of the State of New Tork, in the year 1805, 
granted an act for incorporating an institution denominated " The Free- 
School Society," for the purpose of founding schools for educating a class 
of children not otherwise provided for, which was sustained mainly by the 
voluntary contributions of tlieir fellow-citizens ; and 

Wlwreas, The said schools having been, for many years, conducted in a 
manner satisfactory to all parties interested therein, on the solicitations of 
the Board of Trustees of said schools, the wealthy and other citizens of this 
city petitioned for a tax to be levied on the property of its citizens, to be 
devoted to sustaining said schools, to be expended through the agency of 
said trustees, the name thereof having been also changed to that of " The 
Public School Society," at the same time ; said Society were required to 
provide the means of education for all children, as far as their means per- 
mitted, and which they continued to do for a series of years with energy, 
economy, and usefulness ; and 

WTiereai, The Legislature of the State did, in the year 1843, establish 



582 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

another system of common sclaool education, modelled after that established 
for the State at large ; and 

Whereas, By the terms of said act, and the various amendments thereto, 
it was required that the Public School Society should thereafter draw its 
funds for the sujjjjort of its schools, tlirough the agency of the trustees, de- 
nominated " The Board of Education," created by the act aforesaid ; and 

W/iereas, In consequence of adverse construction being put upon the 
terms of said act, the trustees of the Public School Society, in order to 
avoid a clashing of jurisdiction, did surrender their independent right to 
establish new schools ; and 

Whereas, The said trustees did, in the year 1851, procure from the Legis- 
lature an amendment to the school act, which, in the judgment so expressed 
by members of the said Board of Education, would enable the said trustees 
to obtain all the necessary funds for carrying on and improving the schools 
then under their charge ; and 

Whereas, The said Board of Education have refused to furnish the Pub- 
lic School Society with the necessaiy funds when solicited to do so ; and 

WJtereas, The Board of Education did, by resolution, invite the trustees 
of the Public School Society to confer in relation to a proposition for the 
union of the two systems of education, which invitation was met by corre- 
spouding action on the part of the trustees of the Public School Society ; 
and 

WJiereas, Pursuant to such proposition and the corresponding conference 
and action of both bodies, viz., the " Board of Education " and the Board 
of Trustees of the Public School Society, a form of union has been agreed 
upon, as set forth in the proposed act accompanying this paper ; and 

Whereas, Notwithstanding the Public School Society have, during a 
period of nearly half a century, conducted, with eminent success, energy, 
and economy, a great educational institution, in which hundreds of thou- 
sands of children have received instruction, yet yielding to the necessity of 
the case as above stated, and not from a conviction of their best judgment, 
and also hoping that a weighty sense of its importance will lead to the 
management of our common schools being committed to the hands of wor- 
thy citizens who will consult the public weal exclusively ; therefore 

Resohed, By the Public School Society, now duly convened pursuant to 
several days' notice in five of the public newspapers in the city of New 
York, that our Board of Tnistees be, and they are hereby, authorized to 
take all necessary measures for procuring the enactment of the act herein 
referred to, with such alterations and amendments as may seem to them wise 
and proper in this matter, and hereby confirming whatsoever our said Board 
of Trustees have done and may do in the premises as fully as if done by 
ourselves. 

The projects of union having thus been concurred in by both 
bodies, the several committees took the necessary steps for the 
enactment of the bill by the Legislature. On the 17th of Feb- 



THE SCHOOL BILL. 583 

mary, Messrs. Peter Cooper, John Ely, William Mandeville, H. 
M. Schieffelin, and S. "W. Seton, M-ere appointed a committee to 
visit Albany, and take sucli measures as might be deemed proper 
to have the interests of the Society fully represented and recog- 
nized. 

Tlie bill became the subject of considerable controversy, and 
the conflicting opinions and views had a fair field of encounter 
on so important an issue as the surrender of the charter of a 
great public institution, which had done so much for the city and 
the nation at large. Compromises and concessions were, how- 
ever, made by all parties, in order to consummate the plan of 
union. Its failure would have resulted in a loss of strength on 
the part of the Society trom the fact of such steps having been 
taken, and a virtual surrender of its independence in all that 
pertains to the dignity and immunities of an establishment of 
high character would have been almost inevitable. It would, 
moreover, have placed tiie Board of Education in a position of 
delicacy and responsibility which would have been irksome to 
every man of fine feeling, while it would have given the antago- 
nists of the Society a position of power to embarrass it which 
would liave been full of unpleasant reminiscences. Notwith- 
standing all the influence broiight to bear upon the measure, the 
diflerences were not reconciled at a sutficiently early day, and 
the Legislature adjourned without the final vote, the bill lying 
on the docket so closely in order that one or two davs more 
would have disposed of it in the regular course of business. 

An extra session of the Legislature having been convened, 
the bill was called up at an early day, and passed June 4th, and 
became a law. Tlie first six sections are as follows : 



RELATIVE TO COMMON SCHOOLS IN THE CITY OP NEW TOEK. 

The People of the State of New Yorl; represented in Senate and Assemhly, do 

enact as follows : 

Sec. 1. The Public School Society of the city of New York shall, on or 
before the first day of September, eighteen hundred and fifty-three, convey 
and transfer, according to this act, by deed to be approved by the Counsel 
to the Corporation of said city, all their corporate property to the Mayor, 
Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city of New York, subject to all the 
liens and encumbrances thereon, and the debts of said Society ; and there- 
upon the said property shall belong to the said Mayor, Aldermen, and Com- 



584 THE PUBLIC SCnOOL SOCIETY. 

monalty in the same manner as the school property now used and occupied 
by the ward schools belongs to the said Mayor, Aldermen, and Common- 
alty ; and the schools of the Public School Society shall be ward schools, 
subject to the same control, and enjoy the same rights and privileges as if 
originally organized as ward schools ; but such portions of the property 
aforesaid as have been granted to the Public School Society, subject to the 
trust that the same shall be davoted to the puiposes of common schools, 
shall be held subject to such trust ; and the premises now known as Trus- 
tees' Hall, situated at the corner of Grand and Elm streets, shall be used 
and occupied by the Board of Education as long as they may think advis- 
able, for the meetings and business thereof, and for such educational pur- 
poses as said board may direct ; and the residue of the property aforesaid 
shall be conveyed, for the purposes of common schools, in the same manner 
as the property purchased by the authority of the Board of Education, for 
the purposes aforesaid. 

Sec. 3. The Puljlic School Society shall, at the time of such conveyance, 
make a detailed statement of all their property, real and personal, and of all 
their debts of every description existing at the time of such conveyance, 
which shall be certified as a full, just, and true statement of all sucB prop- 
erty and debts, by their president, treasurer, and secretary, and shall deliver 
one copy thereof, so certified, to the Comptroller of the city of New York, 
and the other copy, so certified, to the clerk of the city and county of New 
York, for the use of the Board of Supervisors of the city and county of 
New York ; and the said Board of Supervisors shall thereupon proceed to 
audit and determine the amount of all the debts of the said Society, and 
shall cause the same to be certified and filed with the said Comptroller. 

Sec. 3. Upon the amount of the debts of the said Society being so certi- 
fied and filed, it shall be lawful for the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty 
of the city of New York, and it shall be their duty, to raise by loan a sum 
not exceeding the amount of the delit so certified and filed, by the creation 
of a public fund or stock, to be called " The Public Education Stock of the 
City of New York of the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty- 
Three," which shall bear an interest of five per cent, per annum, and which 
shall be redeemable at a period of time not more than twenty years from 
the passage of this act. The said Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty shall 
determine of what number of shares the said stock shall consist ; and the 
said stock shall be disposed of by pulilic comijetition, under the direction 
of the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund of the city of New York. The 
moneys raised by virtue of this act shall be applied for the purpose of pay- 
ing and discharging all the said debts ; any deficiency, by reason of interest 
accruing on the said debts, after the same are so certified and filed, shall be 
paid by the said Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty out of the city treas- 
ury ; and any excess, by reason of the said stock being disposed of at a pre- 
minm, shall be held as a part of the sinking fund hereinafter provided. 

Sec. 4. The Board of Supervisors shall, yearly and every year, until the 
said stock shall be wholly redeemed and paid oif, order and cause to be 
raised by tax on the estate, real and personal, of the freeholders and inhab- 



THE SCHOOL BILL. 



585 



itants of and situated within the said city and county, and to be collected 
according to. law, a sum of money sufficient to pay the interest on the said 
stock as the same falls due, and to pay and discharge the principal by the 
time the same shall be payable. All of which moneys so to be raised shall 
be under the management and control of the Commissioners of the Sinking 
Fund of the city of New York ; and all such moneys so to be raised are 
hereby inviolably pledged to pay the interest and redeem the principal of 
the said stock. 

Sec. 5. The Public School Society may, immediately after so conveying 
all their corporate property, appoint fifteen from the then trustees of said 
Society to be commissioners of common schools for the city of New York, 
and members of the Board of Education, designating the ward for which 
each person is appointed, and not more than one for any one ward, who 
shall hold their offices till the first day of January, one thousand eight hun- 
dred and fifty-five ; and the said Public School Society may also, at the 
same time, appoint from among their own trustees three trustees of common 
schools for each ward of said city in which one or more of the schools of 
said Society are now established, designating the ward for which each per- 
son is appointed ; and the said trustees so appointed shall be so designated 
in the certificate of appointment that one shall serve until January first, 
eighteen hundred and fifty-five, one till January first, eighteen hundred and 
fifty-six, and one until January first, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven. The 
said appointments shall be made by a certificate signed by the officers of 
said Society, and filed with the clerk of the Board of Education ; and the 
said commissioners and trustees so apjjointed shall have the same rights and 
powers, and be subject to the same liabilities and duties, as other commis- 
sioners and trustees of common schools in said city, except that they need 
not reside in the wards for which they are appointed. Any vacancy occur- 
ring in the office of any such commissioner or trustee, shall be filled in the 
same manner as vacancies in school offices are now filled. 

Sec. 6. As soon as the said Public School Society shall have conveyed 
all their corporate property, and made and filed the statements, and made 
and filed appointments of commissioners and trustees, provided for in the 
previous sections of this act, the corporate powers and existence of the said 
Public School Society shall cease, and their schools be merged in the system 
of public instruction provided by the act entitled " An Act to Amend, Con- 
solidate, and Reduce to One Act the Various Acts Relative to the Common 
Schools of the City of New York," passed July third, eighteen hundred and 
fifty-one, so as to be and remain, pursuant to the provisions of this act, an 
integral portion thereof, and then and thereby the said Society shall be dis- 
solved, and then and from thenceforth the common schools in the city of 
New York shall be numbered consecutively by the Board of Education. 

On the passage of the bill, a special meeting of the Society 
was called, at which a resolution was adopted extending an invi- 
tation to the Board of Education to hold its meetings in the 



586 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Trustees' Hall, and anotlier resolution, " that the board surren- 
der their schools to the Board of Education, and convey their 
property to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city 
of New York, on the 1st day of August next, agreeably with 
the act of June 4, 1853." 

A committee of five trustees was appointed to make the pre- 
liminary arrangements necessary to carry the law into effect, and 
Messrs. J. W. C. Leveridge, L. W. Stevens, Josepli Curtis, W. 
P. Cooledge, and John Davenport, were selected for that duty. 

At a meeting lield on the Ist of July, the Board of Trustees 
proceeded to nominate and elect the fifteen commissioners re- 
quired by tlic law, and the following gentlemen were declared 
to be chosen : C. E. Pierson, M.D., J. W. C. Leveridge, John 
T. Adams, Israel Enssell, Thomas B. Stillman, Joseph Curtis, 
II. H. Barrow, Joseph B. Collins, L. W. Stevens, J. F. Depey- 
ster, B. K. Y/inthrop, Peter Cooper, John Davenport, William 
H. Neilson, William P. Cooledge. 

The following gentlemen were chosen as trustees : 

I'^trst Ward. — George E. Cock, Pelatiah Perit. 

Fourth Ward.— Robert Ft. Crosby, Justus S. Redfield. 

JFi/t/i Ward. — Ebenezer Piatt, Timothy Hedges, Joseph W. 
Kellogg. 

/Sixth Wa7'd. — Willett Seaman, James Marsh, Roe Lockwood. 

Seventh Ward. — James B. Brinsmade, Joseph R. Skidmore, 
John Gray. 

Eighth lFa?YZ.— Orlando D. McClain, Wyllis Blackstone, 
Josepih Potter. 

Ninth Ward. — ^William Mandeville, Chai'les C. Leigh, Wash- 
ington R. Vermilye. 

Tenth Ward. — Thompson Price. 

Eleventh TFarf?.— Nehemiah Miller, Abner Mills, S. P. Pat- 
terson. 

Twelfth Ward. — Ebenezer II. Brown, Daniel F. Tiemann, 
Thom'as Richmond. 

Thirteenth Ward. — Richard Reed, Benjamin B. Atterbury, 
Samuel W. Seton. 

Fourteenth Ward. — John Ely, Lewis C. Ilallock, Jacob 
Harsen. 

Fifteenth Ward. — Eli Goodwin, Joseph B. Varnum, Caleb 
Swan. 



REPOKT OF THE COMMITTEE OF TRANSFER. 587 

Sixteenth Ward.—iohn W. Howe, B. C. WandelJ, L. A. 
Eosenmuller. 

Seventeenth Ward. — J. D. B. Stillman, Isaac Ward. 

Eighteenth Ward. — Augustin Averill, Roger G. Perkins, 
James Stokes. 

Twenty-firH Ward. — "VVilliain P. Lee, Henry M. Sebieflulin, 
F. W. Downer. 

Twenty-second Ward. — Lebbeus B. Ward, J. C. Hepburn, 
M. H. Mott. 

On tbe 22d of July, at a special meeting called by tbe Com- 
mittee of Transfer, a verbal report was made, and tbe action of 
the committee was approved. It was also 

Besohed, That the several sections of the Public School Society invite 
the ward officers of their district to meet with them previous to the 1st day 
of August, with the view of placing the schools in their hands, during the 
vacation, for the purpose of repairs, cleaning, &c. 

On the adoption of this resolution, the Board of Trustees 
adjourned, sine die. 

Tlie Society then held a meeting for the transaction of some 
formal business, among which was the reading of tlie deed of 
conveyance of the property to the city. Complimentary resolu- 
tions, returning thanks to the President, George T. Tkemble, 
and tbe Secretary, Josepu B. Collixs, were passed, and tbe So- 
ciety adjourned, to meet on the following Friday. 

On the day appointed, being the 2!)th of July, the Society 
held a meeting, at which the Committee of Transfer submitted 
their final report, as follows : 
To the New York PulUc School Society : 

The committee appointed to'make the necessary arrangements for termi- 
nating the " existence of the Public School Society," in conformity with the 
act of Juno 4th, 1853, respectfully report : 

That they have completed the service assigned, in all respects, and now 
propose to lay before the Society a statement of the manner in which it has 
been done, and the results which have been severally attained. 

It may not be deemed out of place for them to allude to the fact, that 
they have acted in all that pertains hereto from a sense of duty, and not 
from choice. They have fully felt the ungracious nature of the task allotted 
to them, but their best services have been held hitherto subject to the be- 
hest of the Public School Society in its days of noble usefulness, and hence 
it was not for them to shrink, when, in a grave posture of its affairs, it has 
become necessary to bring its concerns to a close, and expunge its name 
from among active and benevolent public institutions. 



588 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Since it must be so, to fully carry out tlie law which merges it in the 
Board of Education has been their constant care, and they trust that it will 
be found that nothing to this end has been left unaccomplished. 

In order that the schools should be fully supplied with all necessary arti- 
cles of use before their surrender, especially since, in the change at hand, 
and the possible confusion which may result at first from it, they may be for 
a time unprovided with indispensable supplies, the committee, at, an early 
moment after their appointment, caused the following notice to be sent to 
the teachers generally, viz. : 

Any authorized supplies for your school that may be required prior to 
the vacation in August next, will be delivered, if previously drawn for, dur- 
ing the first week in July, say from the 1st to the 7th. No further supplies 
will be furnished by the Public School Society, except at the time now 
specified. 

To obtain the supplies needed, your pass-book, with all the due bills 
which you may have on hand, must be sent to the depository on or before 
June 27th. 

It will be perceived that an early day was fixed in this notice for deliv- 
ering the supplies to be drawn for. This was done in order that they might 
be easily placed in the schools before the time assigned for making a com- 
plete inventory of the jjroperty. 

"While the foregoing measure was in progress, the committee caused 
blank forms of inventory to be prepared, divided into three classes : first, a 
list of supplies in all their variety — books, slates, paper, pens, maps, &c. ; 
second, a list of books in the several libraries ; and third, a blank sheet, 
upon which to describe such philosophical apparatus, minerals, curiosities, 
&c., as might be found in a portion of the schools. 

To the first, a properly-drawn certificate was attached, which the_ princi- 
pal of every school was directed to sign ; and to the second a similar attes- 
tation of the correctness of the return was added, for the signature of the 
first assistant or librarian of the boys' department of the public schools ; 
l3ut to the third, as it was expected to embrace such matters only as were 
considered the special property of the school in which they might be found, 
the Society having no claim upon them as not having originally provided 
them, no certificate was attached. 

The calls for supplies were promptly made, and from every school, in 
greater or less quantity, with scarcely au exception. The delivery of these 
begun early in July, and it was completed before the 15th uistant. So gen- 
eral had been the call, that goods to the value of about |3,750 were distrib- 
uted on this single occasion. In this stage of the matter, and consistent 
with the plan originally laid down, the following notice was printed for cir- 
culation, viz. : 

You are hereby required to furnish a detailed statement, by filling the 
blanks in the accompanying list of articles, of all the personal jjroperty or 
supplies iu the school under your charge, adding thereto any other items 
that you may find on the premises, the names of which are omitted in said 
blanks. 

To enable you to do this efiectually, you will require the pupils to return 



EEPOET OF THE COMinTTEE OF TRANSFER. 589 

all books and other supplies that may be in their possession, including 
library-books, on or before the 15th of July, after which date no books or 
supjjlios are to be taken from the school. 

You will furnish the agent at the depository with four fair copies of said 
detailed statement by Wednesday, 20th of July, attested by your signature. 

This notice, together with the blank forms of inventory of the personal 
property, was distributed by the agent in person, who accompanied them 
with such verbal explanation as would enable the parties concerned to re- 
turn the papers in suitable condition for use on or before July 20th. Beside 
the agent, one of the committee visited the schools generally, that an assur- 
ance might be felt that all would be correctly and seasonably done. 

Pending the arrangement of these matters, a sub-committee waited upon 
the treasurer, and received from him the various deeds, leases, &c., in his 
possession, and placed them in the hands of the counsel of the Society, to 
make by their aid the necessary deed of transfer and assignment of the 
leases, to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city, as the law for 
the merging aforesaid requires. 

So carefully had every step been taken, that, when the committee met, as 
it did on the 20th ultimo, they found every paper complete, and all in a sat- 
isfactory form. That these were receivable from one hundred and ten prin- 
cipal teachers and twenty librarians, the exceeding promptness with which 
the returns were made is both remarkable and commendable. 

The following list comprises all the papers submitted to the committee 
on the occasion referred to : 

Inventories from boys', girls', and primary departments of Public Schools 
Nos. 1 to 18, and Nos. 1 and 3, colored. 

Inventories of libraries in boys' departments 

Inventories from Primary Schools Nos. 1 to 55, and Nos. 3, 4, and 6, 
colored. 

Inventories from male, female, and colored normal schools. 

Inventory of supplies, &c., at the depository. 

Inventory of property at the workshop. 

List of articles delivered from Public School No. 10, by order of the 
board, to Ward Schools Nos. 14 and 39. 

List of stoves, &c., from Public School No. 10, on storage with J. L. 
Mott. 

These papers the committee had ordered to be prepared in quadrupli- 
cate, and, being so received, they were assorted, making four similar vol- 
umes, which were directed to be suitably bound in time for the meeting of 
the board, called for the 23d instant. For two of these four volumes the law 
had already provided an owner ; a third, it was resolved, should be jjresent- 
ed to the Board of Education, and a fourth to the Society, for such disposi- 
tion as it might see fit to make of it. 

At the same meeting of the committee, a deed of transfer was presented, 
with an assignment of the leases aforesaid, also, which were carefully com- 
pared with a correct list of the property, and then, with some revisions, 
were ordered to be engrossed. 



590 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 

The following exhibits the property, the fee-simple of which is in the 
Public School Society, the same now conveyed in the deed aforesaid : 

Public Sch9ols Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, and, colored, 
Nos. 1 and 3. 

Public School No. 3, on three lots, one held in trust. 
Primary Schools Nos. 3 and 44, 5 and 20, 10 and 29, 14 and 40, 25 and 
26, 37 and 28, 35 and 55, 38 and 39, 41 and 51, 42 and 43, 45 and 46. 
Carpenter's shop, 94 Crosby street, and Trustees' Hall. 
The above furnishing accommodations for sixty-nine schools. 
The following shows the property held by lease, the same being expressly 
assigned to the authority before named in the lease aforesaid : 

Primary Schools Nos. 2 and 13, 19 and 37, 33 and 34, 53 and 54. 
The same furnishing premises for eight schools. 

In addition to the property owned or leased by the Public School Soci- 
ety, the following premises are hired from year to year, at the sums annexed 
below,, all being used for primary school purposes : 

Primai-y School No. 1, Orchard street, . . . $300 

I " " 4, Chrystie street, . . 200 

" " 6, Suffolk street, . . .130 

" " 7, Sixth street, ... 300 

" " 8, King street, . . .200 

" " 9, corner Amos and Bleecker streets, 200 

" "11, Pearl street, . . 200 

" " 12, corner Broome and Ridge streets, 200 

" " 15, Stanton street, . . . 150 

" , " 18, Cannon street, . . 200 

" " 21, Twentieth street, . .175 

" " 23, Avenue C and Fourth street, 200 

" " 24, cor. Bleecker and Downing streets, 200 

". " 30, Centre street, . . 300 

« " 36, Forty-third street, . . 300 

" " 48, Houston street, . . 150 

" " 49 and 50, Eleventh street, . 300 

" colored, 4 and 6, Second street, . 350 

" " 3, Fifteenth street, rent joaid to 1856. 

The same providing for twenty-one schools. 

The title to the ground on which the following schools stand, is already 
in the city : 

Public Schools Nos. 1, 6, 17; Primary Schools Nos. 31, 32 (three 
rooms), and 53 ; affording accommodations for twelve schools. 

The whole number of schools under the charge of the Public School 
Society is therefore as follows, viz. : 

In houses belonging to the Society, held in fee, . . .69 

" " " the ground held by lease, 8 

" " " " owned by the city, 13 

In houses rented for the purpose, . . . . .31 

Total, .... 110* 

• For the location of these schools, see pages 594, 695. 



EEPOET OF THE COMMIITEE OF TRANSFER. 591 

The schools generally having prepared a fifth copy of the inventory of 
personal property,, one of the committee, with the agent, was detailed to 
visit the several schools, and insert it in tlie visitors' book. They were also 
directed to insert in the book of the public or upper schools, copies of the 
record of the March examinations, and the reports of the committee on 
stoves and fuel lately printed, and in the book of the primary schools the 
record of the June examination, with the printed reports just named. These 
papers, being secured in the books, will furnish, in permanent form, impor- 
tant statistics to our successors, show the care and accuracy with which our 
aflfairs, or a part of them, have been managed, and exhibit also at a glance, 
to their several future supervisors, the grade and standing of our various 
schools and departments, giving, as they do, honor, qualified praise, or cen- 
sure, where they have proved to be due. 

The committee, viewing it as a matter of considerable imi^ortance, have 
attempted a valuation of the property now about to be surrendeied by the 
Public School Society to the city, and with the following result : 

Value of real estate, $49.5,300.00 

Value of personal property, .... 109,520.46 



There are mortgages ujion the real estate, with 
accruing interest, as follows : 

One due Chambers street Bank for Savings, . $75,000 
" Bowery Savings Bank, . . 35,000 

" New York Mutual Life Insurance Co., 40,000 
" on lot in Forty-seventh street (Public 

School No. 18) at time of purchase, . 800 



$604,830.46 



150,800.00 



Leaving the value of property unencumbered, . $454,020.46 

Add to which the balance of the treasurer's account, 401.39 

Making the value of the property transferred to the city, 8454,421.85 

For the information of those who are desirous of knowing the various 
items of which this aggregate is made, a schedule of the property, with the 
valuation in detail, is appended to this report. 

The committee is informed that all the floating debt of the Society has 
been paid, inclusive of rents, to August 1st, 1853. That section of the law 
which provides for a certificate of the amount of this debt to the Board of 
Supervisors is therefore inoperative. 

The striking fact that the Public School Society is about to close its 
existence, and transfer so large an amount of unencumbered estate to the 
city of New York, excites in the minds of the committee an honest exulta- 
tion, as it must in those of all the well-wishers of the Society ; because upon 
grave occasions, and in public bodies, those who should have been and who 
might have been better informed, have declared it an insolvent and rotten 
concern, which was seeking to conceal its real condition by urging a union 



592 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

witli a healthy and living institution. This calumny, at least, ia now for- 
ever silenced. In this connection it may be added, that, in its disburse- 
ments of public money to the amount of millions of dollars, the first 
instance is yet to be shown where it has diverted a single dollar from its 
legitimate channel of service. The committee would even go so far as to 
add, that few institutions, here or elsewhere, of like or shorter duration, can 
exhibit a similar fact. In view of this statement alone, who shall say that 
the Public School Society has not acquired fame enough ? 

In referring to the payment of the floating debt, the committee feel that 
the Society is under many obligations to some in the community who have 
been its creditors, for their very great forbearance during its pecuniary em- 
barrassments. Though it has done the best it could under the circum- 
stances, as it trusts they have believed, yet such has been its keen sense of 
the justice and pressing nature of their claims, and such its desire to meet 
them, that a less considerate course on their part would have rendered its 
position at times intolerable. To cancel all its obligations to its creditors 
itself, has been its principal wish, the gratification of which has, it seems, 
not been denied to it. 

Among the many subjects of inquiry which presented themselves to the 
committee, that relative to the probable number of children which has 
received instruction in its schools since the Society's organization in 1805, 
has claimed and received a good deal of attention, and the committee finds 
little ground pf doubt that the whole number is six hundred thousand. To 
have educated this great number of youth, is to have been' the dispenser of 
incalculable good to the community at large ; a fact which, while it is a 
source of sincere congratulation to the active participants in the labor, may 
console them for the sacrifices of time and effort which they have made in 
the discharge of their constant and arduous duties. Moreover, since the 
opening of the normal schools, more than one thousand two hundred teach- 
ers have been educated and fitted for service, a large proportion of whom 
are now actively discharging the rcsijonsible duties of their vocation in the 
schools of this city, securmg, by this means, to a period still remote, the 
blessings of judicious education to the children of this commercial metropo- 
lis. Not a few of the whole number are also difiusing the moral lessons and 
intelligence, acquired in our schools, among the children of the neighboring 
cities and towns, or in the more distant parts of the Union, who have found 
it, we trust, no mean passport to the confidence and good offices of their 
new supervisors that they have graduated iu the schools of the Public 
School Society. 

It may be interesting, as a matter of history, to state, that the personal 
and real property of the Public School Society has been twice already ten- 
dered to the city authorities. The offer was made to satisfy a popular objec- 
tion ; it having been argued that so much public property should not be 
controlled by a corporation, because it might, sooner or later, become cor- 
rupt, and squander it in the advancement of private objects, or in the fur- 
therance of ends not contemplated by the law. It is, perhaps, honorable to 



EEPOET GF THE OOJUIITTEE OF TEANSFER. 593 

both parties, that the tender was as often rejected, and the Society asked to 
hold steadily on its course. 

On this day, the schools of the Public School Society have closed for the 
summer vacation ; when they open again, their Alma Mater will have ceased 
to be. New auspices, new school officers to a large extent, and a new sys- 
tem of government and responsibility, will have supervened the ancient 
order of things. All the public schools of the city will then own one com- 
mon head. The active, and, we trust, generous rivalry of systems which 
has grown up of later times, will no longer continue. Kivalry, if any there 
be, must be felt among members of the same household, or, at least, between 
one municipal division of the city and another, or between individual 
schools. What is to be the result of the change, it is not for us to say — 
whether for the better in relation to the common good, or for the worse. 
If we fear the latter, the sequel may disappoint us ; if we were confident of 
the former, we could lay down our coqjorate trust with cheerfulness, and 
with an abiding hope in the futiu-e. The result is with the almighty Dis- 
poser of events. 

The books containing an inventory of our personal property, with a cer- 
tificate of the correctness of the return, to be signed by the officers of the 
Society, together with the deed of transfer, assignment of leases, &c., are 
presented herewith, and, when properly signed and legally executed, may 
be delivered to the recipients named in the law, who, the committee are 
informed, are in attendance for the purpose. This done, the Society may 
proceed to confirm the nomination of its commissioners and trustees, and 
thereupon its existence will cease. 

As a conclusion to their labors, the committee offer the following resolu- 
tion : 

Resohed, That the books of minutes of the Society, of the Board of 
Trustees, of the Executive Committee, and of other standing committees, 
together with all the reports, documents, and treasurer's vouchers, and a 
copy of the inventory of personal property, »S;c., be deposited with the New 
York Historical Society. 

(Signed) L. W. Stevens, Chairman. 

Joseph Curtis, 
Whliam p. Cooledge, 
John Davenport, 
J. "W. C. Leveridge. 

New Tobk, Juir/ 29, 1863. 
38 



594 



THE rUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



ESTIMATED VALUE OF REAL ESTATE AND PERSONAL PKOPEKTY BELONGING 
TO THE NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY, JULY, 1853. 



X 


2 






CS 


K 


1 


i 


1 


Pub. Schools. 
No. 1 

" 3 

" 4 


William St. 
Henry 6t. 

HudBon 6t. 
Rivington 6t 


City 

2 in Socle- \ 
ety&lini 
Rutgers ( 
Church. ; 

P. 8. Soo... 

: ^ 

City 


3 

8 

05x130 

75x100 

20x6S 

3 


$8,000 

20,000 
12,000 
10,000 


$12,000 

10,000 

14,000 
4,000 
8,000 


$2,800 

3,000 

3,400 
2,000 
2,20a 
3,000 
2,200 
2,800 
800 
2,600 
3,000 
3,000 
3,000 
3,600 
3.000 
3,000 
3,600 
1,800 
2,000 
2,500 
2,500 

400 
800 
600 
400 
600 

300 
400 

400 

400 
100 
•100 
400 

000 

400 
3O0 
300 
SOC 
300 
250 
100 
400 
600 
800 

400 
1,000 
800 
SOO 
400 
000 
800 


$1,200 00 

1,260 00 

1,480 00 
1,015 00 

1,075 01 
1,000 00 

880 00 
1,040 00 

600 00 
1.105 00 
1,310 00 
1,115 00 
1,190 00 
1,285 00 
1,300 00 
1,085 00 
1,240 00 

500 00 

500 00 
3,460 00 


$16,000 00 

22,250 00 

88,880 00 
19,015 00 
21.275 00 




Randalrri Island. 

Clirystie st 

Grand 6t 




" 7 

" 8 

" 9 


P. S. Soc... 

City 

P. S.Soc.... 


3 

3 
4 
3 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
4 
2 
50x98 
2 
1 


12,000 
12,000 
2,600 
12,000 
12,000 
11,000 
11,000 
11,000 
11,000 

5,000 
6,000 
5,000 
20,000 
4,000 


8,000 
12,000 

4.000 
10,000 
11,000 
11,000 
11,000 
14,000 
12,000 
12,000 
16,000 

3,000 

6,000 
20,000 

2,000 


23,080 OO 
27,840 00 
7,800 OO 


" 11 


Wooster st 


25,705 00 
27,310 00 


" 13 

" 14 


Madison st 

Houston st 


26,116 00 
26,190 00 
29,885 00 






27,300 00 






16,085 00 


" 18 

Oolored, 1..,. 
«' 2.... 

Trustees' Hall 

Workshop... 
Primary 
ScJtools, 

No. 1 


47th Bt 

Mulberry et 

Laurens st 

Grand st 

Crosby fit 

Orchard st 

Bayard st 

Caunon st 

Chrystie st 

CheiTy st 

Suffolk st 


25,840 00 
11,800 00 
13,500 00 
45,960 00 
6,500 00 

540 00 


140 00 
305 00 
230 00 
146 CO 
205 00 
140 00 
140 00 
175 00 

170 00 
275 00 
140 00 
145 00 

230 00 

165 00 
225 00 
195 00 
270 00 
130 00 
125 00 
215 CO 

180 00 
2i0 00 
325 00 
180 OO 
660 00 
270 00 
275 00 
160 00 
265 00 
285 00 


" 2&13.. 
" 3&44.. 


P. S. Soc... 


1 

1 


Leased 
2,600 


4,800 
3,800 


6,905 00 
7,130 OO 


" 6&20.. 


P. 8. Soo.. 1 


21x86 

1 


2,500 


3,600 


6,805 00 
440 00 




P. S. Soc.S 








640 00 














" 9 


corner Amon & 

Bleecker 

Amos st 








570 00 


" 10 & 29.. 


25 X a5 

1 


4,000 


4,800 


9,476 00 
640 00 






P. S.Soc. j 








645 00 


" 14&40.. 


ChrystiOBt 

Stanton st 

Trustees' Hall... 

Cinnonst 

Greenwich st.... 

Twentieth st 

Av. 0&4th St.. 

RiTington st 

corner Bleeker & 

Downing 

Thompson St.... 
Seventeenth St.. 
Centre st 


26x60 
1 


2,000 


4,000 


6,830 00 
656 00 












626 00 












495 00 


•" 19&37.. 


P. S. Soc... 


1 


Leased 


4,800 


6.870 00 
430 00 




Basement of 
P. S. Ko. 4. 








375 00 










315 00 










6f0 00 


•• 25 & 26.. 
■" 27 & 2S... 


P. S. Soc... 


1 

25x95 

1 


3,500 
3,000 


4,800 
6,000 


9,i:o 00 

9,125 00 
680 00 




City 

P. S. Soc. 1 


1 

24x100 

1 
1 


Leased 
4,000 


6,000 
4,800 
4,800 


7,660 00 


" 33 & 34.. 


Barrow st 


6,870 00 
9,875 00 






600 00 


" 88&39.. 
•'• 41 & 61.. 


Factory st 

West 18th St.... 


P. S. Soc ^ 


50x66 
2 

1 


6,000 
3,000 


6,000 
4,800 


12,165 00 
8,885 00 




$214,500 


$262,000 


$71,160 


$29,995 00 


$576,145 00 



SPEECH OF PETER COOPER. 595 

ESTIMATED VALUE OF REAL ESTATE AND PESSONAL PROPEETY (Continued.l 



2 


< 
1 


H 


& 


o 




1^ 


P 
$29,995 00 
$250 CO 

250 00 
200 00 
2)0 00 
160 00 
265 CO 

125 00 
315 00 

2,000 00 
151 20 


1 


No. 42 & 43. . 
«* 45 & 46.. 


Clinton 6t 

RiTingtonst 

Houston 6t 

Eleventh 6t 


P. S. Soc.j 

" 1 


on rear 
40x60 

1 
36x100 

2 


5214,500 
$2,600 
4,000 


$262,000 
$3,000 

5,000 


$71,150 
$600 

SOO 
300 
600 
310 
SOO 

200 
400 


$615,145 00 
$6,350 00 
10,050 00 
























'* 53 & 54.. 

Colored: 


Greenwich St.... 
■West 15th Bt 


P. S. Soc... 


I 


Leased 


4,800 


6,865 00 


























School Librnn 
Stoves at J. L. 




2,000 00 




















84 
30 




II '(f (( it 








6 00 

205 26 
■ 225 00 
















Fuel on hand 
































,_ 










Total 




$220,500 


$274,800 


$75,284 


$34,266 46 


$606,221 85 



The report was adopted, and, the President having an- 
nounced in a few words that the Society had closed its official 
c-areer, and had executed its last official trust, nothing now re- 
mained but to exchange their last salutations as trustees and 
members of the Society. 

Peter Cooper then rose, and addressed the Society as fol- 
lows : 

Ms. President and Gentlemen : With your indulgence, I will venture 
a few remarks that I have penned, on an occasion that commands our deep- 
est consideration. We are now, Mr. President, ahout to resign our steward- 
ship over an institution that has exerted an influence over hundreds of thou- 
sands of the young of our city, who are now, in their turn, spreading that 
influence far and wide over our common country. Let us, then, Mr. Presi- 
dent, each one of us, try in all sincerity to adopt the language of the poet, 
where he says, 

" 'Tis greatly wise to talk with our past hours, 
And ask them what report they bore to heaven ; 
And how they might have borne more welcome news ; " 

where the responsibilities of our stewardship will be found impressed indel- 
ibly on every heart, causing us to rejoice in every triumph of virtue, and 
to sorrow over all the errors we have made. How important, then, it is to 
listen to the knell of the departed hours — yes ! as if an angel spoke. They 
call upon us to gather wisdom by reflection on the experience of the past, 
and to apply that wisdom to the discharge of the duties that are now 
before us. The stewardship that we are now about to resign is not a re- 



696 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

prieve from the responsibility of the future. On the contrar}', Mr. Presi- 
dent, that stewardship should have prepared lis better to perform those 
duties that arc now about to devolve upon us. These duties are of unmeas- 
ured importance, not only to the children of this community, but to the 
cause of suiFering humanity throughout the world. When we cast our 
minds over the struggling nations of the earth, and look on the fierce en- 
counter now waging between the friends of freedom and progress, and those 
despots who are now striving by every means in their power to uproot and 
destroy the very foundations of liberal government ; when I see, Mr. Presi- 
dent, those monarchs of Eurojje hanging their armies, like an incubus, about 
their peoples' necks, eating out their substance, degrading their morals, and 
making them their ignorant slaves, to ijerjietuate the pride and selfishness 
of their oppressors; when I think, Mr. President, of the bare possibility 
that tyranny may again triumph over the continent of Europe ; when I look 
at the history of the past, and judge of what is possible for the future ; 
when I recollect those frightful monuments of former grandeur and lost 
greatness — monuments now standing as beacons in the pathway of nations, 
warning us of danger, and telling us, with silent eloquence, laeware, lest a 
worse thing come upon us ; when I reflect on the exalted privileges that 
now elevate us among the nations of the earth — privileges that other nations 
are sighing and suffering in vain to obtain ; when I look on all this, I ask 
myself, Can it he that these dear-bought, inalienable rights — the rights to 
worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences, and to form 
and carry on a government of our own choice — I ask myself. Can it be that 
rights and privileges like these can ever be given up and lost ? 

I tremble for the answer, when I see the combined influences of pride, of 
selfishness, of bigotry, and superstition, all uniting to undermine the virtues 
and misdirect the energy and intelligence of our people. Our mission, Mr. 
President, has been, and will continue to be, one of no ordinary responsibil- 
ity and importance. It is one that claims from us our united and continued 
effort to spread far and wide the science of just, necessary, and useful knowl- 
edge, until all shall know, from the least to fhe greatest, those things that 
make for their peace. And now, Mr. President, as we are about to enter on 
a new and most imi)ortant field of labor, under different circumstances, and 
with new associates, who, I trust, we shall find as truly and earnestly de- 
voted to the great cause of human improvement as we are or ever have been 
— and although they may have adopted different means to attain the same 
end, it will be our duty to be slow to find fault or condemn what may at 
first appear less desirable than the customary rules and practices that have 
prevailed within our own Society. It will better become us to look to those 
motes that may by possibility float unperceived in our own eyes, that w^e 
may more clearly perceive those difficulties that will encumber our own 
path, and that of our associates, with whom, I trust, we shall ever act with 
a pure desire to carry forward a system of public and general education 
that, I hope, will maintain the confidence of the community, and prove a 
blessing to the world. 



EEMAEKS OF WM. D. MUEPHY. 597 

The Board of Education was at the same time holding a spe- 
cial session in another part of the building, called for the pur- 
pose of effecting the union ; and on motion of Dr. J. "Weldon 
Fell, commissioner for the Eighth Ward, a committee was ap- 
pointed to inform the new members that the Board of Education 
was ready to receive the commissioners nominated by the Soci- 
ety. The President, Hon. Eeastus C. Benedict, appointed Dr. 
Fell, Hon. James W. Bcekman, and Charles Vulte as the com- 
mittee, in whose company the new members soon entered the 
hall. 

As tliey entered the room, the board rose, and the President 
oifered the following preamble and resolutions : 

Whereas, On the joint application of this board and the Public School 
Society, the said Society was authorized by law to convey their property to 
the city Corporation,' and to transfer their schools to the care of this board, 
and, after appointing certain of their own trustees to remain as school 
officers of the wards, including fifteen to be members of this board, to dis- 
solve their corporate existence ; and 

Whereas, Said Society has completed said arrangements, and has ceased 
to exist as a separate institution ; therefore, 

Sesolced, That the Public School Society is entitled to the lasting grati- 
tude of the people of this city, and of the friends of education generally, 
for their unremitted and successful efforts, continued through nearly half a 
century, in disseminating the blessings of education and virtue among thou- 
sands who otherwise would have been allowed to grow up in ignorance and 
vice. 

Resolved, That we cordially welcome to their seats in this board, Thomas 
B. Stillman, Linus W. Stevens, Peter Cooper, William H. Neilson, John T. 
Adams, Israel Russell, Joseph B. Collins, John Davenport, James P. Depey- 
ster, Benjamin R. Winthrop, Charles E. Pierson, M.D., William P. Cooledge, 
Henry H. Barrow, Joseph Curtis, and John W. C. Leveridge, who have been 
so selected as members thereof, and that we rejoice in the confident hope 
that the cause of public education will be strengthened by the union now 
comijleted, and will receive at their hands the same faithful, intelligent, and 
disinterested service which it has hitherto received from their enlightened 
philanthropy and patriotism. 

William D. MrEPHY, Esq., commissioner from the Seventh 
Ward, seconded the resolutions of Mr. Benedict, and said : 

Mk. President : The present is an occasion upon which I cannot re- 
strain an expression of the feelings which press upon me for utterance. The 
cause of education, in view of its influence upon the moral and social wel- 
fare of man, is the greatest of all those enterprises which can claim or receive 



598 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

our attentiou. It decides whether mau shall be a savage or a civilized being, 
and gives rise to the distinctions between savage and civilized society. The 
years are comparatively but few since we had in our State, and, indeed, in 
our country, no system of public education. The Society which, by law, 
has now expired, and a portion of whose members are now coming into this 
board, was the pioneer in evolving and building up the great system of 
popular education in our city, iu the State of New York, and in the Union. 
The members of that Society have nobly won the lasting gratitude of the 
people of the State, and particularly of this city, for their faithful, untir- 
ing, and persevering labors in the enlightenment and training of so many 
of the people of our land. JVIany of those faithful men have gone through 
a life of honor and usefulness, and, after a life of labor, have gone home to 
the reward of righteousness. The gentlemen who have constituted the Pub- 
lic School Society have been more like fathers than trustees, for they have 
cherished the schools under their charge, and the great interests of public 
education with au affectionate care. 

Mr. President, we often hear of institutes, colleges, and universities 
which boast of their alumni, their graduates, and their labors. We hear of 
institutions which boast of the senators, the governors, and the honorable 
men who have been indebted to them as their Alma Mater. But here we 
have an institution which boasts, not of its tens or its hundreds, but may 
proudly boast of the thousands and hundreds of thousands who have 
enjoyed the blessings of education under its fostering care — thousands who 
adorn society, and labor honorably all over the country. The Public School 
Society has done much toward moulding the State of New York, and it has 
moulded and improved and elevated the educational system of the whole 
Union. It has enlightened thousands of minds, cheered thousands of 
hearts, and quickened the fires of patriotism now burning in every State 
of the Union. Even in the West Indies, this Society aided to kmdle the 
fires of liberty before the act of emancipation which made freemen of hun- 
dreds of thousands of slaves. Where are the men who have done these 
things ? Many of them are not here. But their successors are here. You 
cannot find a philanthropic institution in the city of New York where the 
members of the Public School Society do not perform a large share of the 
duty. Now, sir, we are told of the age of chivaliy, when men hazarded 
their all, and achieved heroic deeds in behalf of their wives, their children, 
or their fellow-men. But if those men were entitled to praise, what shall 
we say of the men who, for half a century, moulded the impressible minds 
of hundreds of thousands of children, leading them to usefulness and honor, 
and added a bright lustre to the beauty and glory of our free institutions 'i 
They have discharged their duties without faltering, swerving, or defalca- 
tion. There is no one of them who 

" Weighed his virtue in the well-poised scale, 
And took the yellow bribe." 

I confess, sir, language fails me to bear a fitting testimony to the services 
of these laborious and faithful men. I know not how to find words to ex- 
press the honor due to them. 



THE UNION COMPLETED. 599 

Mr. President, I very cordially approve all that is said in tlie resolutions. 
I venerate those men, whose hearts were warm, whose doctrines were pure, 
and whose lives have demonstrated, and now demonstrate, that their hearts, 
their labor, and their time were consecrated to the high and sacred cause 
of public education. 

Mr. Murphy was warmly responded to by the members of 
the Board of Education, who expressed their sympathy with the 
speaker- by a spontaneous applause, and tlic new members were 
formally qualified for their office. 

Thus terminated, forty-eight years after its inception, the 
career of the Public School Society, leaving its progress and its 
labors intimately associated with the advancement of all the 
great institutions of learning and of benevolence which were 
contemporaneous with its own existence, not less than of the city 
of which it was an ornament, and upon which it conferred bene- 
fits as great as they were invaluable and enduring. 



600 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOaETT. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THK ADMINISTRATION OF THE SOCIETY. 

The Lancasterian System — Social Problems — Elevation of the Masses — Educational 
Systems-^Progress and Development — The Public School Society — Visitation and 
Division of Labor — Economy — Teachers and Salaries — Monitors — Depository — 
Workshop — Rewards and Libraries — Evening Schools — Vagrancy, Agent, and 
Visitors — How Shall the Poor be Reached ? — Compulsory Measures — The Social 
Problems Unsolved — The Free and Pay Systems — Pay System Abandoned — Lot- 
teries — Corporal Punislmaent — Moral Power of the Teacher — Extract from the 
Manual — Music Introduced, but Discontinued — Moral and Religious Instruction — 
Sectarianism — The Position of the Society — Sunday Schools and their Influence — 
Religious and Moral Education Essential to the Welfare of Society — Concluding 
Observations. 

""^ The system of instruction adopted by the Society at its ori- 
gin, was that which had heen introduced to the notice of the 
British public by Joseph Lancaster, and which became known 
by his name, although, as a characteristic style, it was also 
called the Monitorial System of Instruction. The Lancasterian 
method was the basis, but was modified and improved materially 
in the schools of the Society. It was based upon two fundamen- 
tal propositions— emulation and economy. It aimed to excite 
the mental and iporal activities, by the distinction it bestowed 
upon the more industrious and advanced pupils, by their ap- 
pointment as nionitors ; while the economy of this kind of ser- 
vice was obvious, where a moderate cost was an essential element 
in the prosperity of a school, especially for the poor. There is 
a class of duties not very high, nor I'equiring a great degree of 
literary attainment, which may be performed by the higher 
grade of pupils, which, while the exercise of instruction becomes 
a decided benefit to themselves in many respects, renders unne- 
cessary the employment of adult and experienced teachers. 
Children learn easily from one another ; and the alphabet, sim- 
ple spelling, the primary rules of arithmetic, and other lessons 
are quickly taught and as well learned by the children as though 



DEVELOPMENT BY SDBSTITDTION. GOl 

tliey were pointed out by the finger of the philosopher. The 
dignity of the office of monitor, filled by rotation, in the several 
duties of the school-room, was an incentive to those old enough, 
while it seemed to invest the monitors with that degree of au- 
thority which made the discipline of a class of ten or twelve 
pupils as easy to them as to an adult teacher. 

To the ignorant, any progress whatever in the acquisition of 
knowledge is valuable, and hence the teachings of advanced 
pupils were of as much consequence to the learners as thoiigh 
they were under more competent control. Although it was an 
economical system, it did not cheapen knowledge, m an obnoxious 
sense ; it merely gave, in its least expensive presentation, and 
through the hands of equals, those first draughts from the foun- 
tains of knowledge which otherwise had been denied to the 
masses of the lowly. 

Although the questions of the social and moral elevation of 
the masses have engaged the attention of the most profound 
thinkers of the civilized world durmg the present century, it is a 
no less conspicuous fact that the condition of millions seems to 
serve as a barrier to their advancement. Notwithstanding all 
the expenditures made in this direction for asylums, schools, and 
gymnasiums, the underlying mass of the community suffers from 
intellectual jdarkness and moral death. 

There is a tendency in many institutions, after having passed 
through their early stage, and endowments increase, to enter 
upon a transition period, which carries them beyond the sphere 
for which they were originally designed. The ragged school 
becomes a school for children well clothed, and of the middle 
class. The rooms in which the poor learned their alphabets, 
become filled with the children of parents who desire them to 
read history, grammar, and algebra, if not higher branches. 
The teacher who first gathered his group of unwashed and reck- 
less urchins, gives place to the tutor who has his maps, his atlas- 
es, and his lexicons. This advance is not simply progress ; it is 
substitution. One class of pupils is replaced by another, and a 
new order of charities is required for the benefit of the humbler 
classes. This transition has taken place, to a large extent, in the 
city of New York. The schools of the Society, which were 
founded for the instruction of those " poor children who did not 
belong to, or were not provided for by, any religious society," 



602 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETi'. 

and were cousequcntly not provided for by any parochial school, 
after the lapse of about twenty years, became so numerous and 
respectable as to excite the attention of the public at large, as 
institutions for general instruction. It became an object of ear- 
nest care witli the Society to elevate the character of the schools 
in all their aspects. They were known as schools for " poor 
children," and many parents did not desire to send their chil- 
dren to schools which were distinctively for that class. To re- 
move these disadvantages, the system was developed by a long 
and cax'eful process. Additional endowments were secured, ex- 
perienced teachers took the place of many of the monitors, more 
costly apparatus was purchased, the grade of instruction was 
advanced, and the schools were offered to the public as institu- 
tions where the children of all classes might meet on common 
ground, and engage in the strife for honor and reward. 

But social laws cannot always be overborne, even by t]}e most 
enlightened and jihilanthropic adaptations. In proportion as the 
comfortably-clad and cleanly and jjolished pupil makes his ap- 
pearance, the opposite class shrink from the contact. Social 
affinities are too strong, and social distinctions are too marked. 
Contrasts are too plainly seen. Although theories of popular 
commingling may be very pretty exercises for the sycophant or 
the demagogue, facts and truths of a stern and impressive sig- 
nificance often laugh them to scorn, and the self-consciousness of 
the poor, the abject, and the desponding, lead them to avoid 
associations where the silent but not less powerful invidiousness 
of social contrasts is so clearly displayed. 

The progress of substitution, of which jnention has been 
made, has taken place to a large extent in the school system of 
New York. Instead of confining itself to the instruction of the 
children of the poor, the advances made raised them, in a meas- 
ure, above the level of thousands M'ho are too unfortunate and 
too dependent, while the means which would support several 
schools of lower grades were expended upon a single school. 
The necessity of securing a system by which children of all 
classes might meet on common ground, rendered it inevitable 
that the schools should be advanced to such a rank as very soon 
removed them beyond the level of thousands. The private pay 
schools became fewer in number in proportion to the pojiulation, 
and the number of uneducated children of the poor kept stead- 



DEVELOPMENT. 603 

ily increasing with the population. The statistics which were - 
viewed with so much interest and anxiety in 1825, when about 
ten thousand children were estimated to he without instruction, 
lost none of their significance in 1835, when it was reported that 
there were twenty thousmid, untaught wanderers to be found in 
the streets. Yet this mass grew, in the next decade, to thirty 
thousand, and, in 1855, the estimates reported to the Board of 
Education made the number of vagrant and unedaicated children 
i"each the appalling figure of sixty thousand, in a resident popu- 
lation of less than seven hundred and fifty thousand. 

While this vast increase was going on with the steady accre- 
tion of thousands annually added to the ranks of the children 
of the school age, the system rolled up the amount of its expen- 
ditures from the sum of $125,000, distributed by the Society, to 
the $300,000 apportioned under the care of the Board of Edii- 
cation ; and even this liberal fund was increased so rapidly, that 
the last-named census of children who were non-attendants at 
schools was contemporaneous with an outlay of over eigM hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the schools under the care of the Board 
of Education. The modest and yet substantial houses of the 
Public School Society were superseded by imposing edifices 
erected at great cost, as well for the buildings as for their ap- 
pointments. The grade of instruction had been so far advanced, 
that, in place of the elementary ti-aining of early years, the 
course comprised music, French, algebra, history, and other 
studies, in the grammar schools, with a collegiate course in the 
Free Academy, and schools for girls, in which select branches 
are taught which had hitherto been reserved for the higher class 
of institutes for young ladies. The system had been developed 
into a noble educational scheme, but it had changed its channel, 
and the stream flowed over a new bed, while it left a rapidly 
augmenting number of the poor stranded on the further shore, 
or drifting down to be lost in the eddies of ignorance and vice. 

As the outgrowth of circumstances which could not fail to 
arrest the attention of the civilian and the reformer, a new order 
of schools grew up, inspired by the same motives and covering 
substantially the same ground as that so nobly occupied by the 
founder of the Lancasterian system. They added, however, a 
more liberal supply of material aid, together with an industrial 
organization and scheme, which proved of eminent advantage. 



604 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

" Industrial Schools " have become the nursery where benevolent 
women of the first i-ank in society, as well as men of philanthro- 
py, fortune, and leai-ning, delight to devote mneh of their time 
in rescuing the poor and uneducated children from their almost 
hopeless condition. Fifty 3'ears of development had resulted in 
a more imperative demand for a simpler and better-adapted sys- 
tem of education for the children of the extreme poor. Tlie 
original work of the Society was similar to that of the Industrial 
Schools of the present decade. 

In the month of May, 1817, the treasurer of the Society 
acknowledged the i-eceipt of two hundred and fifty dollars irom 
the executor of Mrs. Mary McCrea, io he expended for the cloth- 
ing of the children. The schools, during their early oj)eration, 
often suffered in attendance fi-om the fact that the children were 
not able to find garments suitable for the season, and donations 
of clothing, shoes, hats, &c., were received by the trustees, for 
distribution among the pupils. The ladies who assisted in the 
care of the girls, taught sewing and needlework, and much labor 
of a useful kind was performed by the pupils in repairmg the 
clothing sent as donations, or making up the goods contributed 
for the purpose. In 1823, a regulation was adopted assignipg 
thi-ec afternoons in the week to sewing exercises. 



ADMINISTR.iTIOX. 

The system early adopted by the trustees, and continued 
with a fidelity and diligence which were remarkable, called for a 
constant supervision of the schools in all the departments of in- 
struction, discipline, and economy. When the number of schools 
had become sufficiently numerous, the committees on schools 
were changed in their organization, and the trustees were divided 
into " sections," M'ho had the special care of their respective 
schools during the year for which they were appointed. The 
records attest the uniform fidelity with wliich this duty was per- 
formed. The visits of the trustees to their several charges were 
made at all hours, and without any notice whatever to the teach- 
ers. The industry with which this jjart of the labor was per- 
formed may be estimated from the fact that, durmg the year 
ending May 1, 1840, the trustees made 11,844 visits to their 
schools, and, during the following year, no less than 14,112 visits 



ECONOMY. 605 

were recorded on the books. The controlling principle in the 
minds of these faithful officers, next to a sense of their duty as 
" men who must give an account," was a consciousness that they 
were invested with a gi-ave and momentous trust, which made 
them responsible to their fellow-citizens for the }ierformance of 
an honorable stewardship. Tlie men who composed the Society, 
with few, if any, exceptions, were not those who would abandon 
tlieir post of duty for trifling considerations, or yield passively to 
the storms of prejudice or of opposition which might be raised 
around them for the overthrow of their institution. With a high 
appreciation of the position they held as the founders of a sys- 
tem of popular instruction designed for the tens of thousands of 
youtli of a great metropolis, their endeavor was, with a single 
purpose, to extend, advance, and ennoble it with each passing 
year, in the hope that it would be rendered more massive and 
more enduring by successive labors, until it should rest upon a 
basis as broad as humanity «nd as lasting as time. 



A characteristic feature of the administration of the Society 
was the strict economy practised in all the expenditures, whether 
for teachers, buildings, fuel, or supplies. Tliere is an economy 
which is often a misnomer, and a blind and pernicious system of 
penurious calculation may often be productive of more evil than 
a too liberal outlay. The law universally applied to all the dis- 
bursements of the institution was that of a jealous caution over 
the expenditures. The question invariably asked was, how to 
secure the greatest result fi'ora a given amount of means, and 
how the benefits should be the most equally and widely distrib- 
uted. Limited in resources, and with a pressure of demand from 
every part of the city for the opportunities and facilities of ob- 
taining instruction, the closest calculation was necessary ; and, 
fortunately for the public interests, the school moneys were des- 
tined to pass thi'ougli the hands of men who felt that they were 
under a high obligation to use them with as much prudence as 
they would their own. No ambitious pretensions in order to 
gain popular clamor in their favor, were needed ; no contracts 
to be given to favorites who could exert a political influence ; no 
relatives or friends who could submit estimates which were to 



606 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

benefit tlie oiScers who superintended the work, ever seemed to 
offer inducements to the trustees to overstep the prudence of 
men wlio knew how to conduct their own affairs — many of 
whom, while they were enriching the city with their labors in 
the department of public instruction, were also quietly building 
their own fortunes by the very virtues and habits which enabled 
them to mould and develop the system which they adorned. 



In reviewing the history of the Society, the policy pui'sued 
toward its teachers may be condemned by many who do not suf- 
ficiently reflect upon its position and its resources. The grade, 
also, of the schools may, perhaps, be overlooked. Yet it will be 
seen that, when the resources permitted, the trustees were not 
insensible to the claims which competent teachers had upon their 
consideration. The qualifications of teachers, and their duties, 
are inevitably to be regarded, and a teacher of minor qualifica- 
tions cannot reasonably exj^ect the same compensation as one 
who finds all his scholarship and talent called into reqiiisitiou for 
the training of advanced pupils. A salary of $600 or $800, and 
rent, advanced to $800 or $900, or $1,000, was not by any means 
a contemptible sum, compared even with the larger salaries of 
the principals of Boston and New York schools at the present 
time.'' The amount ordered to be guaranteed to " a teacher from 
England completely competent to teach on the Lancasterian 
plan," was $800, his expenses to this country to be paid by the 
Society. Shepherd Johnson, a former monitor, was appointed 
teacher of No. 3, at its opening in 1818, at a salary of $500, 
which was mereased, during the same year, to $800. In 1820 
and 1821, the teachers of the schools made ajiplication for an 
advance of their rate of compensation, which was denied ; but, 
" in order to equalize the same, the salary of Shepherd Johnson 
was raised to $900." In 1822, Charles Picton, the English 
teacher who was duly accredited by the Society in England, and 
who had, by several years of faithful service, earned the respect 
and confidence of the Society and tlie public, had an allowance 
of $950. A committee on the question of salaries reported a 
scheme, at the same time, based upon the attendance, so that the 
compensation should be partly dependent upon the industry and 



TEACHEES. 607 

efficiency of the teachers themselves. The plan proposed that 
$2 per scholar should be paid for two hundred scholars or less ; 
over two hundred and under six hundred, $1.50 in addition ; over 
six hundred, $1 in addition. By this scale, a school of three 
hundred pupils would give the teacher a compensation of $550 ; 
five hundred pupils, $850, &c. The schools were thus rated : 

No. 1, 500 pupils, .... $850 salary. 

" 2, 400 " . . . . 700 " 

" 3, 600 " .... 1,000 " 

" 4, 600 " . . . . 1,000 " 

The salary of Eunice Dean, one of the female teachers, was 
raised from $250 to $300 per annum. 

In 1827, the by-laws were altered so as to limit the salaries to 
the following rates : 

Male teachers, per annum, .... $800 

" monitors general, per annum, . . . 200 

" assistants, " ... 100 

Female teachers, " ... 350 

" monitors general, " ... 100 

" assistants, " ... 50 

The office of assistant teacher had been abolished in 1817. 
The system was very materially changed and improved under 
the important law of 1833. Assistant teachers were to be ap- 
pointed, and two sections were adopted as a part of the new code 
of by-laws, fixing the rates of salaries as follows : 

The salary of the principal teacher in the Isoys' schools shall not exceed 
$1,000 ; that of the assistant teacher shall not exceed $600 ; that of the 
monitor general shall not exceed $300 ; that of the assistant monitor gen- 
eral shall not exceed $100. 

The salary of the mistress in the female school shall not exceed $400 ; 
that of the assistant shall not exceed $250 ; that of the monitors general 
shall not exceed $100 ; that of the assistant monitors general shall not 
exceed $50. 

The maximum for the assistant teachers was adopted at $500, 
but, in 1835, the teachers applied for an increase to $600, and it 
was made discretionary with the Executive Committee to in- 
crease the salary of assistants to that sum in cases where they 
deemed it was deserved. 



3 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

In 1836, the followiag tariff was adopted : 



Principal teachers, male department, not to exceed 


. 81,000 


Assistants, ...... 


700 


Passed monitor, ..... 


. 400 


First " ..... 


300 


Second "..... 


100 


Teachers in the female departments not to exceed . 


450 


Assistants, ..... 


300 


First monitor, ..... 


135 


Second " ..... 


100 


Teachers of primary departments not to exceed 


375 


Assistants, ..... 


160 


First monitor, ..... 


100 


Second " ..... 


75 


Teachers of primary schools not to exceed . 


200 


and $3.50 for each child over sixty, bat the additional 


number so allowed for not to exceed thirty. 




First monitors of primary schools not to excee<l 


100 



In 1842, the Board of Education was established, and the 
trustees of the ward schools were enabled to pay salaries much 
larger than those paid by the Society. This not only induced a 
spirit of competition and jealousy between the wards themselves, 
but between the teachers employed by the Society fuid those in 
the ward schools. It also tended materially to injure the public 
schools by the frequent withdrawal of long-experienced teachers 
from the service of the Society, attracted by the increased 
emoluments offered by the ward officers. This evil became so 
prominent, that, in 1851, a committee was appointed to report 
upon the whole subject, and Messrs. G. T. Trimble, A. P. Hal- 
sey, C. E. Pierson, L. W. Stevens, B. Ellis, "W". E. Vermilye, 
"W. H. Neilson, J. B. Collins, and John Davenport, were en- 
trusted with the consideration of all questions relating to the 
salaries of teachers. The committee reported a scale substan- 
tially the same, but providing that, after two years of acceptable 
service, the assistant male teachers should receive $750 per an- 
num. Tlic other recommendations of the report were of the 
same character, making a period of faithful- service of two or 
three yeai's the basis of au increase of compensation. This scale 
of salaries was continued during the existence of the Society. 




SAMUEL W, SETON 



609 



The success of the Lancasterian system being dependent, in a 
veiy great degree, upon tlie ability and character of the several 
monitors, who formed an indispensable part of tlie scheme, atten- 
tion was early given to the training and preparation of the most 
promising of the pupils, in order to prepare them for the special 
work of teaching according to the most approved methods of the 
plan of mutual instruction. While there was but one school in 
existence, the number of monitors was too small to warrant any 
specified classification for that purpose. But when the number 
was increased, and a considerable body of monitors was em- 
ployed in the schools, arrangements were made for their instruc- 
tion. Monitors had been indentured as " apprentices " to the 
Society, in all practicable cases, and were expected to remain 
until they were twenty-one years of age, and then to receive a 
certificate of qualification which should secure them positions in 
any city in the Union. 

The trustees of the Society believed that they were introduc- 
ing to the people of the United States a system of great value, 
specially adapted to the necessities of the underlying masses of 
society. Whatever, therefore, could increase its efficiency and 
multiply its powers, was adopted as fast as circumstances or 
means allowed. 

• The course adopted for the training of monitors is treated of 
in the chapter devoted to the high school and normal school, and 
only a brief summary will here be given of the general regula- 
tions adopted for their employment and supervision. 

The house in which the school was originally established hav- 
ing become unfit for longer use, a commodious building was erect- 
ed on Tryon Row, at the east side of the Park, since changed by 
the extension of Centre street. The school was opened for the 
reception of scholars en the 12th of December, 1809, soon after 
which William McAlpin and Shepherd Johnson, who subse- 
quently distinguished himself as the first teacher of No. 3, and 
more recently as a teacher of the New York High School, were 
indentured to the Society. This usage was continued in every 
practicable case. 

In 1818, a Committee on Monitors reported a form of inden- 
ture, which would probably have been adopted by the Society, 
30 



610 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

but a question arising as to the power of the board to liokl 
apprentices, the subject was recommitted, with power to memo- 
rialize tlie Legislature to grant the requisite authority. The 
monitors general had been boarded and clothed by the Society, 
being, at the time of their apprenticeship, inmates of the family 
of the teacher of the school in which they were employed. 
During the year 1819, a committee upon retrenchment recom- 
mended that the monitors be allowed a compensation of $100 
a 3'ear, and reside with their parents — a recommendation which 
was adopted by the board. Some objection arose against the 
change, and it was waived ; but, in 1820, a resolution was 
adopted reducing the allowance to the teacliers for the board of 
the monitors general to $2.50 per week. The expenses of each 
of these lads amounting to about $200 per annum, it was deemed 
a measure of economy to reduce the cost of such assistance, and, 
in 1821, resolutions were adopted reducing the salary to $100 
during the time of their service, and that steps be taken to secure 
positions for them as teachers of Lancasterian schools, the Secre- 
tary being directed to advertise in one newspaper in New York 
City, and one hi Albany, that three such teachers were prepared 
to enter upon their duties. The School Committees were di- 
rected to expend fifty cents per w'eek in securing the services of 
proper monitors. 

In 1826, Jotham Wilson, the monitor general of No. 5, 
applied for an increase of $100 to his salary. A committee was 
appointed to consider the general subject of salaries of moni- 
tors, who reported in favor of allowing $50 for the first year, 
and an annual addition of $50, until it should reach a maximum 
of $200 for males ; and $25 a year, with the annual addition of 
$25, until the maximum of $100 for female monitors should be 
reached. Tiie Executive Committee were charged witli discre- 
tionary exercise of power in the case. 

The Society had, however, been making material advances 
both in its own organization, its resources, and its system. Its 
schools were lai'ger, and eight capacious buildings were the 
evidences of its labors and its prosperity. In order to keep pace 
with these advantages, it was necessary to adopt a more enlarged 
and liberal policy -with the monitors general, who had become 
of prime importance to the system. This was very fully per- 
ceived by the Executive Committee, who applied, in May, 1827, 



THE DEPOSITORY. 



611 



for autliority to appoint two monitors general in eacli school at 
a maximnm of $300 for males, and $200 for females, to wliicli 
proposition the Board of Trustees gave an unanimous consent. 
In October of the same year, the by-laws were amended so as 
to limit the maximum to $200 for males, and $100 for females. 

The grades of salaries paid subsequently to this time have 
been already presented in the preceding sections. 

An increase of salaries of teachers and monitors naturally 
followed the improvements made in the schools and the system 
of instruction. The experience and improvement of the moni- 
tors particularly, as they continued at their posts and became 
more mature in age, all presented additional incentives to the 
trustees to retain them' in their own schools, and thus appro- 
priate the scholarship and experience acquired by the young 
teachers to the institution in which they had been trained. The 
advantages of this system were exhibited in many instances in 
which monitors subsequently attained high rank as teachers, 
some of whom have held, or now hold, honorable positions as 
professional and business men. The discipline submitted to by 
the pupil was developed in the proficiency of the monitor, whose 
habits and principles thus formed, became the basis of exalted 
and enduring character. 

THE DEPOSITORY. 

One of the measm-es adopted by the board, having in view 
the scrupulous and careful appropriation of the resources of the 
Society, was that of establishing a depository for the systematic 
supply of the schools with the text-books, stationery, and appa- 
ratus which they severally required. A system of supplies had 
been for many years in use, under the direction of the Supply 
Committee, but, in 1832, at the time of the remodelling of the 
Bcliool system, by-laws were adopted for the regular distribution 
of the supplies to the schools. The depository was kept at 
Public School Ko. 5, in Mott street, the purchases being made 
by the Supply Committee, and distributed on the proper war- 
rant by the agent. The depository was removed to tbe " Trus- 
tees' Hall " on the completion of that building, and the same 
system was adopted on a much enlarged scale by the Board of 
Education after the union of the two systems. 



612 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



THE WORKSHOP. 



In 1837, the number of schools had increased to seventeen, 
including two schools for colored children, beside a large num- 
ber of primary schools, many of ■which occupied hired premises. 
The amount of work and materials annually required to keep 
these buildings in repair, and to supply them with appropriate 
apparatus, was very considerable, and suggested, as a measure 
of eeononi}' not less than convenience, the employment of a 
master workma«, who should be known as the Superintendent 
of Repairs, and who should keep a shop for the s^jecial work 
of the schools. The measure was recommended by Samuel F. 
Mott, Treasurer, who introduced a resolution at a meeting of 
the board, February 3, 1837, referring the matter to the Prop- 
erty Committee. A report approving the plan was submitted 
at the August meeting following, and the committee were 
authorized to have a workshop erected on the rear of the school 
lot in Thompson street, and the Executive Committee was em- 
powered to employ a competent foreman, who should be- nomi- 
nated by the Property Committee. Amnon McVey was chosen 
to fill the position thus created, and the excellence of the ap- 
pointment has been fully proved by the faithful service of thirty 
years, during which an extraordinary amount of work has been 
done under his direction. Mr. McVey is the architect of the 
Hall of the Board of Education, and of many of the largest 
and most substantially built school-houses in the city. 

RE\yARDS, LIBRARIES, ETC. 

The influence of proper incentives upon the minds of the 
scholars was early recognized by the teachers and trustees of 
the Society, and systems of reward were adopted calculated to 
stimulate the pupils to diligence and punctuality. Tickets, to 
be distributed to the deserving, and returned when forfeited by 
misdemeanor, were furnished to the teacliers, who kept records 
of the merits and demerits, and at the end of the week the 
account was balanced, and the credit carried to the quarterly 
account of the pupil. At the end of the quarter, premiums 
were distributed to those who were entitled to receive them. 
These premiums consisted of books, knives, thimbles, scissors. 



EVENING SCHOOLS. 013 

balls, tops, marbles, or other articles suitable to the tastes or 
wants of the children. Difficulties attended the system, how- 
ever, and it was partially dispensed with and removed, and sub- 
sequently modified into a system of credits which entitled the 
pupils to receive premium certificates, which were redeemed at 
certain periods by books proportioned to the number and merit 
of the certificates. 

It was deemed to be of great importance to the schools to 
provide the children with a suitable class of books for reading 
at home, not only for the general effect which such books would 
have upon the children and the families they represented, but 
as a higher and more estimable reward for good character as 
pupils. As early as ISIS, a committee on the state of the 
schools submitted a report, recommending, among others, the 
following resolution : 

liesohed, That a committee be appointed to purchase and otherwise pro- 
cure suitable books of voyages, travels, history, &c., to the amount of fifty 
dollars for each school, for the purpose of forming libraries for the use of 
the scholars. That the committee prepare rules for the regulation of the 
libraries, and that such boys as may be selected by the master and approved 
by the School Committee on account of their progress in learning and good 
behavior, shall be admitted as members of the library, shall form a " Class 
OF Merit," and wear a badge. The number of this class in each school 
shall not exceed fifty. All catechisms, or other books on religion that con- 
tain sectarian principles, shall be excluded from the libraries, but such other 
religious books as may be approved by the Board of Trustees shall be ad- 
mitted. 

Nathan Comstock, Benjamin Marshall, and John R. Murray 
were appointed a Committee on Libraries, and they proceeded 
promptly with the discharge of their duties. Each school was 
provided with a library, and the several public schools subse- 
quently established by the Society were provided with libraries 
as a necessary part of their apparatus. 

Measures were adopted, in 1S37, to establish a teachers' 
library, but, from the absence of interest on the part of the 
teachers, it never became sufficiently extended or valuable to 
take rank as an auxiliaiy in the system. 

EVENIXG SCHOOLS. 
One of the agencies which were devised for the purpose of 
reaching the large class of children and youth who are debarred 



614 THE PUBLIC SCUOOL SOCIETY. 

from the opportunities of instraction in the day schools, was that 
of evening schools. The first mention of these schools, under 
the supervision of the Society, appears in the records for the 
year 1823, at which time a resolution was adopted, permitting 
the teachers to hold evening schools in their respective build- 
ings, on condition of furnishing their own fuel and lights, and 
that they should repair whatever injuries might occur to the 
buildings or furniture, and with the proviso that the insurance- 
would not thereby be rendered invalid. But this plan contem- 
plated a compensation for instruction, which was a perquisite to 
the teacher. The evening school system is intended to benefit 
the industrial, and not the vagrant classes, although many have 
attended the evening schools who should have been members of 
day schools. An evening school for colored pupils had been 
established many years before by the Manumission Societ}'. 

In 1832, an association of gentlemen, composed of W. D. 
Coit, J. H. Taylor, and others, applied for the use of School No. 
10, in Duane street, for a free evening school. Shortly after- 
ward, Floyd Smith and others apjjlied for permission to use 
School No. 3 for similar purposes. Messrs. Joseph Brewster, 
John II. Smith, Charles Durfee, and others applied for No. 5, 
and J. H. Taylor for a room in No. 8, for gratuitous instruction 
in the evening. These applications were granted, subject to the 
supervision of the several " sections" having the charge of those 
schools. 

At the close of 1832, a committee on a reoi-ganization of the 
system reported a chapter to be incorporated in the new by-laws, 
providing for the establishment of evening schools. The 2)lan 
was adopted in January, 1833, as a part of the new system, and 
a resolution was passed relative to teachers and monitors, as fol- 
lows : 

Besohed, That, in future engagements witli the male teachers, assistants, 
and monitors, it be made a condition that their time and services, if required 
by the Executive Committee, in attending the evening schools, shall be given 
without additional pay. 

The schools thus made a part of the scheme of instruction 
were opened in October, 1833, and continued until March of the 
following year. The number of pupils who attended the four 
schools was 1,245. The annual report states that, although they 
occasioned some inconvenience, and were more expensive than the 



VAGEANCY — VISITOE AND AGENT. C15 

day schools, tlie good effects were such as to give promise of per- 
manent utility. Tiie result of the labors of the year following 
was less encouraging, and, after an experiment of three or four 
years, they were abandoned. The Board of Education subse- 
quently adopted the system, under the care of an active commit- 
tee, and the result was neither doubtful nor insignifiennt. The 
failure of the attempt made by the Society was in consequence 
of the unwillingness of the teachers to work five months in the 
year, and sacrifice their evening repose, without extra compensa- 
tion ; although the terms of agreement with the teachers and 
monitors required them to perform these duties. 

VAGRANCY.— VISITOR AND AGENT. 

Eeference has been already made to the original object of the 
Free-School Societj^, which was, to provide instruction for the 
children of the poor, M'ho either had no coimection with any re- 
ligious persuasion, or disregarded ^t where it existed. The ten- 
dency among the members of this portion of the community is 
to recklessness, vice, and indolence. Vagrancy, beggary, and 
unlawful means of procuring a barely animal subsistence, form 
the summit of the low plane of their mental or moral sphere. 
To raise them from this condition is a work of humanity, as well 
as of Christianity, and the means by which it can be effected are 
ever worthy of consideration and experiment. 

Observation and inquiry exhibited the fact that thousands of 
children of the school age were vagrants, untaught and uncared- 
for by their parents, who exhibited no concern for the attendance 
of their offspring, and neglected to send them to school. To sup- 
ply this want in part, and to exert a direct and leading influence 
upon this class of the population, it was deemed advisable to 
employ a gentleman who should fill the post of " visitor." Act- 
ing in this capacity, his duties were, to visit the children and 
parents at their homes, and use all the influence M'hich could be 
brought to bear upon them to secure their attendance and ad- 
vancement. He was also to visit the families whose children 
were allowed to become vagrants, and induce the parents to send 
them to school. To this position, in the month of May, 1827, 
Mr. Samuel "Waddington Seton was appointed, who continued 
in the discharge of the same, or other responsible duties, during 



616 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the existence of the Society, and was afterward appointed, by 
the Board of Education, Assistant Superintendent of Common 
Schools. No more fitting selection could have been made, the 
temperament, sympathies, and habits of the gentleman chosen 
being eminently calculated to make him useful in that sphere. 
How well his duties were discliarged, and with what lasting- 
power over thousands wlio personally knew him, no wi'itten 
records will ever fully testify ; but they are inscribed in imper- 
ishable influences which have made bright and honorable many 
a son and daughter of destitution, who, but for him, would have 
trodden a dangerous and darkened path to the grave. 

In 1833, the ofiice of " visitor" was abolished, and the duties 
of Mr. Seton were defined by a new title, in which capacity he 
had a general business supervision as " agent," being chiefly the 
receipt and distribution of supplies. Mr. Seton was elected a 
trustee in the year 1823, and was called to fill the post assigned 
him, in consequence of his zeal, intelligence, and peculiar fitness 
for the work. He continued to hold his ofiice as trustee during 
the existence of the Socie^ty. 

The eflxirts made to counteract the evils of vagrancy and tru- 
ancy, proved however, at that time, as they have since, in a 
large degree abortive. These evils are not to be eradicated in a 
community like that of New York, even if the work be possible, 
by any other than the boldest and most pei'sistent as well as far- 
reaching means. In the twenty-fourth annual report (for 1829) 
it is remarked that 

The committee of the Common Council, from the result of the census of 
tlie schools, and the estimated population of the city, draw the appalling 
inference that there are 20,000 children between the ages of five and fifteen 
■who attend no school whatever ; and if one third be deducted from this 
number as having probably left school previous to the age of fifteen, and 
3,000 more for any possible error in the data on which the calculation is 
founded, we have still the enormous number of 10,000 who are growing up 
in entire ignorance. 

/ The twenty-seventh annual report (1832)/ making a reference 
to the fact that a committee had been sent to Boston to visit the 
schools of that city, alludes to vagrant children in the following 
language : 

Truantship in that city is deemed a criminal oftence in children, and 



VAGRANCY — VISITOR AND AGENT. 617 

those who cannot be reclaimed are taken from their parents by the police, 
and placed in an institution called the " School of Reformation," corre- 
sponding, in many respects, with our House of Refuge : from which they 
are bound out by the competent authority, without again returning to their 
parents. As a necessary consequence, the percentage of absentees, or the 
difference between the number of children on register and the actual attend- 
ance, is less in the Boston public schools than those of New York/This 
subject has, during the past as in former years, received the attention of the 
trustees, and will probably be brought before the nest board, in connection 
with the general subject of non-attendance at any school, which exists to 
such an alarming extent in this city. Efforts have been made by the pres- 
ent board to obtain, in some way, the active cooperation of the city govern- 
ment in applying a remedy to this extensive evil. Every political compact 
supposes a surrender of some individual rights for the general good. In a 
Government like ours, " founded on the principle (hat the only true sov- 
ereignty is the will of the people," universal education is acknowledged by 
all to be, not only of the first importance, but necessary to the permanency 
of our free institutions. If, then, persons are found so reckless of the best 
interests of their children, and so indifferent to the public good, as to with- 
hold from them that instruction without which they cannot beneficially dis- 
charge those civil and political duties which devolve on them in after-life, it 
becomes a serious and important question whether so much of the natural 
right of controlling their children may not be alienated as is necessary to 
qualify them for usefulness, and render them safe and consistent members of 
the political body. The expediency of such a measure would be confined 
pretty much — perhaps entirely — to large seaport towns, and, in its practical 
operation, would be found to affect but few native citizens. / 

^ The Executive Committee held the questions of vagrancy re- 
form under discussion during the year 1831, and, in November, 
a proposition was submitted from that committee, to the effect 
that application be made to the Corporation, and also to benevo- 
lent societies, that, in dispensing charities to the poor, it be made 
a condition of such relief that their children be sent to school. 
The proposition was referred back to the committee, with power. 
A memorial was accordingly addressed to the Common Council, 
inviting the attention of tliat bod}' to the condition of the va- 
grant children, and praying for the passage of some regulations 
which might abate the evil. The Common Council took the 
subject into consideration, and passed the following resolutions : 

Resolved, That the trustees of the Public School Society and the Com- 
missioners of the Almshouse be requested to make it known to parents and 
all persons, whether emigrants or otherwise, having children in charge capa- 
ble of receiving instruction, and being between the ages of five and twelve 



618 TUE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

years, that, unless said parents and persons do or shall send such children to 
some public or other daily school, for such time in each year as the trustees 
of the Public School Society may from time to time designate, that all such 
persons must consider tliemselves without the pale of public charities, and 
not entitled, in case of misfortune, to receive public favor. 

Resolved, That the trustees of the Public School Society and the Com- 
missioners of the Almshouse are hereby authorized to take such steps as 
they may deem expedient, from time to time, to give the necessary publicity 
to the preceding resolution ; and the Commissioners of the Almshouse are 
hereby requested to use such means as may be in their power and discretion 
to carry the same into efl'ect. 

Adopted by the Board of Aldermen, April 23, 1833. 

Adopted by the Board of Assistants, May 7, 1833. 

J. MoKTON, Clerk. 

These resolutions were laid before the trustees, rm;!, on mo- 
tion, twenty thousand copies, in a suitable handbill form, were 
ordered to be printed and circulatecL/^ 
y- In June, 1838, Joseph B. Collins offered the following reso- 
lution for adoption by the Executive Committee : / 

liesoUeJ, That a committee be appointed to prepare and submit to this 
committee a project of a plan which may lead, through the aid of our Com- 
mon Council and Legislature, to a more general attendance of the children 
of the i^oor and laboring classes at school, and prevent the multitudes now 
roaming through our streets from the continuance of a habit so destructive 
to good morals. 

The resolution was laid on the table, Init, in September, was 
taken up and adopted, and Joseph B. Collins, Charles Oakley, 
Gulian C. Verplanck, Samuel F. Mott, S. Allen, and Eobert C. 
Cornell, were appointed to report upon the olijects named. 

In December following, the propositions of the committee 
were laid before the board. The report is as follows : 

la contemplating the subject assigned to them, the committee early be- 
came sensible of the manifold difficulties of various character by which it is 
surrounded. So great, indeed, did they appear, as almost to preclude the 
hope of ever accomplishing any essential reform of the existing deplorable 
evils. Still they cannot but earnestly desire that the few and scanty lights 
their labors may throw upon the subject may lead, in time, through the con- 
tinuous efforts of the Public School Society, to the fulfilment of the design 
contemplated by the resolution. The chief obstacles to be overcome would 
seem to be of two classes — moral and physical. The moral embrace indif- 
ference and viciousness of both parents anel children ; the first arising, in 



VAGRANCY. 619 

part at least, to the parents, from themselves never having enjoyed the bene- 
fits of education ; the latter, from their intemperance and indolence. 

Among children, a disinclination to go to school grows out of a dislike 
of control on the one hand, and, on the other, from the allurements of places 
of amusement of various descriptions — theatres, circuses, gambling-houses, 
and dram-shops. 

The physical impediments result from the extreme poverty of parents, 
■who, for want of means, are unable to provide suitable clothing for their 
childreu to attend school in, or need, or conceive they need, their assistance 
in procuring a livelihood for the family. 

These impediments must be surmounted, before we can hope to attain 
the end in view. 

From the high character long enjoyed by the States of Connecticut and 
Massachusetts in regard to the universality of education among their citi- 
zens, the committee were naturally led to seek in the school systems and 
statistics of those States the object of their inquiry. They therefore opened 
a correspondence with a gentleman in each, of great practical experience, a 
thorough knowledge of the subject, and of untiring zeal in the cause of 
educatioi\, and of moral improvement among the people. From Connect! 
cut, the committee learned the existence of a statutory provision, applicabk 
in a degree to our wants, but, at the same time, were informed that it is 
rarely enforced in practice. An abstract (a) is annexed. Could enactments 
of a simihir character be acted upon in our community, doubtless great good 
would result ; but tbe committee are not sanguine in the belief that the 
morbidly excitable sensitiveness of our laboring classes would permit a scru- 
tiny of so inquisitorial a character. 

An approximation to it may, however, arise under the arrangements the 
committee may propose, connected with the establishment of a Farm or 
Manual Labor School, under the management of a society to be especially 
organized for this object. 

In closing the report the committee si;bmitted the following 
plans : 

1st. A committee of five members, to be designated the Committee on 
Neglected, Vagrant, and Unfortunate Children, shall be appointed by the 
Executive Committee, whose duty it shall be to examine and nominate to 
the Executive Committee three persons or more, to act as district visitors ; 
to instruct and receive reports from such visitors ; and, in general, to have 
a supervision of all matters arising under such visitations. The visitors 
shall receive a salary not exceeding $ per annum. 

The general duty of such visitors shall be to visit the districts around 
Public Schools No. 8, 1, 5, and 10, and the primaries connected therewith, 
look out for pupils, and encourage parents to enforce a more regular and 
general attendance of their children at school. The visitors may also be 
required to examine and ascertain what neighborhoods are now most in 
need of additional primary schools, which, with any other useful and rele- 



620 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

vant matters, they shall report to said committee, to be, in their discretion, 
brought before the Executive Committee. 

2d. The Public School Society shall endeavor to procure the aid of our 
city goverumeot in the following measures, viz. : 

1. A renewal and frequeut publication, by handbills and otherwise, of a 
resolution of the Common Council in 1832 (h). 

2. The 2)assage of a resolution calling upon all benevolent societies re- 
ceiving aid from our city treasury, to use efficient means to promote the 
sending to school of all the children of families assisted by them, and re- 
quiring a report of the means used, and extent of their efforts. 

To procure the enactment of a modification of the laws respecting edu- 
cation now existing in Connecticut, subjecting the stubborn and vicious 
minor to his being committed to a manual labor school or asylum, for moral 
reformation, to be established ; and, finally. 

The founding, under their own management, or that of a society to be 
organized for that purpose, of a manual labor school, in an insular situation, 
to which refractory children may be sent at the request of their parents, or 
under the law the passage of which they now ask for. 

The committee are aware that, among the class of children they hope to 
reach, there are not a few who are kept from school by insufficiency of suit- 
able clothing ; they trust, however, that, on the report of such cases by our 
visitors, means may be found, through our city authorities and benevolent 
societies, to remove this impediment (<■). 
y^ The ability of even young children to contribute in some degree to the 
support of the family, impresses upon the committee the belief that the 
establishment of departments in our primary schools to which infants of a 
very early age, say two and a half to three years, might be admitted, would 
be highly beneficial, and would meet with less objection than any other from 
the most indificrent jjarent, since, at so young a period, they may be said to 
be only a burden to their parents, incapable of earning or picking up any 
thing; and, on the other hand, they are yet in more controllable moral con- 
dition than even at a comparatively but little farther advanced period of 
life. Parents would soon participate in the benefits of the discipline of our 
schools in the improved docility of their children, y; . . 

(a.) Laws of Connecticut. — Parents and guardians required by statute to 
have their children taught to read, write, and cipher as far as the four rules 
of arithmetic. Selectmen shall inspect the conduct of the heads of families, 
and, if any neglect compliance with the above, may admonish them ; which, 
if they neglect, they shall take charge of, and bind out, children of such 
parents. When children, minors, are stubborn, and refuse to obey the requi- 
sition of their parents, they may be committed to the county jail for thirty 
days. 

(&.) See resolutions of Common Council, ante, page 618. 

(c.) Sevised Statutes o/ Nfw Yorl. Beggars and Vagbahts. — Any child 
found begging may, on proof, be committed to any place provided for the 
support of the poor ; there to be detained, employed, and instructed in use- 



VAGRANCY. 621 

fill labor, until discharged by the Superintendent of the Poor, or bound out 
by the Commissioners of the Almshouse. 

The report was adopted, and referred to the Executive Com- 
mittee for their action and the memorial to the Common Coun- 
cil was ordered to be engrossed and transmitted to that body. 
Owing to the overshadowing importance of the controversies which 
arose soon afterward, and the compreliensiveness of the plans 
themselves, the committee were prevented from the accomplish- 
ment of any mateiial work as contemplated by the scheme, and 
it is therefore unnecessary to prolong the review of the proceed- 
ings in tliis important project any furtherthan to give the language 
o^he thirty-filth annual re])ort (1840j(fin which the result is thus 
presented : 

Originally instituted for the exclusive benefit of the neglected jjoor, it 
has ever been a subject of prominent interest with the Board of Trustees to 
promote, by such means as lay within their power, the attendance of the 
children of that class at their schoolsj/ In the early years of the institution, 
the duty of visiting parents was occasionally enjoined upon the trustees ; 
subsequently, it was more especially performed by a competent and faithful 
agent, who devoted almost his entire time to this object. The rapid in- 
crease of the schools since their being thrown open to all classes having 
required the daily attention of the agent, the duty of visiting parents has 
ceased to be a distinct portion of his engagements. It was hoped that the 
great increase in the number, and the notoriety of the schools, would suffi- 
ciently attract the attention of parents, and render a special visitation any 
longer unnecessary. It soon, however, became evident that the criminal 
indifference of many parents to the welfare of their children was such, that 
some extraordinary effort was necessary to bring their offspring within our 
walls. Various expedients were devised, with very limited success. Per- 
sonal application, aided by kind entreaty, and accompanied by a judicious 
and well-timed explanation of the beneiits of early culture, offering the most 
promising means of accomplishing the object aimed at, the trustees, at the 
commencement of the past year, engaged the services of several intelligent 
and faithful visitors for that purpose ; and it is gratifying to the board to 
be able to state that, although the success of the visitors has fallen short of 
the desired results, yet that they have proljably been the means of inducing 
some hundreds of children to attend our schools, who, but for their agency, 
would have remained mere vagrants in our streets. The trustees have felt 
so far encouraged by the trial, as to reengage the services of the visitors, as 
well as to add to their number. 

The trustees regret that their applications to the Corporation for com- 
pulsory enactments, which might convert the poor vagrant children who 
throng our streets and wharves into happy public school scholars, have been 



622 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

unsuccessful ; but they indulge a hope that though, at first view, such meas- 
ures may appear to be adverse to our political institutions, an examination 
of the subject will show that the good of the community requires that exer- 
cise of authority, and that it will yet be deemed expedient, y"^ 

Whatever of partial and temporary advantage may have 
arisen from the measures adopted by the Society, the fact still 
remained evident, at the close of every year, that the number of 
neglected and uninstructed children was augmenting in a ratio 
equal to that of the population of the city, if, indeed, it did not 
exceed it. In tlie face of certain social laws and proclivities, 
embarrassing and difficult to the philosopher, and alarming to 
the philanthropist and the civilian, all compulsory and reforma- 
tory measures seem to be defied by this progression in juvenile 
delinquency and immorality. It must be left tor perhaps an- 
other age to develop the effective remedy. 

In addition to the labors of the agent and visitor of the Soci- 
ety, the trustees called into requ.isition the aid of the visitors of 
the American Tract Society, vrliose regular monthly visits, in the 
distribution of tracts, were calculated to exert a valuable influ- 
ence. Many pai-ents were, by these friendly advisors, made 
acquainted with the character of the schools ; and although the 
results fell far short of the necessities of the case, many pupils 
were added to the rolls.^ 

FREE AND PAY SYSTEMS. 

Great systems of popular education require long periods for 
their development, and the lapse of time and variations of cir- 
cinnstauces call for experiments which are sometimes followed 
by important results. The establishment of free schools in the 
city of New York was itself experimental, and the benefits 
which were successively reaped every year strengthened the zeal 
and hopes of its friends. Progress, therefore, became early the 
aim of the Society, and it was never lost or forgotten. 

The schools grew so much in the public esteem, and, their 
numbers having increased by the addition of several large and 
substantial buildings', it became an object of desire with many, 
respectable citizens that their children should enjoy the advan- 
tages of these institutions. But an impediment existed in the 
fact that they were " free " or " charity " schools — a distinction 



FREE AND PAY SYSTEMS. 623 

that implied a condition of dependence and necessity on the part 
of those who were instructed in them. This was obnoxious to 
mauy who were satisfied with the schools, yet felt that there was 
a caste classification wliich would, in a measure, degrade their 
social position. To remove this difficulty, it was proposed that 
such regulations should be made as would secure the admission 
of both pay and free scholars. The subject was first introduced 
at a meeting of the Board of Trustees h.eld July 4, 1S23. The 
following minute records the action in reference to this change 
of system : 

■^ It being stated that some dissatisfaction exists among the middle classes 
of our citizens on account of their not partaking of the benefit of the com- 
mon school fund, and on a suggestion that advantage would arise from our 
opening our schools for the children of all ranks, and receiving a small com- 
pensation for their education, the subject was refened to the consideration 
of Isaac Collins, H. Ketchurn, Robert F. Mott, R. C. Cornell, and John R. 
Hurd. 

The comuiittee submitted a report in January following, but 
the change proposed was deemed of so much importance, that it 
was laid on the table, to be considered after a month's notice to 
that eff"eet. At the same time, tlie exciting questions growing 
out of the proceedings i-elative to the Baptist schools were pend- 
ing, and the attention of the Society was called to the legislation 
necessary to remedy the evils of the law giving special privileges 
to those schools. That law having been amended, and a power- 
ful and successful appeal having been made to the Legislature 
and Corporation of the city, the amplified resources placed at the 
disposal of the Society enabled them to project great improve- 
ments, as well as an expansion of their system. y/ 

The committee to wliich the consideration and protection of 
the interests of the Society had been committed in reference to 
the said law, were also instructed to report a jdan for a reorgani- 
zation of tlie system ; and, after a careful examination, a report 
was submitted which covered the wliole grouud. It was adopt- 
ed, and its recommendations were, with little modification, em- 
braced in the new scheme ; and, being an exposition of practical 
plans and results, as well as the groundwork ibr the experiment 
of the pay system, the reader is referred to Chapter IV., where 
it may be found. 

On the passage of the law of 1826, a committee of five was 



624 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

appointed to revise the by-laws of the Society, in conforruity 
with the i-ecent enactment. The committee made a report, in 
whicli they recommended a scale of tuition fees, as follows : For 
tnition in the 1st, 2d, and 3d classes, 25 cents per quarter ; for 
the 4th, 5th, and 6th classes, 50 cents per quarter ; for the 7th, 
8th, and 9th classes, $1 per quarter ; and for the higher studies, 
$2 per quarter. Grouped by the studies pursued in the schools, 
the first class were taught the alphabet, spelling, and writing on 
slates, 25 cents ; the second grade continued these, with reading 
and arithmetical tables ; the third grade continued the latter 
studies, with writing on paper, and detinitions ; while the fourth, 
or highest grade, continued these, with the addition of grammar, 
geography, and the use of maps and globes./T^n November of 
the same year. Alderman Cowdrey introduced a resolution for 
the appointment of a committee to ascertain whether any reduc- 
tion in the number of scholars had taken place since the intro- 
duction of the pay system, and, if so, the causes and the best 
means for their removal. Najah Taylor, Joseph Grinnell, and 
Samuel Cowdrey were appointed as tiiat committee. 

The report was submitted in February, 1827, from which it 
appeared that a considerable decrease had taken place in the 
number of pupils at the various schools. On April 30, 1826, the 
number of pupils was 3,457, and on the 1st of November, 2,999, 
making a decrease of 458. This difl'crence was becoming great- 
er at the time of the report. The tuition fee was assigned as an 
important cause of the decline, which, together with the fact that 
several large church schools were in operation, which opened 
their doors to all classes, without distinction, on the free system, 
had a tendency to withdraw scholars from the Society. The 
figures are given as follows : 









April 30. 
No, ot Pupils. 


Novcmbfr 1. 






School. 




Pay Scholars. 


Free. 


Total. 


No. 


1, 




415 


452 


40 


492 


No. 


3 


Boys, 


396 


245 


116 


861 






Girls, 


319 


210 


95 


395 


No. 


3, 


Boys, 


515 


293 


114 


407 






Girls, 


220 


187 


97 


284 


No. 


4, 


Boys, 


423 


176 


128 


304 






Girls, 


324 


177 


112 


289 


No. 


5, 


Boys, 


506 


320 


59 


379 






Girls, 


239 


123 


55 


178 



2,183 816 2,999 



FKEE AND PAT SYSTEMS. 625 

This result exhibited a loss of 458 in six months. / 
Anotlier reason assigned by the committee was the introduc- 
tion of the advanced studies, at $2 per quarter, which were par- 
sued by only a few in each school. In the girls' department of 
No. 3, only one j^upil was entered at $2 per quarter. The sys- 
tem of separate classification for these pupils acted as a draw- 
back on the other portions of the schools, end the fees received 
by no means met the expenses. The result, as stated in the 
report, showed that there was a great decrease in the number of 
high-grade scholars, and that, during the fii'st quarter, one hun- 
dred and seven had paid $2 ; during the second quarter, thirty- 
nine ; and during the third quarter, only thirteen remained in 
all the schools at that price. The repoi-t observes : 

Your committee believe that tlie true and legitimate system of our pub- 
lic schools would be, to open our doors to all classes of children, free of any 
expense ; and the only branches that should be taught in them, should be 
such as have before been designated, viz. : reading, spelling, writing, and 
arithmetic. 

The committee recommended that the maximum of the tui- 
tion fees be reduced to $1 per quarter, and that the higher 
branches be considered as the reward of merit in those cases 
where taught. 

The several recommendations of tlie committee were consid- 
ered from time to time, and then laid on the table for the action 
of the new Board of Trustees. But no action was had upon the 
matter, and the system, as originated, was destined to have a 
longer experiment. 

During the following year (1828), the subject was renewed, 
upon a report being made from the Executive Committee, in 
which it was strongly urged that the schools should be made free 
to all classes, and be so far advanced in their grade as to invite 
children of the more favored ranks in society, and, by an addi- 
tion to the revenues of the common school system, the Society 
would be warranted in the expenditures which such an expan- 
sion would require. The committee recommended the publica- 
tion of an address to the people, and the circulation of petitions 
for the assessment of half a mill on the dollar for common school 
purposes. The resolutions were adopted, and Robert Sedgwick, 
Joseph B. Collins, and James I. Eoosevelt, Jr., were appointed 
40 



G26 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the committee. At a subsequent meeting, R. C. Cornell, S. 
Cowdrey, and Lindley Murray were added to the number. 

In November, 1828, the returns fi'om the several schools hav- 
ing shown a very great decrease in the amount of tuition fees, 
the Finance Committee was directed to report upon the facts. 

In August, 1829, the committee submitted a report setting 
forth the operation of the system. Many parents paid, at first, 
as an entrance fee, but without intending to continue. Others 
insisted on being recorded as pay scholars, promising to pay at 
some futiu'e time, but neglected to fulfil the engagement. Many 
were unable, and a large class insisted on the fact that the schools 
were supported by the public, and that they had a right to the 
advantages without charge, even when they were able. The 
committee recommended a strict adherence to the by-laws in 
reference to the tuition fees. The report was laid on the table. 

In 1831, the Treasurer, Samuel F. Mott, called the attention 
of the board to the diminution in the fees from pupils, and the 
matter was referred to the Executive Committee. The report 
which was made by the committee in the month of May, con- 
firmed the previous experience, and exhibited the fact that 
■parents would enter their children as pay scholars, and, having 
fallen in arrears for two or three quarters, would send their chil- 
dren to other schools, to repeat the same process. Tiie report 
recommended a maximum of $1 per quarter, and the payment 
to be entirely optional with the parents. The by-laws were 
altered in accoi'dance with the suggestions of the committee, 
and an experiment of the voluntary system of payment was 
entered upon.^The result is seen in the report of the Treasurer 
for the quarter ending February 1st, 1832, in which the amount 
received for tuition fees was stated to be $103.91. The recent 
enactments of the Legislature, by which the income of the 
Society was much increased, together with the fact that the 
pay system was deemed by some to be a compulsory method of 
making the people pay twice for their schools, combined with 
tlie pittance from that source, induced the Society to adopt the 
recommendation of the Treasurer, and it was abolished by a 
resolution of the board on the 3d of February, 1832, after a 
trial of five years, during which every efibrt had been made to 
remove objection, hold out inducements, and make tlie system- 
contribute to inspire self-respect and self-reliance in tlie minds 



L0TTEEIE8. 627 

of those who were chiefly benefitted by the echools. The 
numerous cases of deception, and the excuses of every kind 
which were resorted to in order to evade payment, and the ex- 
pedients to obtain a place on the register as pay pupils, without 
any intention of complying with the rules, were very mortifying 
to the Society, who found so general a disregard of fine moral 
sense among the people. It was, therefore, a source of relief to 
be able to abolish the system, under the prosperous condition in 
which the institution had been placed by the liberal endowment 
of the Legislature.^^ 

LOTTERIES. 

On the 13th of April, 1819, the Legislature of the State 
passed a law, authorizing the Mayor of the city of New York 
to grant licenses to dealers in lottery tickets, and declaring it 
illegal to carry on the sale of tickets in lotteries, and other simi- 
lar games of hazard, without such authority. The sum to be 
paid for licenses was $500 annually, and, in case of violation of 
the statute, the penalty was fixed at $2,500 in certain cases, 
and, at the discretion of the court, not to exceed $2,000 for 
other infractions of the law. The license tax was to be equally 
divided between the Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf 
and Dumb, and the Free School Society. The funds of the 
Society were increased by the revenue thus obtained, the amount 
received for 1820 being $1,000. The bvisiness of vending lottery 
tickets was, however, much extended subsequently to this period, 
so that, in 1825, the revenue derived from this source amounted 
to $-2,625, and, in 1826, to $3,625. Tlie following year it reached 
$3,875. A question having arisen, during the year 1826, as to 
the constitutionality of the law respecting lotteries, Hon. Petee 
A. Jay gave his opinion, fully sustaining the law, and the power 
of the Society to recover penalties. On the reading of this 
opinion in the meeting of the board, the Executive Committee 
were directed to take such steps in reference to violations of the 
statute as they deemed advisable. 

In February, 1832, the President of the Institution for the 
Deaf and Dumb communicated to the Board of Trustees the 
fact that the directors of that institution had decided to make 
an application to the Legislature for the appropriation of the 



628 THE POBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

whole of the moneys received from the sale of licenses to lottery 
dealers, and expressing the hope that no opposition to the meas- 
ure would be made by tlie Society. The matter was referred to 
a committee, consisting of J. II. Taylor, W. W. Chester, and 
James I. Roosevelt, Jr., who had an interview with the officers 
of the institution. They were directed by the resolution mak- 
ing their appointment, to memorialize the Legislature in oppo- 
sition to the application, but after a full examination of the 
question, and after conferences with the directors, the committee 
reported a resolution declaring it inexpedient to interfere with 
the application. The matter was thus allowed to go by consent 
to the Legislature, and the law was amended in compliance with 
the application of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, and 
so continued until the whole system was overthrown. 

A leading motive for this concurrence in the change arose 
from the fact that there was an apparent inconsistency between 
the objects of the Society and the revenues from gambling and 
other vicious pursuits. This feature was always oifensive to the 
Society, and although the money thus raised was appropriated 
to a noble moral use, the sanction thus given to a demoralizing 
system by the enjoyment and expenditure of its revenues was 
felt to be onerous when viewed in a strictly moral aspect. The 
Society was, therefore, willing to yield that portion of income 
with little reluctance, and leave the emoluments of vice to be 
disbursed through other channels. The following language, 
contained in the twenty-second annual report (1827), expresses 
these views with distinctness and force, long enough anterior to 
the relinquishment of the moneys to acquit the Society of any 
charge of entertaining a sense of morality when it could not 
control the circumstances : 

The subject of lotteries, in wbicli, through the medium of moneys re- 
ceived for licenses to sell tickets, they are directly interested, has engaged 
much of the serious attention of the trustees. Fully convinced of, and 
deeply regretting the great and increasing evils incident to, this legalized 
mode of gambling, they have deemed it their incumbent duty to endeavor 
to moderate and lessen the mischiefs of this pernicious system, and accord- 
ingly directed a committee to jirosccute offenders against the provisions of 
the old law, which prohibited the selling of tickets in foreign lotteries. 
They also presented a memorial to the Legislature, requesting, if they could 
not constitutionally abolish the whole system, that such further regulations 
might be adopted as appeared necessary for the limitation and curtailment 



COEPOEAL PUNISHMENT. 629 

of the evil. The board exceedingly regret that an act on this subject, 
which had passed both branches of the Legislature by large majorities, was 
negatived by the Executive on the ground of its being unconstitutional. 
Another bill was, however, subsequently introduced, passed, and has be- 
come a law, and which, it is hoped, will prove efficacious iu preventing that 
branch of the evil arising from the sale of tickets in lotteries not authorized 
by this State. 

CORPORAL PUXISHMEXT. 

To repress every tbing which had a tendency to encourage 
or foster a spirit of violence, was one of the prime objects of 
the moral government of the schools, and it was believed by the 
managers that this could be effected in no more efficient manner 
than in the regulations with regard to corporal punishment. In 
1823, a resolution was adoj^ted that teachers dispense entirely 
with the \ise of the rod ; but should persuasion and admonition 
fail, then the seliolars might be corrected by the use of a small 
leather strap, applied to the hand, and if this should fail, after 
suitable trial, the delinquent should be discharged from the 
school by proclamation. 

Several cases of alleged undue severity of punishment hav- 
ing occurred, the teachers were invited to be present at a meet- 
ing of the Board of Trustees, in September, 1825, at which time 
they were admonished that the earnest desire of the Society 
would be gratified by the entire abolition of bodily punishment, 
and the exclusive use of moral means. Where, however, delin- 
quents remained insensible to such admonitions, the moderate 
use of the strap might be resorted to, but only when absolutely 
necessary. 

In 1838, Mr. C. B. Slierman, an assistant teacher in No. 8, 
applied to the Executive Committee for authority to punish the 
delinquents in his department — a discretionary exercise not per- 
mitted to assistants. The application was referred to a com- 
mittee, who reported that only principals should be allowed to 
use corporal punishment, and that assistants ought never to do 
60, except in the absence of the principal, at which times the 
assistant was necessarily invested with the powers of the supe- 
rior teacher. Mr. Brinsmade offered two resolutions — the first, 
to grant a premium of one hundred dollars to a teacher who 
should first show that a school can be successfully conducted 



630 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

without corporal punishment ; the second resolution was in 
favor of granting an additional premium of two hundred dollars 
to the teacher who should conduct a school six months by moral 
means, without any corporal or degrading punishment. The 
resolutions and report were recommitted, but the final recom- 
mendations confirmed the previous action of the board, in re- 
stricting the right to punish to the principals. No premium 
was ever ofiered to the teachers as contemplated by the resolu- 
tions of Mr. Brinsmade. 

A committee was appointed, in 18-14, to report on the con- 
dition and operations of the schools, and one of the topics which 
engaged the attention of the committee was that of punish- 
ments. The report on this subject recommended the following 
resolution, which was adopted : 

Hereafter no corporal punishment, by blows or otherwise, shall be in- 
flicted on any pupil or pupils in presence of the school, or during school 
hours, but after the school is dismissed, and then in the presence of the 
assistant or monitors, or both, with such number of large scholars as may 
be necessary for witnesses in case of complaint of any aggrieved party ; 
and in no case shall such punishment be inflicted until after proper admo- 
nition, parental in its character, be given, with a view of convincing the 
delinquents of the impropriety of their conduct, and the necessity of re- 
formation ; and no strijjes or blows to be applied to the head, or any part 
of the body other than the back near the shoulders. 

The resolution granting a pecuniary reward to such teachers 
as should conduct their schools satisfactorily to the trustees, 
without the use of coi'poral punishment, having been rejected, 
a resolution was adopted that a certificate, signed by the Presi- 
dent and Secretarj', setting forth the facts, should be given to 
any teacher who should conduct his or her school twelve months 

/ithout using the rod or strap. 
The jjredominant idea of the Society was that of peace, and 
any thing that tended to call into exercise the animal passions, 
either by violence of language, gesture, or discif)line, was dis- 
countenanced as being peculiarly hostile to the higher moral 
infiuence which it was a special object to exert. /The sympathy 
of the moral feelings makes us imitative, and the passional 
being so impulsive and spontaneous in their exhibitions, the true 
secret of a teacher's success in moral government was deemed to 
lie in the power of self-control. Irritation of feeling is quickly 



COKPORAL PUNISHMENT. 631 

betrayed in a teacher, and the frequent resort to bodily chas- 
tisement tends to blunt the sensibility of the teacher himself. 
Hence, all tendency to ^mnecessary parade or clamor in govern- 
ment, even by the giving of the usual orders of the school in a 
loud tone of voice, was considered objectionable. One sentence 
of the manual is worthy of being printed in letters of gold, as 
a rule for teachers, and should be indelibly written on the mind 
of every preceptor of youth : 

" A SILENT TEACHER MAKES A SILENT SCHOOL." 

A paragraph from the manual of the public schools will 
serve to show the solicitude with whicli the mpral uses of disci- 
pline were regarded, as also the suggestions offered for the gov- 
ernment of the teachers : 

la the regular orders of command, the teacher's voice should seldom, or 
never, be heard. Approbation and displeasure, too, may very often be as 
well expressed by looks and gestures as by words ; and sometimes better. 
Such is the language of nature, and the medium of the first moral lessons 
of infancy — and therefore well understood. In giving orders, signs are 
always preferable to words. A gentle tap on the desk with the forefinger, 
a single and slight sound of the bell, or a slight clap of the hands, will 
sooner command and fix attention than noise or blustering. Gentle sounds 
act by sympathy on the nervous system, and enforce silence and order when 
once the school is accustomed to such a mode of discipline. But noise is 
never effectually prevented by noise ; or, if thus repressed, it is only for the 
moment, and it returns, as a sjjring recoils on the removal of a weight. " A 
silent teacher makes a silent school." 

Thus, by the proper exercise of firmness and decision, with the constant 
practice of vigilance and mildness, the alternative of corporal punishment 
may be very much, if not altogether avoided. Yet every precaution should 
betaken, lest resort'be had to objectionable substitutes for the use of the 
rod ; some of which may be equally painful to the corporeal system — some- 
times more injurious, and even dangerous, and not unfrequently hurtful from 
their moral efi'ects — and, therefore, some of them certainly improper to be 
used. The sustaining of wearisome burdens, unnatural and long-continued 
attitudes of restraint, public exposures, and badges of disgrace, are of this 
class of punishments. Some of these, with judicious modifications of the 
usual methods by which they are practised, and having due regard to their 
moral effects on the delinquent, may be used, but only under careful limita- 
tions, and with great circumspection and judgment ; for it requires a skilful, 
discreet, and. conscientious teacher to use them safely and to advantage. 
It is ever to be borne in mind that they are best suited to little children, 
and to boys ; and not adapted to the discipline of girls — in whom a nice 
sense of shame, and a delicate sensibility to reputation, should be carefully 



632 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

cherished. With them, such punishments tend to blunt those feelings which 
it is the teacher's duty most carefully to cultivate as among the best safe- 
guards to female character. Can punishments of this class, then, be safely 
ventured upon, without extreme vigilance on the part of the teacher ? How 
hazardous in its moral effects to leave a child publicly exposed, and liable 
to be neglected by the teacher, till the current of feeling begins to turn ! 
Observe, that this ebbing again of the passions must be nicely watched. 
It is only by a careful attention to this critical point, that punishment by 
public exposure can become, as it sometimes does, a powerful means of dis- 
cipline, especially in the training of little children. But they become worse 
tlian useless, if not thus rightly used ; for, be it remembered, that, while the 
teacher may be here and there, the tide of feeling may change, and the first 
surge of its backward course excite pride, anger, and malevolence. And, 
though this should be but in a small degree, every moment's continuance 
of the pimishmeut or exposure beyond the salutary point, inflicts a moral 
injury that sur[)asses tenfold any possible good which the teacher can hope 
to derive from it as a means of discipline. Ifc also renders the punishment 
altogether ineffectual for another occasion, thereby throwing the teacher 
into a new perplexity for other substitutes for corporal punishment. It is 
therefore plain, that, in resorting to such methods of discipline, untiring 
vigilance alone is to be deijended upon to give it any success. Now, there 
is only one answer to be made to an inquiry that will here arise — What, 
then, is to he done? It is the old, the oft-repeated adage, " An ounce of pre- 
vention is worth a pound of cure." Set mjilance, then, as the vanguard ; 
send it out far and wide, backed and strengthened by the firm commands 
of decision, while a spirit of kindness shall strengthen all the forces brought 
into the discipline of a school, and how many embarrassments, difficulties, 
and j)erplexities will flee away before the faithful and skilful teacher ! 



/ The course of instruction adopted in the schools was for 
many years rudimentaiy, and it was only after the increase of 
means, and the advance in tlie grade of the schools by long ex- 
perience, that it was deemed opportune to introduce higher 
studies. But the progress was steadily onward toward perfec- 
tion of system and of instruction. In the course of studies, no 
time was appropriated to musical exercises. The primary or 
infant schools depended more or less upon singing lively school 
songs, and moral lessons thus taught were fully appreciated. 
But this method of refining the taste, as well as of cultivating 
the mind and heart of the older pupils, had not been recognized 
as expedient or useful. It was regarded as beiug merely an 
accomplishment, and to this consideration was added the con- 



MUSIC. 633 

spicuous fact that the time spent in school by a majority of the 
pupils, before being pressed into industrial employments, was 
too short to be expended in any other pursuit than the acquisi- 
tion of knowledge. It is true, moreover, tliat an influential 
portion of the trustees, as well as of the members of the So- 
ciety, was composed of members of the Society of Friends, who 
do not use music in their public worship, and among whom it 
is not deemed essential. Whetlier this fact influenced in anj' 
measure the policy of the Society, may be more a matter of 
surmise than of just conclusion or of evidence. 

The example and practice of schools in Europe, particularly 
those of the continent, at the head of which stood the German 
institutions, was suggestive of a similar experiment in the schools 
of New York. Gentlemen of professional ability and zeal in 
the cause of education, who felt the importance of the intro- 
duction of music into the public schools, resolved to take the 
initiative in the matter, and make an experiment for the pur- 
pose of testing its utility. 

Mr. Daeius E. Jones commenced a course of lessons in 
School No. 10, and after they had been continued for some time 
with evident advantage, the "section" or committee for that 
school reported the case to the board. The subject was referred 
to a committee, consisting of Messrs. Theodore Dwight, Jr., J. 
I. Ptoosevelt, Jr., John Morrison, S. B. Childs, S. F. Mott, J. 
R. Ilurd, and A. K. Lawrence. After the expu-ation of several 
months, the committee reported, in August, 1836, as follows : 

Your committee, as soon after their appointment as was found con- 
venient, was called together two or three times, at Public School-house No. 
10, to hear the performances of the children in the two upper schools, who 
had been gratuitously taught music by Mr. Jones, It was evident that they 
had made great progress in an acquaintance with the principles of the sci- 
ence, as well as in the practice of singing, considering the small amount of 
time they had devoted to that branch. The teachers testified that favorable 
effects had been produced by its introduction, both in order and study, and 
that they were very desirous of having it continued. 

The lessons in music had, at that time, been suspended about three 
months, and the whole amount of time ever devoted to them was but twenty 
hours, chiefly after the close of school, and scattered through a long period 
of about six months. 

Some difference of feeling is believed to exist in this Society in relation 
to the introduction of vocal music into our schools ; and although no facts 



634 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

have come under tlie knowledge of the committee calculated to show that 
it has ever isroduced, or is likely to produce, any bad effects, if conducted 
on a judicious plan, your committee do not wish to recommend any precipi- 
tate measures which may cause disagreement. They feel it, however, to be 
their duty to recommend that some measures should be resorted to to secure 
a fair experiment upon this subject in such sections of our schools as are 
disposed to give it encouragementy/lt is due to this branch of education to 
state, that the example of Prussia, Holland, France, Switzerland, and other 
foreign countries, is in favor of its introduction. In several of them vocal 
music is taught as an important branch, and with evident and salutary 
results. In different places in the United States where it has been properly 
taught on modern principles, it has found numerous advocates and general 
approbation. In Boston ijarticularly, scientific and practical instruction in 
music has become highly popular ; and, without mentioning other jjlaces, in 
a number of very respectable schools in our city it has been introduced with 
full success. In some of our own primary schools, music has long been 
taught by rote, yet, with the disadvantages attending that method, it is 
approved and continued. 
/^ Only two objections have been urged against its introduction into our 
schools, so far as your committee are informed : 1st. That it would be ex- 
pensive ; and 2d. That it would encroach upon school hours. But music 
may be taught without exposure to either of these evils. Several teachers 
have signified a readiness to teach a year or six months gratuitously, one 
hour in each week (which, experience shows, is sufficient), and the lessons 
may be restricted io hours not appropriated to the regular school exercises. 
Several of our teachers are believed to be qualified to instruct their pupils 
in this branch ; and these have expressed their willingness to perform the 
task. 

Tour committee would, therefore, report for adoption the following reso- 
lution : 

Besohed, That the- sections shall be at liberty to have vocal music taught 
in their schools, provided it be done without expense to this Society, and 
without encroaching on the regular school hours. 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

The report gave rise to a loug and animated debate, which 
was terminated by a motion to lay the whole subject on the 
table. The motion prevailed, and the introduction of music into 
the schools was indefinitely postponed. 

In 1840, Mr. A. "W". Goff submitted an application to the 
Executive Committee for leave to introduce singing into the 
schools, and for an appointment as instructor. The committee, 
after consideration of the subject, directed the application to be 
returned, with the explanation that music was not one of the 
branches taught in the public schools./ 



MUSIC. 635 

^ During the year 18-43, the teacher of School ISTo. Y submitted 
a proposition to the " section " of the trustees to -whom the care 
of that school was committed, for the employment of a teacher 
of vocal music. The reasons urged were those of an experienced 
and observant preceptor, who estimated tlie advantages of sucli 
instruction, and the application was fully discussed at a 'meeting 
of the section. At the conclusion of the debate, a resolution 
was unanimously adopted adverse to the suggestion, and a re- 
port made to the Board of Trustees, as follows : 

On consideration (all the members of the section being present), it was 
resolved, unanimously, to be inexpedient to adopt the suggestion or propo- 
sition of the teacher of No. 7, relative to appointing a teacher of vocal 
music. 

The report of the section was approved by the Board of 
Trustees, and the subject was tlms once more reserved for future 
action. 

No effort was renewed with reference to the introduction of 
vocal music into the schools for several years. But the advocates 
of that measure were not satisfied with the position held by the 
schools of the Society, and it was again deemed expedient to 
press the question upon the attention of the board. According- 
ly, in January, 1847, the ward schools having been in existence 
five years, a member of tlie board oflTered a resolution at a meet- 
ing held on the 19th of that month, which reads as follows : 

Bewhed, That music be taught in the upper schools, and also in the nor- 
mal schools, and that a competent number of teachers be employed at sala- 
ries not exceeding two hundred dollars per annum. . 

On motion, the resolution was laid on the table, and there 
remained as long as the table lasted, the proposition not being 
again renewed dm*ing the existence of the Society V^ 

In the minds of many, the action of the board in regard to 
music will ever be considered as reprehensible, and unworthy of 
the position held by the institution. But whatever may be the 
views of others, supported by the very high consideration of 
moral and intellectual refinement and cultivation, it must not be 
forgotten that, while the board fully appreciated the services of 
all who could in any way benefit the schools, they were not de- 
sirous of expending considerable portions of a limited income, 
disproportioned to the demands made upon the institution, in 



fi36 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

incidentals, and were equally reluctant to accept permanently 
valuable services for which no compensation could be made. In 
addition to a sense of justice and honor in this respect, they 
were, moreover, cautious of adopting measures which promised 
to make them obnoxious to outside opposition. They had been, 
for many years, jealously watched hj parties ever on the alert to 
detect weak points, errors in policy, carelessness in system, im- 
providence in expenditure, or blunders in experiment. The 
opposition of these parties would be strengthened by measures 
on which any great diversity of views was entertained, and 
every false step or premature undertaking would have been only 
to fnrnish capital upon which antagonism might feed its spirit 
of hostility. While other views might have been held, with 
greater favor to the public sympathy than those which overruled 
the propositions to introduce vocal music into the schools, the 
reader of the history should guard against prejudices arising in 
his mind, because circumstances and considerations of a peculiar 
character, altogether independent of the merits of the question, 
interposed a formidable barrier. It is sufficient to know that the 
decision of the Board of Trustees was founded in conscientious 
views of I'igid adherence to that wliich, at the time, appeared to 
be right and true. 

MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 

Men who regard the present life as being a preparatory stage 
for an immortality of existence, and are prompted to labor for 
the elevation of the lowly and the almost friendless classes of 
society, are, in most cases, influenced by a deep conviction of 
duty, immeasurably nobler than that of the clamorer for poj)ular 
favor, who has but his own aggrandizement in view, and looks 
no higiier than the ballot-box, and no lower than the means to 
secure popular suffi-age will require him to descend. The origi- 
nators of the Free-School Society, and those who continued it to 
its honorable close, were men of earnest convictions of moral 
and religious responsibility, and they did not shrink from a con- 
stant desire to promote the moral and religious welfare of the 
objects of their care. 

The questions whi(4h arose during the career of the Society 
in regard to the religious character of its system, i^resent, to say 



MORAL AND EELIGIOUS INSTKDCTION. 637 

the least, some very remarkable exhibitions of reasoning. Its 
opponents brought conflicting charges against it, which 'will be 
found fully presented in the reports of the controversies relative 
to the scliool fund. One charge was, that the Society was a 
religious institution ; anothei-, that it was sectarian ; another, 
that it was infidel ; and another, that " it was favorable only to 
the sectarianism of infidelity, and opposed to Christianity." A 
brief exposition of the practice of the institution is therefore 
essential in a history of its operations. 

The members of the Society, as must be evident from the 
nature of its organization, represented almost every religious 
denomination, and, consequently, it would have been impossible 
to have adopted a system of instruction in religious opinions or 
creeds which would have been, in the strict meaning of the term, 
" sectarian." Yet there are certain tenets and articles of faith 
which are common to all men who have any religious opinions 
whatever : such as the existence of the Deity, moral responsibil- 
ity, the immortality of the soul, and the practice of all the moral 
duties which are elevated above the mere idea of selfish advan- 
tage as being more convenient or more to a man's own interests 
than the indulgence of vice or crime. The maxim that " hon- 
esty is the best policy," is good enough as a demonstrable fact, in 
many cases of human experience, but it is a base and selfish 
maxim at the best. It requires the higher motive and the higher 
obligation of spiritual and religious convictions and responsibili- 
ties. To denounce the inculcation of such principles in the 
minds of the youth of our common schools as " sectarian," would 
argne a strange menial vision on the part of one who holds each 
and all of these same doctrines and opinions ; or, on tlie other 
hand, a perversity of opposition which has only selfish ends for 
its basis. The Society gave religious and moral instriiction, but 
it never descended to the level of " sectarianism." 

The importance, however, of devoting a specified jiortion of 
time to the religious training of the pupils, led to a demand for 
some system upon which all denominations could unite, and a 
regulation was adopted at an early period which afforded the 
opportunity desired. The afternoon of every Tuesday was ap- 
propriated to the instruction of the pupils in the catechisms of 
the various churches to which they belonged. An association of 
ladies was formed for the purpose, wlio met at the schools at the 



638 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

appointed time to conduct these exercises. At the time of the 
ninth annual report (1814), the number of childi-en educated in 
the peculiar tenets of the religious denominations represented 
was as follows : 

Presbyterians, ...... 271 

Episcopalians, ...... 166 

Methodists, . . . . . ..172 

Baptists, ...... 119 

Dutcli Reformed Church, . . . . .41 

Roman Catholics, ..... 9 

Tlie report adds : 

la totherance of the same interesting object, the children have been- 
required to assemble at their respective schools on the morning of every Sab- 
bath, and proceed, under the care of a monitor, to such jilace of public wor- 
ship as was designated by their parents or guardians. This requisition has 
been regularly attended to by many, but the want of suitable clothing has 
prevented others from complying with it. In cases where an attendance at 
school previous to going to church is particularly inconvenient, liberty has 
been given for the children to attend public worship in company with their 
parents or guardians. 

Early iu the year 1819, it was deemed proper to print and 
distribute an address to parents, from M'hich the following ex- 
tracts are made : 

Sec. 8. You know that many evils grow out of idleness, and many more 
out of the improper use of spirituous liquors ; that they are ruinous and 
destructive to morals, and debase the human character below the lowest of 
all created beings ; we therefore earnestly desire you may be watchful and 
careful in this respect ; otherwise, in vain may we labor to promote the wel- 
fare of your children. 

Sec. 9. In domestic life, there are many virtues which are requisite in 
order to promote the comfort and welfare of families. Temperance and 
economy are indispensable, but without cleanliness your enjoyments as well 
as your reputation will be impaired ; it is promotive of health and ought 
not to be neglected. Parents can, perhaps, scarcely give a greatci* proof of 
their care for their children than by keeping them clean and decent, espe- 
cially when they are sent to school, where it is expected they will appear 
with their hands, faces, and heads perfectly, clean, and their clothing clean 
and in good order. The ai^pearance of children exhibits to every observing 
mind the character of the mother. 

Sec. 10. Among other moral and religious duties, that of a due observ- 
ance of the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday, we consider of 
importance to yourselves and to your children. Public worship is a duty 



MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTEUCTION. 639 

we owe to our Creator ; it is of universal obligation, and you ought to be 
good examples thereof. And believing, as we do, that the establishment of 
what is called Sunday schools has been a blessing to many, and may prove 
so to many more, we are desirous you may imite in the supijort of a plan so 
well calculated to promote the religious duties of that day, which ought to 
be appropriated to ijublic worship, retirement, and other duties connected 
with the improvement of the mind. 

Sec. 11. Seeing, next to your own souls, your children, and tliose placed 
under your care, are, or ought to be, the immediate objects of your constant 
attention and diligent concern, you ought to omit no opijortunity to instruct 
them early in the principles of the Christian religion, in order to bring them, 
in their youth, to a sense of the unspeakable love and infinite wisdom and 
power of their Almighty Creator ; for good and early impressions on tender 
minds often prove a lasting means of preserving thgm in a religious life even 
to old age. May you, therefore, watch over them for good, and rule over 
them in the fear of God, maintaining your authority in love ; and as very 
much depends on the care and exemplary conduct of parents, and tHe judi- 
cious management of childi'en by tutors, we cannot too strongly recommend 
to their serious consideration the importance of the subject, as one deeply 
interesting to the welfare of the rising generation, and no less connected 
with the best interests of civil and religious society. 

Sec. 13. As the Holy Scriptures, or Bible, with which you ought all to 
be furnished, contain a full account of things most surely to be believed, 
and Divine commands most faithfully to be obeyed, and are said to make 
" wise unto salvation through faith which is in Jesus Christ," 3 Tim. iii. 15, 
it is the duty of every Christiaij to be frequent and diligent in the reading 
of them in their families, and in privately meditating on those sacred 
records. 

The address from wliicli these passages are taken was signed 
by De "Witt Clinton, President, and the officers and members 
of the Board of Trustees, among "whom were John Murray, Jr., 
Thomas Eddy, Eensselaer Havens, Jacob Lorillard, Leonard 
Bleecker, Col. Henry Eutgers, Najah Taylor, Henry Eckford, 
John Pintard, and George T. Trimble, the last President of the 
Society. 

.A committee was appointed to inquire and report upon the 
state of the schools, and especially with reference to the attend- 
ance of the pupils at public service on the Sabbath. In May, 
the committee reported that there were 480 scholars in No. 1, of 
whom 397 attended church regularly ; of 437 on the register of 
No. 2, 335 were regular in their Sunday observances ; in No. 3, 
of 333 on the register, 312 attended church. Tliis siijjervision 
over the moral and religious habits of their pupils was continued 
by the Society, although the system of voluntary instruction by 



640 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

catechism once a week was, after a time, discontimied, as well as 
the special requirements in regard to public worship. The great 
enlargement of the system of the Society, and its modification, 
made regulations for the Sabbath unwieldy and inexpedient, if 
not impracticable. 

A resolution was adopted at the time of publishing the ad- 
dress, requiring that the children should commit to memory, 
each week, passages from tracts on spirituous liquors ; but the 
resolution was reconsidered and rescinded at the meeting held 
during the month of June following. 

The daily reading of a portion of the Bible at the opening of 
school had been practised from the organization of No. 1, and 
was continued till the close of the Society's labors. In 1821, a 
volume of " Scripture Lessons," which had been adoj^ted in 
England for the use of schools, was recommended to the board 
for its adoption. It was referred to a committee, consisting of 
John E. Hyde, ITajah Tayloi', Isaac Collins, and Leonard Bleeck- 
er. Soon afterward, a catechism, "said to be free from sectarian 
principles," was also submitted to the board, and referred to the 
same committee. The report recommended the adoption of both 
woi-ks, and the committee was directed to have the " Scripture 
Lessons " stereotyped, and an edition of 1,000 copies printed and 
bound for the use of the schools. Two thousand copies of the 
catechism were purchased, and distributed among the pupils. 

The twenty-second annual report (1827) contains the follow- 
ing passage : 

The trustees are aware of the importance of early religious instruction ; 
and although the nature of their association and its true interests require 
that none but such as is exclusively general and scriptural in its character 
should be introduced into the schools under their charge, they require from 
the teachers stated returns of the number of their scholars who attend a* 
the various Sunday schools or places of worship on the Sabbath. The las* 
reports from all the schools, except No. 8, show that, on the 1st of April, of 
3,925 children on the registers, 3,463 belonged to Sunday schools, and of the 
remainder, 1,143 were attendants at the various places of worship to which 
their parents were attached, leaving but 326 unaccounted for, or who are 
negligent in this important duty. 

The thii-ty-third annual report (1838) alludes to the same 
topic, in the following language : 

The constitution of the Society, and public sentiment, wisely forbid the 



MORAL AND KELIQIOUS I>>STEUCTION. 64] 

introduction into tliese schools of any such religious instruction as shall 
favor the peculiar riews of any sect ; and the trustees endeavor so carefully 
to guard them in this respect, as to give no just cause of complaint, leaving 
this subject where it rightfully belongs — to the parents and guardians of the 
children. They wish, however, not to be understood as regarding religious 
impressions in early youth as unimportant ; on the contrary, they desire to 
do all which may with propriety be done to give a right direction to the 
minds of the children entrusted to their care. Their schools are uniformly 
opened with the reading of the Scriptures, and the class-books are such as 
recognize and enforce the great and generally acknowledged principles of 
Christianity. 

Entertaiuing views like those expressed in the foregoing ex- 
tracts, tlie Executive Committee, during the year 1838, appoint- 
ed Joseph B. Collins, Samuel R. Childs, and William L. Stone 
to rejjort upon a manual for moral and religious instruction. In 
compliance with the directions appointing them, the committee 
made a rej^ort in January, 1839, to which the following resolu- 
tions were appended : 

Sesoloed, That the Trustees of the Public School Society hold in high 
estimation the inculcation of correct elementary education among all classes 
of children ; and, at the same time, they contend that it is of the greater 
importance as regards their temporal and eternal welfare, that the youthful 
mind should be imbued with sound moral and religious principles ; there- 
fore, 

^solved, That, in their view, it is expedient to introduce into our public 
and primary schools suitable books setting forth in concise terms the funda- 
mental principles of the Christian religion, free from all sectarian bias, and 
also those general and special articles of the moral code, upon which the 
good order and welfare of society are based ; the substance of which shall 
be committed to memory by the pupils. 

On the reading of the report and resolutions, some discussion 
ensued, and the following alteration of the by-laws was pro- 
posed : 

Special care must be taken to avoid any instruction of a sectarian char- 
acter; but the teachers shall embrace every favorable opportunity of incul- 
cating the general truths of Christianity, and the ])rimary importance of 
practical religious and moral duty, as founded on the precepts of the Holy 
Scriptures. 

The whole subject was laid on the table, and the accumula- 
tion of other business occasioned a pause in the proceedings, 
and, in the mean time, the renewal of the controversy in rela- 
41 



6i2 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

tion to the school fund, which was foreshadowed and opened 
early in the following year (1840), suspended them altogether. 

An illustration of the religious exercises recomnieuded for 
the use of the teachers at the opening of school will be found in 
the following passages from the " Manual " prepared for the 
primary departments by Samuel W. Seton, and approved and 
published by order of tlie Board of Trustees during the year 
1830. After the salutation of the teacher to the school, and ex- 
pressing their dependence upon God for sparing them to meet 
again, the exercise proceeds : 

Teacher. How should we feel to our heavenly Father for these mercies ? 

Ansi^er. Truly thankful. 

T. What example have we for this in the Holy Scriptures ? 

A. Psalm c. 4, 5 : " Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name, for the 
Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endurcth to all gen- 
erations." 

T. Children, who is good ? 

A. The Lord is good. 

T. To whom should we be thankful ? 

A. Be thankful unto Him. 

T. Whose name should we bless ? 

A. Bless His name. 

T. What is said, iu this Psalm, of God's mercy ? 

A. His mercy is everlasting. 

T. What is said of God's truth ? 

A. His truth endureth to all generations. 

T. What is God's truth ? 

A. His holy laws. 

T. Psalm xxxiv. 11 : " Come, ye children, hearken unto me ; I will teach 
you the fear of the Lord." My dear children, tell me, who has watched 
over you, and preserved your lives through the past night ? 

A. Psalm ill. 5 : "I laid me down, and slept. I waked, for the Lord 
sustained me." 

T. Does God always see you ? 

A. Proverbs xv. 3 : " The eyes of the Lord are in every place." 

T. Does God know your very thoughts ? 

A. Psalm cxxxix. 1, 3 : " O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known 
me. Thou knowcst my down-sitting and mine uprising ; thou understand- 
est my thoughts afar oS"." 

T. Does God know all you do ? 

A. Psalm cxxxix. 3 : " Thou compassest my path and my lying down, 
and art acquainted with all my ways." 

T. Does God hear all you say ? 

A. Psalm cxxxix. 4 : " For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O 
Lord, thou knowest it altogether." 



MORAL AND EELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 643 

T. Does God require the young to serve Him ? 

A. Ecclesiastes xii. 1 : " Remember now tliy Creator in tlie days of thy 
youth." 

To vary the exercises, other lessons were provided, to be used 
at the discretion of the teacher, one of which is as follows ; 

T. Is our life uncertain ? 

A. Proverbs xxvii. 1 : " Boast not thyself of to-morrow ; for thou know- 
est not what a day may bring forth." 

T. What, then, should you ask of your heavenly Father ? 

A. Psalm xc. 13 : " So teach us to number our days, that we may apply 
our hearts unto wisdom." 

T. How does God encourage you, in the Holy Scriptures, to love and 
serve Him while you are young ? 

A. Proverbs viii. 17 : "I love them that love me, and those that seek me 
early shall find me." 

These exercises were followed by the repetition of the Lord's 
Prayer, and the singing or recitation of a hymn suitable for chil- 
dren, commencing with the lines, 

" I thank the goodness and the grace 
Which on my birth have smiled, 
And made me, in these Christian days, 
A highly favored child." 

The opening exercise for the j'oungest children, as they took 
their places on the gallery in the morning, and also for all the 
classes when they respectively used the gallery, was the follow- 
ing : 

Teacher. My dear children, the intention of this school is to teach you to 
be good and useful in this world, that you may be happy in the world to 
come. What is the intention of this school ? 

T. We therefore first teach you to " remember your Creator in the days 
of your youth." What do we first teach you ? 

T. It is our duty to teach you this, because we find it written in the 
Holy Bible. Why is it our duty to teach you this ? 

T. The Holy Bible directs us to " train you up in the way you should 
go." What good book direct* us to train you up in the way you should go ? 

T. Therefore, my children, you must obey your parents. 

Scholar. I must obey my parents. 

T. You must obey your teachers. 

8. I must obey my teachers. 

T. You must never tell a lie. 

8, I must never tell a lie. 

T. You must never steal the smallest thing. 

S. I must never steal the smallest thing. 



Qii THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

T. You must never swear. 

8. I must never swear. 

T. God will not hold bim guiltless that taketh His name in yain. 

8. God will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. 

T. God always sees you. {Slowly, and in a soft tone.) 

8. God always sees me. 

T. God hears all you say. 

8. God hears all I say. 

T. God knows all you do. 

8. God knows all I do. 

T. You should fear to offend Him, for He is most holy. 

8. I should fear to offend Him, for He is most holy. 

T. You should depart from evil, and learn to do well, 

8. I should depart from evil, and learn to do well. 

T. May all you, dear chUdrcn, learn, while attending this school, to be 
good and useful in this world. 

8. May we all, while attending this school, learn to be good and useful 
in this world. 

T. And, with God's blessing, may you be happy in the world to come. 

8. And, with God's blessing, may we be happy in the world to come. 

The children then sing a hymn by Di\ Watts, as follows : 

" Let children that would fear the Lord 
Hear what their teachers say, 
With reverence meet their parents' word, 
And with delight obey. 

" Have we not heard what dreadful plagues 
Are threatened by the Lord, 
To him who breaks his father's laws, » 

And mocks his mother's word ? 

" But those who worship God, and give 
Their parents honor due, 
Here on this earth they long shall live, 
And live hereafter too." 

It is unnecessary to multiply, in this place, quotations from 
the records of the Society bearing upon the nature and extent 
of the " religious " instruction sought to be inculcated in the 
schools. They would present only repetitions of the views 
already expressed, and these are deemed sufficiently clear and 
extended to define the position held during the whole career of 
the institution. For additional information, the reader is re- 
ferred to the several memorials and papers of the Society which 
will be found in other pages of this volume, and to the argu- 
ments made on its behalf by its advocates and representatives. 



NORMAL, AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 645 



CHAPTER XVII. 

NORMAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 

Monitorial Classes Organized — Central School for Advanced Studies — High Schools- 
Normal Schools — Classical Institute — Free Academy. 

The experience of all sj'stems of education has shown the 
necessity of assuring a supply of competent instructors. Where 
the number of teachers properly qualified for their duties falls 
below the demand, the deficiency must be supplied by those of 
indiflerent qualifications — which is, at the best, a doubtful expe- 
dient, and only a little better than the alternative of temporary 
suspension in the routine of education until the want can be 
met. The most perfect machinery of system and the most lib- 
eral endowment of means cannot eufiiciently compensate for the 
absence of the skilful and efldcient teacher. 

The monitorial system in use in the schools of the Public 
School Society made the training of properly qualified assistants 
a matter of urgent necessity. The value of expert and well- 
trained monitors, thoroughly familiarized with the Lancasterian 
methods, led the Society at an early day to adopt a system of 
indentures, by which the monitors were apprenticed to learn the 
art of teaching. As an indispensable part of the means for fully 
attaining these ends, it was deemed expedient to establish classes 
for the instruction of the monitors in the schools. This course 
was adopted in the year 181Y, and was the initiative of the nor- 
mal school sj'stem now existing under the Board of Education. 

During the year 1826, a committee of three was appointed 
for the purpose of reporting on a proposition to establish a 
'• Central School " for the instruction of tutors and monitors, 
and for such advanced pupils of the schools as might deserve the 
distinction. 

The committee promptly reported upon the resolution re- 
ferred to them, in which the various considerations were strongly 



646 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

urged wliicli should induce the Society to organize such a school. 
The project of the committee confined the range of studies to 
the English branches, with natural philosojAy, bookkeeping, 
mercantile education, geologj% and chemistry. This course of 
studies, it ■was thought, would be more practically valuable for 
that period, and under the circumstances in which the Society 
and its schools were then placed, than an institution in -which a 
classical course should be introduced. A liberal'and extended 
view was taken, in the report, of the positive and reflex advan- 
tages and influence of such a school in tlie city, and an appro- 
priation of $25,000 was named as being required to erect suit- 
able buildings, and furnish them with the i-eqnisite appoint- 
ments. A committee was authorized, in accordance with the 
recommendation of the report, to memorialize the Legislature 
for a grant of .the sum required ; but, in consequence of the dif- 
ference of views entertained in relation to so important a meas- 
ure, it was finally suflered to rest without decision. 

Tlie question was renewed, in 1832, in the report of the Com- 
mittee on Reorganization, in which it was observed that, as 
" part of a perfect system," the establishment of a high school, 
as soon as circumstances Avould warrant, was to be kept con- 
stantly in view. 

The growing importance of the common school system of the 
city and the State at large, had been for some time attracting 
the attention of prominent citizens and friends of education, and 
the consultations and correspondence which had been held in 
reference to the subject, especially in connection with the proper 
training of a body of eflScient teachers, led to the call for a pub- 
lic meeting of the friends of normal schools, to be held in the 
city of New York. The convention assembled, measures were 
recommended, and appropriate committees were appointed. A 
committee of which Gideon Lee was chairman, and Theodore 
Dwight, Jr., secretary, together with a committee of the Council 
of the University, laid before the Board of Trustees, in Febru- 
ary, 1834, a communication inviting a conference on the subject 
of their appointment. Messrs. Kobert C. Cornell, Gulian C. 
Verplanck, and James I. Roosevelt, Jr., were appointed on be- 
half of the Society. The action growing out of these confer- 
ences did not come within the administration of the Society, and 
need not be discussed here. 



NOEMAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 64T 

The Executive Committee, however, sympathizing fully with 
the movement, and being forced to witness the disadvantages 
growing out of the non-existence of such a school, directed the 
Committee on Teachers and Monitors to present a report on a 
school of the kiud contemplated. The report was laid before the 
board on the 1st of August, in which it was recommended that 
a school be opened on the last day of every week, except during 
the usual vacation, in Public School No. 5, in Mott street, for 
the instruction of assistants and monitors of the primary schools 
and primary departments. The teachers thus speeitied, being 
all females, gave the school the character which it has since 
maintained, as the " Female Normal School." It was conduct- 
ed by Eliza Cox and "William Belden, Sr., then and for more 
than twenty years the principal of Public School No. 2. 

The success of the institution was striking and immediate, 
and its beneficial influence on the day schools was too potent not 
to be recognized. It was found that teachers practically drilled 
in the daily routine of school discipline and instruction, and 
simultaneously taught in those branches which they were expect- 
ed to teach, were, beyond all comparison, superior in tact, skill, 
and efficiency to persons educated in high schools or colleges, 
and placed in the station of assistant teachers without pirelimi- 
nary preparation or apprenticeship. 

A branch of this school for the education of the junior teach- 
ers of the male departments w-as establislied a few months after- 
ward. 

In 1841, on the completion of the new ediSce called " Trus- 
tees' Hall," situated on the corner of Grand and Elm streets, 
and designed to furnish the trustees of the Public School Society 
with rooms for their meetings, as well as to provide accommoda- 
tions for the female normal schools, the institution was removed 
from its former location in No. 5, and held its sessions in the 
new building. A large apartment, capable of accommodating 
four hundred persons, for the general assembling of the school in 
the morning, and five commodious recitation-rooms were pr€>- 
vided, and the school continued to flourish with increased pros- 
perity. 

Upon the death of Lindley Mureat, Esq., a member of the 
committee charged with the care of the'several schools, his place 
was supplied by A. P. Halsey, Esq. ; and on the decease oi' Mr. 



648 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Samuel Demilt, the chairman, Mr. George T. Tremble, by se- 
niority, succeeded him in that station, and the vacant place on 
the committee was tilled by the appointment of Dr. Charles E. 
Pierson. On the resignation of Mr. Halsey, "William II. Neil- 
son, Esq., having become a member of the committee, these 
three gentlemen — Messrs. Trimble, Pierson, and Neilson — con- 
tinued the superintendence up to the time of the dissolution of 
the Society. 

The success and efficiency of the normal schools will be ap- 
parent from the fact stated in 1853, in the forty-seventh annual 
report, that, out of the 422 teachers of all grades then engaged 
in the various departments of the public schools, 386 had been, 
or stiil were, pupils of the normal schools. Nearly 350 were 
engaged in ward or other schools, and 460 graduates were en- 
gaged in other professions, or in the duties of domestic life. The 
whole number, from the time of its establishment in 1834 
to 1853, being 1,150 trained in the male and female normal 
schools. 

In reviewing the history of this institution, it is impossible to 
forbear paying a passing tribute to the memory of those noble 
and philanthropic men by whose fostering care it was founded 
and sustained. 

During the last eleven years of his life, Samuel Demilt was 
unremitting in his oversight of these schools, attending at each 
session ; and, during the whole period of live hours, he gave, by 
his interest and example, an encouragement and stimulus to the 
establishment which, to a great extent, was the means of jalacing 
it on a permanent basis. 

During a brief career of usefulness, Isaac H. Clapp was also 
unwearied in his exertions to promote the interests and welfare 
of the institution, devoting all the energies of early manhood to 
the cause, with a disinterested zeal and activity rarely seen, and 
worthy of the highest admiration. 

In addition to those who have ceased from their labors, it 
would be unjust not to mention those who were either their co- 
adjutors or successors in this important tiiist, and who, though 
still engaged in similar offices of benevolence and usefulness to 
the living, have ceased to be connected with the charge of this 
favorite object of their care. 

In this connection, George T. Trimble deserves to be remem- 



NOEUAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 649 

bered and esteemed. During nearly the whole twenty years of 
tlie existence of the normal school, he was among the most zeal- 
ous in his watchful oversight of the female normal school. To 
him and his associates the city is indebted for the institution 
which has prepared so large a number of active teachers for 
their responsible duties. 

The trustees of the Public School Society were not behind 
any of their fellow-citizens in a just appreciation of the advan- 
tages and economy of the highest kind of education which could 
be afforded to the masses. Tliis charge has been made and re- 
peated by men who judged by circumstances, and not by an 
accurate knowledge of the publications and unsiiccessful efforts 
of the Society to reach the object of their cherished desire. It 
would argue little for the character of an institution at whose 
head stood, for forty years, such men as De Witt Clinton, Gulian 
C. Verplanck, Henry Eckford, Colonel Rutgers, and others of 
the same class, to suppose that it ever sought to limit the extent 
of its studies, or to crush out aspirations for the higher walks of 
literature and science. Its resources were never equal to the 
calls upon them, and the practical aim was to give to all the 
children of the school age at least some of the advantages of 
education, rather than to give a higher culture to a limited num- 
ber who could afford to obtain it through other institutions. It 
was deemed better to give a good rudimentary education to 
scores of thousands, than to adopt a course of studies which 
could be enjoyed only by the minority. It had not the elastic 
liberty of a board of officers who could call lor an almost unlim- 
ited amount, but was restricted in its expenditures, so that it was 
obliged, in order to meet the demand upon it, to mortgage a 
large portion of its property, that it might erect, new buildings 
for its pupils. The project of a high school, or classical institu- 
tion, was no novelty with a large portion of the members of the 
Public School Society. 

As early as 1828, at the time of making an appeal to the 
Legislature for additional means, an address to the public was 
circulated, in which high schools for advanced English studies, 
fully up to the standard of the best of the ward schools now in 
existence, were strongly advocated, and a classical seminary was 
held before the people as an object of pride, usefulness, and 
honor. In tliis address the trustees speak as follows : 



650 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

We desire to see our public schools so endowed and provided, that they 
shall be equally desirable for all classes of society. To eiJect this, the means 
of instruction which are offered to the poor should he tfie very lent loliich can 
he provided. They may not all be able to proceed so far in the path of learn- 
ing as others in happier circumstances ; but to the extent of their progress 
let them have all the helps which the present state of knowledge affords. 
This is no mere fanciful theory. The advantages of a free intercourse and 
competition between persons of all ranks and conditions in life, as exhibited 
in the Edinburgh high school, have been admirably illustrated by one of 
the first British orators of the age. He regarded such an institution as 
invaluable in a free State ; because, to use his own language, men of the 
highest and lowest rank in the community sent their children there to be 
educated together. The practical beneficence of this system is attested by 
the noble institutions of a sister city. It is by such a union and inter- 
course that the real worth of outward distinctions is perceived — that the 
highest rewards of merit are felt to be equally offered to all — tliat the 
jealousies which are too apt to arise from differences of condition are melt- 
ed away — and that the relations which subsist between the different classes 
of society are felt to be relations of mental advantage and dependence, and 
not those of hostility. 

In connection with this subject, the- address urged a scale of 
higher rewards for the qualifications of teacliers, the view held 
by the trustees being, that the oiBce of teacher, considered as 
one of grave responsibility and importance, called for high 
attainments and a proportionate remuneration. In fact, there 
has been no advance made in the common school system of New 
York which was not in some form urged repeatedly by the sev- 
eral boards and committees of the Public School Society. 

The success and value of the normal school scheme had been 
illustrated by nine years of experience, and the number of pupils 
who had progressed to important posts as teachers in New York 
and other localities, was constantly on the increase. The Board 
of Education also, under the law of 1S42, had sprung into exist- 
ence, and additional schools were creating an augmented demand 
for qualified teachers. Under these circumstances, Abraham E. 
Lawrence introduced, at the meeting of the Board of Trustees 
on May 16, 1843, the following resolution : 

Resolved, That it be referred to a special committee to inquire into and 
report to this board, at a future meeting, the expediency of making the nor- 
mal schools day schools, to be open every day in the week, excepting Satur- 
days and Sundays ; that their range of studies be so extended as to instruct 
male pupils in all the branches of learning necessary to their initiation in 



NOEMAL AND HIGH SCHOOLS. 651 

any of the colleges of this State, and females in such studies as are taught 
in the highest grade of seminaries for female instruction in this city ; and 
that the said schools constitute one distinct section. 

The resolution was adopted, and referred to a committee, con- 
sisting of Abraham R. Lawrence, Lindley Murray, John T. 
Adams, Burritt Sherwood, and James F. Depeyster. 

The committee submitted a report recommending tlie adop- 
tion of the measure, and the name " High Schools " was substi- 
tuted for that of " ^'^ormal Schools." In June, 18i4, the subject 
was renewed, and, after a protracted discussion, a committee, 
consisting of Messrs. Abraham R. Lawrence, John H. Hurd, 
Samuel B. Cliilds, John T. Adams, and Joseph B. Collins, was 
appointed, to prepare a memorial to the Legislature, asking au- 
thority to establish high schools in which Latin and Greek and 
similar advanced studies should be taught. 

The committee submitted their report in January, 1845, in 
which the necessity of such an institution was earnestly and care- 
fuUj^ presented. The memorial was referred back to the com- 
mittee, to operate in concert with the Executive Committee, who 
had appointed several of their number to confer with the Board 
of Education relative to the enterprise. 

Several of the toachers in the ward schools of the Fourteenth 
Ward having been refused admittance to the normal school, the 
case was laid before the trustees by a committee of the Board of 
Education. A conference was had, and an explanation of the 
difficulty having been made, the trustees.' I'ecognized the claim 
of the teachers of the ward schools to the piivileges of the nor- 
mal schools, " on their complying with the rules and regulations 
of the schools." 

The measures contemplated by the resolution of Mr. Law- 
rence were never prosecuted, but they became a stimulus to the 
movement which resulted in the establishment of the Free Acad- 
emy, under the care of the Board of Education, which was pub- 
licly opened by appropriate exercises on the 5th of Febniary, 
1849. 



652 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOOIETT. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

INFANT SCHOOLS AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

Female Association — Girls' Seliools — Tlie Infant-Sehool Society — Experiment in No. 10 
— Junior Department of No. 8 — Tlieory of Infant Schools — The System Approved 
— Delegation to Visit Boston — Primary Departments Established — Female Teach- 
ers Introduced to the Schools — Primary Schools Established. 

The origia of our public system of education antedates the 
formation of the Free-School Society about three years, and is to 
be found in the benevolent efibrts of a number of ladies, mem- 
bers of the Society of Friends, who were zealously engaged in 
labors of love and charity among the poor. 

In the month of March, 1798, several ladies proposed to 
organize an "Association for the Relief of the Sick Poor," and 
a committee was appointed to report rules for the government 
of the Association. The report was submitted at a meeting held 
on the 21st of that month, and the ladies entered upon their be- 
nevolent labors. The first article excluded all persons not mem- 
bers of tlie Society of Friends from the Association ; and, on the 
other hand, the sixth article provided that " no relief he afford- 
ed to any of the people called Quakers.^'' Among the ladies who 
thus devoted themselves to the wants of the sick, wei-e Catharine 
Munay, Amy Bowne, Elizabeth Haydock, M. Minturn, Lydia 
Mott, Agnes Abbatt, Elizabeth W. Underbill, Penelope IIuU, 
Sarah Collins, Hannah Eddy, Deborah Franklin, and others, the 
names of whose descendants are still found frequent and con- 
spicuous in our public institutions, in the faithful discharge of 
similar labors. These ladies became intimate Mith the social 
condition of the families they visited, and were not long in per- 
ceiving the necessity of affording to poor children that kind of 
instruction best adapted to their condition. In 1801, the propo- 
sition to establish a school was fully discussed, and a committee 



ASSOCIATION OF WOMEN FRIENDS. 653 

appointed to make the necessary arrangements and emjiloy a 
teaclier. It was opened in June, 1801. The original minute in 
the record, which appears not to have been nsed until the close 
of 1802, is as follows : 

The Association of Women Friends for the Relief of the Poor, having 
concluded that a part of their funds should be appropriated to the educa- 
tion of poor children of the following description, viz., those whose parents 
belong to no religious society, and who, from some cause or other, cannot 
be admitted into any of the charity schools of this city, have appointed the 
following persons as a committee to ojien a school for that puri:)oso : Lydia 
P. Mott, Caroline Bowne, Sarah Collins, Mary Minturn, Jr., Hannah Bowne, 
and Susan Collins ; who have, agreeably to permission, rented a room at the 
rate of £16 per annum, and engaged a widow woman of good education 
and morals as an instructor, and allow her a salary of £30 a year, to be 
advanced at the discretion of the committee, which met at the school-room, 
aSth of 12th month. 

The school was attended by children of both sexes, but the 
committee soon became convinced tiiat the plans they had de- 
signed would be more advantageously prosecuted by admitting 
only girls to the school. The 'male pupils were discharged, and 
the institution was restricted to females during the subsequent 
existence of the schools under its care. 

The ladies who organized the Association and were its earli- 
est members, were the following : 

Catharine Murray, Hannah Eddy, 

Elizabeth Bowne, Ann Eddy, 

Sarah Robinson, Agnes Abbatt, 

Amy Bowne, Sarah Collins, 

Hannah Pearsall, Elizabeth Pearsall, 

Margaret B. Haydock, Mary Pearsall Robinson, 

Elizabeth Haydock, Hannah Lawrence, 

Sarah Haydock [Mrs. Hicks], Rebecca Haydock, 

Ann Shipley, Elizabeth W. UnderhiH, 

. Mary R. Bowne [Mrs. King], Esther Robinson Minturn, 

Amy Clarke, Penelope Minturn, 

M. Minturn, Abigail Kenyon, 

Lydia Mott, Penelope Hull, 

Martha Stansbury, E. Hoyland Walker, 

Mary Dunbar [Mrs. Slocum], Sarah Hallet, 

Jane Johnston, Sarah Bowne Minturn, 

Harriet Robbins, Mary Minturn, Jr., 

Sarah Tallman, Deborah Minturn Abbatt, 



654 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Hannah Bowne, Hannah Bowne, 

Mary Murray [Mrs. Perkins], Ann Underhill, 

Sarah Robinson, E. Tallman, 

Mary Wright, Susan Collins, 

Caroline Bowne, Sarah Lyons Kirby, 

Elizabeth Burling, Hannah Shelton, 
Charlotte Leggett. 

After the erection of Free Scliool No. 1, in Tryon Eow, in 
1809, the trustees afforded accommodations to the Association 
for the school for girls then established, -which was continued for 
many years afterward. 

The school-house in Henry street, No. 2, having been erected 
by the Free-School Society, the trustees delegated a committee 
to inform the Female Association of the fact, and to tender to 
that body the use of apartments for a school for girls. On the 
16th of December, 1811, John Murray, Jr., attended a meeting 
of the Association and made the communication, upon the an- 
nouncement of which a committee was appointed to organize the 
school, composed of Mary Mintnni, Sarah Minturn, Eliza Bowne, 
Sarah Marshall, Niobe Minturn; Niobe Stanton, Lydia Hath- 
awaj', and Sarah Collins. The school was opened February 18th, 
1812, with twenty pupils, Mary I. Morgan, teacher. 

By the law of 1813, schools not incorporated were excluded 
from the benefits of the common school fund. The friends of the 
Female Association, therefore, took immediate measures to secure 
an act of incorporation for the Association, which was passed by 
the Legislature on March 26th, 1813. By-laws were adopted, 
and the officers of the Association were designated as first and 
second directors, secretary, treasurer, and register. The Board 
of Trustees consisted of twelve members. 

A third school was opened for girls on the 8th of January, 
181.5. The committee to superintend the opening of No. 3 con- 
sisted of Sarah Collins, Eachel Seaman, Elizabeth Clapp, Niobe 
Minturn, and Mary M. Perkins. At about the same time, the 
trustees of the Free-School Society granted the use of an addi- 
tional room in No. 1 to the Association, for one of their schools. 
During the first three months of the existence of No. 3, 271 
pieces of needlework were finished by the girls. The variety 
and kind of work performed may be seen from the following 
inventory : 18 shirts, 11 shifts, 21 sheets, 16 samplers, 23 era- 



SCHOOLS FOR GIKLS. 655 

vats, 4: night-caps, 4 thread cases, 2 pair stockings, 47 diaper 
towels, 15 pocket kerchiefs, 8 pillow-cases, 7 table-cloths, 33 
coarse towels, 9 cheek aprons, 25 infant shirts, 2 pair neck-gus- 
sets, 5 muslin aprons, 5 pair Avristbands, 4 muslin borders, 3 
window-curtains, 1 pair muslin sleeves, 2 calico ruffles, 6 house- 
cloths. The following quarter presented an equally flattering 
report of the industry of the pupils. Susan Morgan, teacher. 

On the 9th of May, 1817, a committee was appointed, con- 
sisting of Sarah Collins, Sarah Ludlam, Elizabeth "W. Lawrence, 
and Niobe Minturn, to superintend the opening of Girls' School 
No. 4. The school was opened on the 7th of July, the pupils 
being transferred from one of the schools of the Free-School 
Society. Isabella Morgan was appointed teacher. 

Tlie provisions of the law which restricted the expenditure 
of the school money for the payment of teachers' salaries being 
found inconvenient in practice, the Association petitioned the 
Legislature for an amendment of the law in favor of the schools 
under its care. The petition was granted, and a special act, 
passed on the 12th of April, 1819. 

The trustees of the African Free School, having erected the 
new house in Mulberry street, near Grand, otlered the use of the 
lower room to the Association. A committee was appointed to 
examine the premises and report upon the proposition. The 
room was rented for $200 a year, and a school commenced for 
colored girls. The proportion of school moneys received by the 
Association in 1820, was $1,977. 

Li May, 1820, the trustees of the Free-School Society re- 
quested the Association to appoint a committee to s^iperintend 
the school for girls in their new building in Rivington street. No. 
4, which had just been completed. The committee was accord- 
ingly appointed, and consisted of Sarah Collins, Elizabeth Pear- 
sail, Eliza Murray, Mary L. Hartshorne, Sarah Shotwell, Pe- 
nelope Minturn, and Mary Minturn, Jr. The industrial branch- 
es of instruction being considered of great importance, the com- 
mittee, having examined the school with great satisfaction, 
reported in favor of appointing an eflicient committee for the 
purpose of aiding the teacher in the sewing department. 

The Association liavmg for some time occupied apartments 
in School No. 2, in Plenry street, and the trustees, being desirous 
of organizing female schools under their own care, notified the 



656 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Association, in January, 1823, of their desire to occupy the 
whole building. Measures were taken to procure other apart- 
ments in the neighborhood, which were successful, and the 
school was removed to the lecture-rooms of the Kutgers Street 
Church. 

Tlie Association for many years held annual public examina- 
tions of their pupils, the exercises being held in the large room 
of Free School No. 1, in Tryon Row. The pupils of the several 
schools were assembled on these occasions, and, in 1823, about 
550 represented the total number present from the schools. The 
number on register was about 750. 

In March, 1828, it was resolved to apply to the Public School 
Society for the use of a room in one of their buildings for an 
infant school. The Executive Committee replied affirmatively, 
granting the gratuitous use of either of the unappropriated base- 
ment-rooms of their school-houses for the purpose, during the 
pleasure of the board. The trustees, however, did not confirm 
the action of the Executive Committee, and the Association 
obtained apartments in the Lutheran Church, in Walker street. 
The school was opened on the 20th of October, 1828, under the 
care of Anna Harford. 

On the 28th of AjJril, the Association closed the school for 
girls, which had so long been conducted under the original plans. 
The operation of the law of 1828 deprived this body of the use 
of the school fund, and it was obliged to contract its sphere of 
labor. But several bequests and donations having been made to 
the Association, which yielded about $500 a year, in addition to 
the contributions and subscriptions of members and friends, it 
was decided that one or more infant schools be established, as the 
best mode of appropriating the fund to carry out the objects of 
the donors. 

In February, 1830, a committee M-as appointed to pi'ocure 
rooms for another school, for which purpose the basement of the 
Bowery Church was selected. This building was located between 
Walker and Hester streets. At the same time, however, the 
Board of Trustees of the Public School Society, having become 
convinced that the establishment of schools for young children 
was demanded, adopted a resolution granting the use of the un- 
occupied basement-rooms of their buildings to the Association 
for that purpose, and tendering apartments in No. 5, in Mott 



SCHOOLS FOR GIELS. 657 

street. The basement of this house had never been finished, and 
the trustees proposed that the Association should finish and fit it 
up, and, whenever possession should be taken by the board, the 
expense should be repaid to the Association. The proposal was 
accepted, and the proposed school in the Bowery church was 
never organized. The rooms in Public School No. 5 were fitted 
up and furnished, and the school opened in the month of June 
of the same year (1S30), and was sustained until 1845, at which 
time the trustees notified the Association of their desire to have 
the infant schools transferred to the jurisdiction of the board, 
and made a department under the general system which had 
been adopted by the Public School Society. The school was 
accordingly transfeired, and the Female Association closed its 
labors for the instruction of poor children. 

The character of the schools established by these ladies was 
always high for the grade. Inspired with the idea that was, so 
predominant in the minds of the trustees of the Public School 
Society — that of giving the best rudimentary education to the 
greatest number possible — the range of studies was not advanced 
as Iiigh as it has since been in our public schools, but it was 
accompanied with a generous and constant supervision by those 
accomplished and intelligent Christian women, which imparted a 
moral and elevating influence not gained from splendid and 
costly appointments or glittering apparatus. The practical in- 
struction in the industrial arts, to which females must mainly 
look for subsistence at the present time, with the kindness and 
maternal sympathy which pervaded the school-room, has doubt- 
less exerted a quiet but refining influence over many minds and 
hearts that will ever remember the attentions and visits of their 
devoted friends. 

The Female Association still exists, but its oiBce is confined 
to the distribution of the annual income from its funds for chari- 
table uses. 

It is worthy of remembrance that Col. Henry Eutgers, who 
was from an early period a devoted friend of the system of com- 
mon schools, left a legacy, amounting to $750, for the use of the 
Female Association. It was committed to the care of the trus- 
tees of the Free-School Society, who paid $45 interest annually 
to the Association — the principal sura to revert to the Society 
42 



658 TDE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

whenever tlie Association should cease its labors in the cause of 
education. 



INFANT SCHOOLS. 

Paasing from this brief review of the career of the Female 
Association, a record must be made of the lirst efforts to estab- 
lish a class of schools wliich were as novel in their design as they 
were interesting, simply as an educational experiment. 

During the year 1820, a great degree of interest and atten- 
tion was directed to the establishment of " Infant Schools," 
wliich had recently been introduced iu England. Early in 1827, 
an association of ladies was formed in New York for the purpose 
of organizing a school upon the same plan, and for children of 
the same age. The theory of the system may be briefly defined 
to be this : The mind and heart of the child are susce])tible of 
receiving impressions of a deep and lasting nature, and of form- 
ing habits at a very early age. The impressions should be those 
of virtue, love, gentleness, and piety, all having a tendency to 
give to the opening moral conscioiisness of the child a pure and 
lofty direction. Preoccupy the mind and heart with the seeds 
of goodness, and they will grow and produce a corresponding 
character in the after-life. To realize this idea, it was proposed 
to take children even as young as eighteen months, who, being 
imitative, could at least begin by learning sounds, motions, and 
habits of order and stillness. Tliese groups of tender pupils 
were fittingly denominated " infant schools," and the novelty of 
the experiment, at least, stimulated the desire to make a fair 
trial of its value. In addition to these reasons, another was 
forcibly presented, growing out of the fact- that the children of 
laborers were often left at home, locked up in the absence of 
parents, and in danger of fire or other accidents, or left to roam 
in the streets, exposed to casualties and corrupting influences. 

The first meeting of ladies was held in the Brick Church 
Chapel on May 23, 1827, when Mrs. Joanna Bethdne was called 
to the chair, and Mrs. Holt was appointed secretary. 

Two resolutions were adopted : 1st. To organize a society 
for the care of children from eighteen months to two years of 



INFANT SCHOOLS. G69 

age ; and, 2d. Persons contributing one dollar a year, to be 
. members. 

Tiie following officers were chosen : 

Mrs. Bethune, First Directress. 

Mrs. Steikee, Second Directress. 

Mrs. TuTHiLL, Secretary and Treasurer pro tern. 

On the 28tli of June, the fourth meeting of the Society was 
held, at which a constitution was adopted, officers and managers 
^ere chosen, and a letter was read from His Excellency De Witt 
Clinton, Governor of the State, who consented to become the 
patron of the Society, wliich, in fact, was organized at his sug- 
gestion. The officers chosen were the following : 

Mrs. Joanna Bethune, First Directress, 

Miss Strikee, Second Directress. 

Mrs. Hannah L. Muerat, Treasurer. 

Mrs. Lauka E. Hyde, Corresponding Secretanj.. 

Miss M. A. C. Willett, Recording Secretary. 

A board of thii-ty managers was also appointed, by-laws 
adopted, and the Society was fully organized. 

As soon as sufficient funds were collected to warrant the com- 
mencement of operations, a school was opened, July 16, in the 
basement-story of the Canal Street Presbyterian Church, corner 
of Greene street. The school, in a few months, numbered one 
imndred and seventy pupils on its register, with an average 
attendance of from sixty to one hundred. Two teachers were 
employed, with an assistant, who also attended to the fires, keep- 
ing the school-room in order, and other general duties. 

The age of children was specified, in the constitution, at from 
eighteen months to six years. During the winter, few under 
three years of age were able to attend. 

The school had been in operation less than six months, when 
Governor Clinton, who had been the President of the Public 
School Society from its foundation, made the following allusion 
to it in his Message to the Legislature : 

The institution of infant schools is the pedestal to the pyramid. It 
embraces those children who are generally too young for common schools ; 
it relieves jiarents from engrossed attention to their offspring, softens the 
brow of care, and lightens the hand of labor. More efficacious in reaching 
the heart than the head, in improving the temper than the intellect, it has 
been eminently useful in laying the foundation of good feelings, good prin- 
ciples, and good habits. 



660 THE rtnsLic school society. 

A communication was sent by Mrs. Betlrane to the Public 
School Society, asking, on behalf of herself and her colleagues, 
the use of the basement-rooms of No. 8, in Grand street, for 
school purposes. The Board of Trustees granted the request, 
and the school was organized. By this means was originated 
the extensive system known as the '• Primary Schools " and 
" Pi-imary Departments." A few months afterward, Mrs. 
Bethune, on behalf of " The Infant School Society," applied 
for the use of the rooms in No. 10, in Duane street, which aj> 
])lication was referred to the Executive Committee with power, 
by whom the whole subject was referred to a sub-committee. 
The report was laid before the Board of Trustees in February, 
1828, and was as follows : 

The Committee on the Infant School and Junior Department Sy8teni 

REPORT : 

Tliat they have carefnlly attended to tlie duty assigned them, have visit- 
ed the schools several times, and have had an interview with the first direc- 
tress of the Infant School Society. 

That the infant mind is capable of receiving instruction at the early ago 
of two or three years ; that the inculcation of moral, ideal, and literal 
knowledge cannot be commenced at too early a period after the faculty of 
speech is developed ; that the formation of good habits is of immense im- 
portance even with children of the age in question ; that the providing a 
place in which the younger children of the poor may pass the day comfort- 
ably, whilst their parents are engaged in their usual avocations, instead of 
wandering the streets, exposed to the contamination of vice, is an object 
worthy the regard of the benevolent. These your committee consider as the 
foundation axioms on which the infant school system is established, and 
their examination of the subject has led to the conclusion that that founda- 
tion standeth sure. 

The committee do not consider it necessary to enlarge their report with 
reasoning, but that facts and the results of their investigation are alone 
required of them. 

The infant school in Canal street has on register one hundred and sev- 
enty children of both sexes, and from about two to six years of age, the lat- 
ter being the limit at which any was received. The number in attendance 
varies from fifty to one hundred. There are two female teachers, a princi- 
pal, and one assistant, employed at salaries of $300 each. The children are 
allowed to come early in the morning, and to remain till near dark, bringing 
their dinners with them, or to attend during the usual school hours only. 
The essence of the system pursued in the school appears to be a judicious 
combination of instruction and amusement, and that both shall be calcu- 
lated to form and elicit ideas, rather than mere literal knowledge, though 
this is by no means neglected. The children are evidently happy and inter- 



INFANT SCHOOLS. 661 

ested in their employments, and the scene is altogether deeply engaging to 
the best feelings of humanity. The opinion of the first directress and teach- 
ers is, that the same plan may be advantageously adopted in a school of two 
to three hundred children ; and the English Reports inform us of schools of 
the latter number now in sucessful operation. 

In the junior department of No. 8 there are more than three hundred 
children, giving an average daily attendance of about two hundred and 
fifty. The system of this school is the same as that of the public schools 
generally, and therefore well known to the trustees. The children are one 
degree older than those oi the infant school — say from three to seven or 
eight. The school appeared in as good order as could be reasonably ex- 
pected. 

On a comparison of the mode of instruction adopted in the two schools, 
your committee are of opinion that the infant school system, as applied to 
children of such tender years, is decidedly preferable ; the one being the 
mere course of common instruction in the knowledge of letters and words, 
the other including the first, and extending its views to what is of much 
greater importance — the knowledge of things and ideas, with moral maxims 
and scriptural instruction ; the whole illustrated by visible objects and ver- 
bal explanations calculated to excite the attention and interest the feelings 
of the infant mind. 

From this view of the subject, your committee are led to the conclusion 
that it is expedient that infant schools be gradually established throughout 
the city ; and the question only remains, whether this shall be done by the 
already organized Infant School Society of ladies, and to whom the credit 
and honor are due for having first, and by persevering exertions, introduced 
this system into this city, or by the Public School Society. As there are 
thousands of children who would be proper objects for these schools, and 
many rooms and large funds would be required to carry them on advan- 
tageously, it would probably be best that a part of the duty of founding 
and continuing them be in the hands of a society of men, though their im- 
mediate supervision would be better entrusted to the motherly patronage 
and care of ladies. And as these schools would be introductory to and 
could be conveniently accommodated in the basements of the public schools, 
your committee are of the opinion that it is advisable for this Society to 
undertake the work, and that the Infant School Society, with such other 
ladies as may hereafter join them, be invited to act as a committee for the 
visitation and superintendence of the schools. 

The committee are aware of the importance of the measure proposed, 
and believe it will be judicious to embark therein gradually ; and, as the 
final result of their investigations, they with deference propose : 

1st. That the junior department school in No. 8 be, for the present, con- 
tinued without change. 

2d. That an infant school be opened by the Public School Society in the 
basement of No. 10, so soon as competent teachers can be obtained and made 
acquainted with the peculiarities of the system. 

3d. That the Infant School Society be requestcfl to act as a ladies' com- 



662 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

mittee for tlie management and supervision of said school, and that the 
school committee of No. 10 be associated with the sub-committee of ladies 
so far as to act as their advisers and assistants. 

4th. That the teachers be appointed by the Executive Committee, on the 
recommendation of the Infant School Society. That the ladies' committee 
be requested to adojjt such rules and regulations for the schools as they shall 
deem proper, subject, however, to the advice and control of the trustees. 

5th. That the sub-committee of ladies having special charge of the 
school, make a quarterly report to the Board of Trustees of the state and 
condition thereof, with the number and progress of the children, &c., &c., 

Robert C. Cornell, i 
F. Sheldon, |- Committa: 

LiNDLEY Murray, ) 

The infiint sdiool iu No. 10 had been in operation about 
eigliteen months, when, in April, 1829, a committee, consisting 
of Messrs. Samuel F. Mott, Erastus Ellsworth, W. W. Chester, 
Samuel Demilt, and J. II. Taylor, was appointed to examine it, 
in connection with the junior department of No. 8, and report 
upon the adoption of tlie system, either with or without the aid 
of the Infant School Society. The committee reported very 
favorably upon the plan, and recommended it for its superiority 
over the mixed system of the jimior departments. Questions of 
a financial and legal nature interposed, however, to prevent the 
immediate extension of the system. The funds were not deemed 
to be sufficient, and the restrictions of the law relative to the 
distribution of the school money served to raise a barrier to ap- 
propriations for that class of schools ; as the addition of so many 
children of an age under that specified by the law of the State 
would give an unequal proportion to the city, by including thou- 
sands of pupils who were younger than the school children of 
the rural and town districts. The report was refen-ed back to 
the committee, to procure the legal opinion of the law members 
of the board upon the j^oints suggested by the committee. The 
opinions of the committee being sustained, it was deemed to be 
inexpedient at the time to increase the number of infant schools. 

In the month of October of the same year, the subject was 
renewed, the reports of the committee and the legal opinions 
being read in full. Two of the opinions (those of Messrs. Ben- 
jamin Clark and Hiram Ketchum) were adverse to the right of 
the Society to organize and draw money for those schools ; and 
four of the opinions (those of Messrs. Eobert Sedgwick, James 



INFANT SCUOOLS. 663 

I. Eoosevelt, Jr., Samuel Boyd, aud D. Lord) were in favor of 
the said right. A resohitiou was oifered, deelariug it expedient 
to establish infant schools, which was lost by a vote of fourteen 
in the affirmative and sixteen in the negative. 

Notwithstanding the apparent difficulties and the positive 
differences of opinion as to the propriety of adopting the infant 
school as a part of the system of instruction, some of its friends 
were so convinced of its importance, that they could not long 
permit .the matter to rest. The Executive Committee had the 
proposition under constant advisement, and in May, 1830, the 
i-eport of a sub-committee on the junior department of No. 8 
was laid before the board. It rcommended the alteration of the 
rooms occupied by the jimior department so as to adapt it for 
the use of an infant scliool. The subject was referred to a com- 
mittee, consisting of Messrs. John E. Hurd, Eobert C. Cornell, 
Hu-am Ketchum, J. II. Taylor, aud Charles Oakley. 

The report of this committee, presented to the board in July, 
recommended the change of the system, and left the details of 
the arrangements to the several sections, the school-buildings at 
that time not being equally well adapted for scj^arate depart- 
ments. The 1st, 2d, 3d, and 4th classes were to be designated 
as the Third or Junior Department, and to be under the care of 
female teachers. The important change of teachers thus inti-o- 
duced was alone a great advance, males having been prcviovisly 
almost exclusively employed, and the younger classes of scholars 
having been usually assigned to the care of male monitors. The 
advantage of female teachers for these young learners was too 
evident to the committee, and their introduction was warmly 
urged in the report. It was referred to a special meeting to be 
held in September, at which time a preamble and resolutions 
adopting the infant school system were presented, and adopted 
by the board. It was resolved to change the junior department 
of No. 8 into an infant school, and a committee was appointed 
to examine the school in No. 10, and report such modifications 
and changes as might be deemed advisable. Messrs. Robert C. 
Cornell, Myndert Van Schaick, John E. Ilurfl, Samuel F. Mott, 
and Lindley Murray were entrusted with this service. Their 
report was submitted in the month of November, with a code of 
regulations for the schools, which were designated as " Peemaey 
Departments." The school committees, or " sections " of trus- 
tees, were to be aided by a sub-committee of ladies, who should 



GG4 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

be entitled to nominate the teachers and monitors. Female 
scholars from two years of age and upward were to be admitted, 
and male scholars from two to six years of age, bnt no children 
were to be admitted who -were qualitied to enter the 4th class of 
the public schools. Two cents a week was the tuition fee, the 
pay system being at that time in operation. 

The jjlans and recommendations of the committee were 
adopted, and the Executive Committee was directed to apply to 
the Legislature for power to educate and draw school money for 
all children between two and sixteen years of age. The Manual 
was also altered and amended to conform to the new system, and 
copies were printed and distributed to the teachers. 

Tlie Society, at the same time, took measures to secure addi- 
tional means from the Legislature, which were ultimately suc- 
cessful, and a committee was appointed to visit the Boston 
schools, to examine and report upon the system there in use. 
Tire deputation made a report upon the remodelling and im- 
provement of the schools of the Society, a prominent feature of 
which report was the general plan of i3rimary schools, or schools 
similar to the primary departments, but located in buildings of 
a moderate size, and so distributed over the city as to be easy 
and near of access to young children. These schools M-ere to be 
exclusively under the care of female teachers, subject to the con- 
trol of the respective sections to which they might be assigned. 
The scheme submitted by the committee was adopted in May, 
1832, and Messrs. Samuel W. Seton, James B. Brinsmade, 
George T. Trimble, J. H. Taylor, Mahlon Day, Ileman Averill, 
and Samuel Dcmilt were selected as the Committee on Primary 
Schools, to introduce the system under the resolutions adopted, 
by organizing ten primary schools. The gentlemen thus com- 
missioned held then- first meeting on May 22d, 1832, and entered 
with great zeal upon the discharge of their duties, and a number 
of schools were soon put into successful operation. They in- 
creased in number and importance until about the year 1844, 
when the questions arose between the Society and the Board of 
Education as to the power of the former to erect new buildings 
and acquire additional property for school purposes. At this 
time the Society had fifty-six primary schools for white children, 
and five of the same class for colored children, in operation, in 
which 8,970 pupils were instructed. By the law of 1863, they 
were transferred to the Board of Education. 



SCHOOLS FOK COLORED CHILDEEN. 665 



CHAPTER XIX. 

SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN. 

The Manumission Society Organized — Objects and Measures — School for Colored Chil- 
dren Proposed — Committee Appointed — Report — Funds — Teachers Employed — 
School Organized — Purchase of a School Site — Grant of Land from Frederick Jay 
— Legacy from Estate of John Murray — Evening School — The Laucasterian Sys- 
tem Adopted — Manumission Society Incorporated — Change of Location of the 
School — Grant of Land in William Street by the Corporation — Building Erected 
— School in Mulberry Street — General La Fayette — C. C. Andrews — School No. 3 
— School No. 4 — School No. 5 — School No. 6 — Transfer to the Public School 
Society Proposed — Proceedings of the Societies — Committees Appointed — Author- 
ity to Transfer Granted by tlie Legislature — Transfer Completed — The Schools 
Reorganized — New School-House in Laurens Street — School for Colored Monitors 
— Decline of Schools and the Causes — Name Changed — Dissolution of the Manu- 
mission Society. 

On tlie 25th of January, 178.5, a number of gentlemen of tlie 
city of New York, who had witnessed the sufierings of the col- 
ored population, and the frequent injustice done to free persons 
of color, organized " A Society for Promoting the Manumission 
of Slaves, and Protecting such of them as have been or may be 
.Liberated." The meeting was held at the dwelling-house of 
John Simmons, innkeeper. 

The gentlemen present on that occasion were Robert Bowne, 
Samuel Franklin, John Murray, Sr., Robert Troup, Lawrence 
Embree, Melanchthon Smith, William Goforth, Willet Seaman, 
Elijah Cock, Joseph Lawrence, William Keesc, John Murray, 
Jr., Effingham Embree, Thomas Bowne, Edward Lawrence, 
James Cog.swell, William Shotwell, Ezekiel Robins, and John 
Keese. 

The meeting was called to order by Mr. Troup, who stated 
the object of the conference, and Melanchthon Smith was chosen 
chairman. A coTnmittee, consisting of Samuel Franklin, Law- 
rence Embree, Robert Troup, Melanchthon Smith, and John 
Murray, Sr., was appointed to report a draft of by-laws and 



666 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCmXT. 

regulations for the government of the Society. Tlie meeting 
hen adjonrued to the 4th of February. 

At the meeting held by adjournment, a number of other 
gentlemen were present, among whom appear the names of John 
Jay and Alexander Hamilton, Hon. John Jay being elected 
chairman. 

The Committee on " Eules " submitted their report, which 
was discussed, amended, and adopted as a constitution of the 
Society. The preamble is as follows : 

The benevolent Creator and Father of men having given to them all an 
equal right to life, liberty, and pro])erty, no sovereign power on earth can 
justly deprive them of cither, but in conformity to impartial government 
and laws to which they have expressly or tacitly consented. 

It is our duty, therefore, both as free citizens and Christians, not only to 
regard with compassion the injustice done to those among us who are held 
as slaves, but to endeavor, by lawful ways and means, to enable them to 
share equally with us in that civil and religious liberty with which an indul- 
gent Providence has blessed these States ; and to which these our brethren 
are, by nature, as much entitled as ourselves.^k 

The violent attempts lately made to seize and export for sale several free 
negroes who were peaceably following their respective occupations in this 
city, must excite the indignation of every friend to humanity, and ought to 
receive exemjilary punishment. 

The hope of impunity is, too often, an invincible temptation to trans- 
gression ; and as the helpless condition of the persons alluded to doubtless 
exposed them to the outrages they experienced, so it is probable that the 
like circumstances may again expose them, and others, to similar violences. 
Destitute of friends and of knowledge, struggling with poverty, and accus- 
tomed to submission, they are under great disadvantages in asserting their 
rights. 

These considerations induce us to form ourselves into a society, to be 
styled " A Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, and Protecting 
such of them as have been or may lie Liberated." 

After the adoption of tlie constitution, Alexander Hamilton, 
Kobert Troup, and White Matlack were appointed a committee 
to recommend a course of proceedings to be pursued in the case 
of persons to be aided by the Society. The meeting then ad- 
journed to the 10th of the same month, for the purpose of eifect- 
iug a permanent organization under the rules. Accordingly, on 
that day, the members met, and having balloted for officers, 
Hon. John Jay was elected president, Samuel Franklin, vice- 
president, John Murray, Jr., treasurer, and John Kcesc, secre- 



THE MANUMISSION SOCIETY. 667 

taiy. The Standing Committee was composed of six members, 
as follows : Melanchthon Smith, Lawrence Embree, Dr. James 
Cogswell, Ezekiel Kobins, AVilliam Gofortli, and Elijah Cock. 

The objects of the Society were pursued with great diligence, 
and it became evident to the friends of the colored race that, in 
addition to other means of advancing their interests and elevat- 
ing them in their social and moral condition, a school for the 
education of children was essential. The Standing Committee, 
composed at that time (May 11th, 178G) of Jacob Seaman, Law- 
rence Embree, "White Matlack, and Leonard M. Cutting, made 
a report, in which they recommended the appointment of a com- 
mittee to I'eport a plan for establishing a free school for negro 
children. John Murray, Jr., James Cogswell, and John Keese, 
were appointed as the committee. 

At the following meeting, held August 10th, the committee 
reported their plan, which provided for the raising of money by 
subscription or donation, the appointment of a teacher at a sea- 
sonable time, and the selection and appointment of trustees by 
the Society. The report was laid on the table until the next 
meeting, held on November 9th, when the report was amended 
and adopted, and Melanchthon Smitli, John Murray, Jr., Mat- 
thew Clarkson. William Goforth, Lawrence Embree, William 
Backhouse, and Dr. CogSAvell were appointed a committee to 
make collections for the purpose. On the 17th of May, 1787, 
the fund subscribed amounted to about $5,000, and the committee 
asked that they be discharged, and that a new committee be ap- 
pointed. The request was granted, and the new committee con- 
sisted of John Murray, Jr., William Backliouse, Abijah Ham- 
mond, John Lawrence, White Matlack, Richard Piatt, and 
Ezekiel Robins. 

At the meeting held on August 16th, the committee reported 
that £801 12.S. had been subscribed, and urged the adoption of 
immediate measures for the organization of a school. The report 
was adopted, and Rev. John Rodgers, D.D., John Murray, Jr., 
White Matlack, Lawrence Embree, William Backhouse, Dr. 
James Cogswell, and Ebenezer Ilarwood, were appointed. The 
committee reported at the next quarterly meeting, held on No — 
vember 15th, stating that they had prepared an application to 
Trinity Church for a donation of a piece of ground Jbr the pur- 
pose of a school for colored children, and that they had engaged 



DOO THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

a schoolmaster to take cliarge of the school. This gentleman, 
the committee stated, had dismissed a school of white children 
in order to take charge of the proposed school, and under such 
terms as conYinced the committee that "gain was not his object," 
for he would furnish a school-room and fuel, and teach the chil- 
dren for six months, " for sixty pounds," Tiie teacher, Corne- 
lius Davis, having been tlras obtained, the next step was to adopt 
rules for the admission and government of scholars ; and, on the 
1st of November, a school was opened, which numbered twelve 
pupils at the time of the report. On the recommendation of the 
committee, twelve trustees were appointed to have the super- 
vision of the school until the next annual election. The Board 
of Trustees, at this first organization, consisted of Melanchthon 
Smith, Lawrence Embree, John Lawrence, Matthew Clarkson, 
John Bleecker, Thomas Burling, Jacob Seaman, Wliite Matlack, 
James Cogswell, Willett Seaman, Nathaniel Lawrence, and John 
Murray, Jr. In February, 1788, the trustees reported 29 pupils 
in attendance. In November, there were 56 on register. 

In May, 1791, a committee of four members — Messrs. James 
Cogswell, Samuel Franklin, John Lawrence, and Moses Rogers — 
was appointed to raise funds for the building of a school-house. 
At the following meeting in November, the President of the 
Society, Matthew Clarkson, Dr. Cogswell, and William W. 
"Woolsey, were named as a committee to procure a lot from the 
corporation of Trinity Church. The application was replied to 
negatively, and the only lot of ground which would answer the 
wishes of the Society, in the rear of the chapel in Beekman 
street, was fixed at so high a price, and on such terms, that the 
Society could not comply with them. The committee was ac- 
cordingly continued ; the Committee on Subscriptions was dis- 
charged, and, in February, 1793, a new committee appointed. 

In August, 1792, a school for colored girls, taught by Mrs. "^ 
Davis, was taken under the control of the Society. 

The difficulty of procuring a suitable piece of ground pre- 
sented an obstacle to the operations of the school, and, at the 
close of 1794 (November 18), a committee of three was appoint- 
ed to take steps to obtain an act of incorporation for the Africa:^. I 
Free School, and to apply to the Regents of the University to 
have the institution recognized by that body. Noah Webster, 
Jr., Robert Bowne, and William Johnson were named for that 



AFRICAN FREE SCHOOL. 669 

duty. The committee reported at the following meeting, and 
were discharged. At the annual meeting in February, 1795, it 
was resolved to apply to the Legislature for aid, and a committee 
of live was appointed to prepare and present a petition, making 
the wants of the school known to that body. The effort was 
successful, an appropriation was made, and the committee was 
discharged, on the reading of their report, in May, 1796. 

In May, 1794, Frederick Jay, Esq., liad presented the Soci- 
ety a lot of land on Great George street, 25 by 100 feet, for a 
school-house, and, if deemed not desii"able for that purpose, the 
Society were authorized to sell it, and use the proceeds in the 
purchase of another site. The committee appointed in Novem- 
ber of the same year for the pui'pose of selecting a location, 
were continued until February, 179C, when they reported that, 
in consequence of the high prices at which property was heM, 
they c'ould not make a desirable selection, and they were dis- 
charged. 

In November, 1795, John Murray, Jr., the treasurer, report- 
ed that he had received a legacy of £200 from his father's estate, 
for the use of tlie African Free School, the interest on that 
amount to be a perpetual annuity for the benefit of the school. 

In April, 1796, a special meeting of the Society was lield, on 
tlie call of the trustees of the school, to hear a report on its con- 
dition and necessities. The report was discussed, and laid on 
the table until the regular meeting in May. The trustees re- 
ported that they had selected a piece of property in Cliff street, 
and had taken steps to secure its purchase. The report was 
accepted and approved, and the trustees directed to proceed with 
their plans. They were authorized to sell the lot donated by 
Mr. Jq,y, and appropriate the proceeds toward the purchase of 
the property. A large committee was appointed to obtain con- 
tributions, viz. : Thomas Eddy, Alexander Hamilton, Matthew 
Clarkson, Peter Jay Miinro, Gabriel Fnrman, John Campbell, 
Samuel Boyd, Streatfield Clarkson, Noah Webster, William 
Johnson, Moses Rogers, Samuel Bowne, Thomas Franklin, Wil- 
liam Dunlap, George M. Woolsey, George Gosman, Jacob Mott, 
John Murray, Jr., and Andrew Cock. The trustees were also 
directed to employ teachers, whose aggr^ate salaries should not 
exceed $700. The treasurer was directed to pay to the trustees 
£200 on the purchase-money, and £100 for repairs to the premises. 



670 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

In January, 1797, the trustees reported that tliej had em- 
liloyed William Pirsson as teacher, at $500 a year, and John 
Teasman as assistant, with a salary of $120 a year. Abigail 
Nicolls, the former female teacher, was also continued, with a 
salaiy of $200 a year. The branches taught were reading, writ- 
ing, arithmetic, the elements of geography, with sewing, &c., in 
the girls' school. The school at that time numbered 122 pupils 
— 63 males and 59 females, with an average attendance of 
about 80. 

The trustees also reported an evening school for colored 
pupils, taught by the same teachers, having 36 male and 8 
female pupils, averaging about 35 — the whole number of pupils 
being 166. The improvement of the school .was such that, on 
the 1st of May, 1797, the salaries were increased, and Mr. Pirs- 
son was paid $625, Miss Eicolls, $250, and Mr. Teasman, $200 
a year. 

In 1797, the Corporation made a grant of $275 to the school, 
and the trustees were directed to make inquiries and take all 
proper steps to secure an apportionment of the public money 
with the other schools entitled to the use of the fund. 

The Corjwration made a further donation, in the following 
year, of $250. 

In 1799, Mr. Pirsson was allowed to retire, and John Teas- 
man conducted the school, at a salary of $300, assisted by Miss 
Nicolls, whose salary was reduced to $200. Want of means 
occasioned this retrenchment. 

In May, 1800, the Corporation made a donation of $517. 

In 1801, the Legislature made an apportionment to the school 
which amounted to $1,565.78, to bo loaned on real estate, and 
the interest only used for the schools. An annual report of its 
condition was required to be made to the Legislature.\ 

The progress of the school during this time was encouraging 
to the friends of the depressed people for whose benefit the Soci- 
ety was organized, and the various appropriations made by both 
the city and State authorities; aiibrded them very important aid 
in carrying out their plans. During the year 1807, the Lancas- 
teriau system of instruction for poor children, which had been 
lately introduced into the school of the " Free-School Society," 
was also adopted in its modified form by the trustees of the Afri- 
can Free School. 



AFRICAN FREE SCHOOL. 6T1 

The Manumission Society had now been in existence about 
twenty-three years, and the importance of a more perfect organi- 
zation and well-defined legal rights induced its members to apply 
for an act of incorporation, which was granted, and passed on 
tiie lOth of February, 1808. 

The premises occupied by the school in Cliff street were not 
as desirable as the trustees wished, and an opportiinity for a 
change was presented at the close of the year 1809. In the 
month of December, the large school-house on Tryon Row, 
erected by the Free-School Society, was tinished, and opened on 
the 11th, with public exercises. The school had been previously 
held in apartments in the old Almshouse building in the Park, 
and the trustees of the African Free School applied for the privi- 
lege of occupying them. It was granted, but, in consequence 
of inconveniences which arose, the school was soon removed to 
its former location in Cliff street. Xot long afterward, in 1811, 
its apparatus was enriched by the addition of a library. 

The necessity of a better location for the school pressed con- 
stantly on the attention of the trustees, and they made an ear- 
nest appeal to the Corporation for tlie donation of a piece of 
groimd for the purpose. In 1812, a site in William street, near 
Duane, was granted in answer to the appeal. There were leases 
upon it, a lease of one half being for fourteen years, and the 
other being a life-lease. The trustees recommended the ])urchase 
of these leases, the sale of the Cliff street and other property, 
and the erection of a new building in William street. The Soci- 
ety accordingly authorized the changes proposed. The Cliff 
street property was sold for $5,000, and the lease for fourteen 
years purchased for $400. Before the purchaser took possession 
of the Cliff street property, the house was destroyed by fire 
(January 5, 1814), and he refused to close the pm-chase unless 
some allowance were made by the trustees. They concluded not 
to alter the terms, and the sale was not then made. 

In October of that year, the trustees were directed to erect a 
building, 30 by 60 feet, on the William street lots, and to mort- 
gage the Cliff street property for a sufficient sum to pay for the 
house, which was not to cost over $1,800. The property was 
mortgaged for $2,500, which was expended in paying for the 
erection of the house and the purchase of the lease. 

In a few months after opening the new school, the room be- 



672 THE PDBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

came so crowded with pupils that it was found necessary to 
engage a separate room next to the school, to accommodate such 
of the females as were to be taught sewing. This branch had 
been for some time discontinued, but it was now resumed under 
a well-qualified young woman, Miss Lucy Turpen, whose amiable 
disposition, and faithful as well as successful discharge of her 
duties, made her greatly esteemed both by her pupils and by the 
trustees. Miss Turpen, after serving the board for some time, 
removed to Ohio, and her place was supplied by Miss Mary 
Liucrum, who, with her predecessor, had been a pupil of the 
Female Association in this city, whose schools were models of 
the class. Miss Lincrum was succeeded by Eliza J. Cox, and 
the latter by Mary Ann Cox, under both of whom the female 
department sustained its character for order and usefulness. 

The increase in numbers of the colored people, and the 
growth and expansion of the city, called for the erection of a 
new house ; and a location being found in Mulberry street, near 
Grand, a building was erected, and African School No. 2 was 
opened in May, 1820. The building was of brick, two stories 
liigh, 75 by 35 feet, standing on a lot of ground 50 by 100 feet. 

In the year 1821, General La Fayette visited the United 
States, and, during his stay in the city of New York, he visited 
the public institutions, and, among others, some of the schools 
of the Public School Society. General La Fayette had been 
elected an honorary member of the Manumission Society in the 
year 1788, in company with Granville Sharpe and Thomas Clark- 
son, of England, and the members of the Society could not allow 
the ojjportunity to pass of presenting so distinguished a guest to 
the pupils of the school. Accordingly, on the 10th of Septem-- 
ber. General La Fayette, in company with several of the trustees 
and officers, visited the school, and witnessed some of their ex- 
ercises, expi-essing great satisfaction with the proceedings. One 
of the puj^ils addressed him as follows : 

General La Fayette : la behalf of myself and my fellow-schoolmates, 
may I be permitted to express our sincere and respectful gratitude to you 
for the condescension you have manifested this day iu visiting this institu- 
tion, which is one of the noblest specimens of New Yor'c philanthropy. 
Here, sir, you behold hundreds of the poor children of Africa, sharing with 
those of a lighter hue in the blessings of education ; and, while it will be 
our pleasure to remember the great deeds you have done for America, it will 



SCHOOLS FOR COLORED CHILDREN. 673 

be our delight also to cherish the memory of General La Payette as a friend 
to African emancipation, and as a member of this institution. 

To ■which the General replied briefly, 
I thank you, my dear child. 

The schools continued to prosper under the care given to 
them, and, in 1829, the pupils in No. 1 numbered 262, •while 
Ho. 2 had a register of 452 in good attendance. The trustees 
of the Public School Society at this time -were making an ap- 
peal to the public for an increased school-tax, in order to aftbrd 
the means for the necessary extension of the system of public 
instruction. The trustees of the African Free School imited in 
the etibrt, which -was successful, being generously responded to 
by the people, and enacted by the Legislature. 

In January, 1832, C. C. Andrews, the teacher of No. 2, 
tendered his i-esignation, to take effect on the 1st of May, but 
tlie time was shortened, and he surrendered his trust on the 
10th of April, to James Adains. Mr. Andrews had been em- 
ployed as a teacher by the Society for twenty-three years, a fact 
which alone attests his faithfulness and success. But a prejudice 
against his administration had arisen among the pupils and their 
friends, and a loss of attendance, showing that his influence was 
much impaired, led the trustees very reluctantly to accept his 
resignation. Mr. Andrews wrote a " History of the African 
Free School," which was published in 1830, containing many 
interesting productions of pupils of the school. Miss Julia G. 
Andrews, his daughter, also teacher in the female department 
of No. 2, resigned at the same time. No. 1 had been changed 
to a girls' school, of which Caroline Roe was teacher. 

About the 1st of November, 1831, a new school, No. 3, was 
opened in Nineteenth street, near the Sixth avenue, under the 
care of Benjamin F. Hughes. Tlie attendance was good for 
some time, the number of pupils being about 80, but it became 
reduced by i-eason of its inconvenient location ; and a difliculty 
having arisen in obtaining suitable premises, owing to the objec- 
tions urged against a colored school by the people in that vicin- 
ity, the trustees chose a building in Amity street, near the Sixth 
avenue. 

The female department of No. 2 was reorganized on the 1st 
of May, 1832, as School No. 4, and placed under the care of 



674 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

Nancy H. Buckingham. During tlie summer, No. 5 was opened 
at 161 Duane street, under the care of Jane A. Parker, and No. 
6, at 108 Columbia street, under the care of John Peterson — 
both of them colored teachers. At this time the number of 
pupils ill the schools was as follows: No. 1, 141; No. 2, 272; 
No. 3, 385 ; No. 4, 298 ; No. 5, 179 ; No. 6, 161— total, 1,439. 
At tliis period, Charles Reason was assistant in No. 2, Eliza D. 
Pichards in No. 3, and Fanny Tompkins in No. 4. In June, 
1833, School No. 7 was opened at 38 White street, under Levi 
Folsom. In September, No. 3 was divided, and the female de- 
partment was known as Female School No. 3. Soon afterward, 
a school was opened at 24 Laurens street, as a branch of No 7, 
under the care of Prince Leveridge. 

On the 1st of February, 1834, No. 1 was organized as a boys' 
school, James Adams, of No. 2, resigned, and Abel Libolt was 
appointed as hrs successor. Caroline Poe, of No. 1, was trans- 
ferred to No. 4, in place of Nancy H. Buckingham, resigned. 

While these changes were taking place, and the trustees were 
adding to the number of schools, a plan of niiion with the Pub- 
lic School Society had been agitated, and measures taken to con- 
summate it. The law i-estrieted the trustees to the payment of 
teachers' salaries in the expenditure of their portion of the school 
moneys, while the Public School Society was authorized to use 
its revenue for all the purposes of the system. This advantage 
was obvious, while another consideration was regarded as being 
of great importance; the original object of the Manumission 
Society had been secured — the slave-trade had been rendered 
illegal, the system of slavery had been abolished in the State of 
New York, and the only practical object of its existence centered 
in its schools. To place these under a more liberal patronage 
and a better developed organization, seemed wise as a matter of 
policy for the Society, and beneticent for the children of the 
colored schools. 

At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Public School 
Society, held November 2, 1832, a communication was received 
from the trustees of the African Free Schools, informing them 
that they had appointed a committee to confer with a similar 
committee on behalf of the Society in relation to a transfer of 
their schools, and requesting the appointment of such a com- 
mittee. Messrs. Samuel Demilt, George T. Trimble, John R. 



TEANSFEE OF COLOEED SCHOOLS. 675 

Ilurcl, Samuel F. Mott, and Lindley Murray were accordingly 
named for the conference. 

On the 14th of December the committee reported progress ; 
the report was referred back, and Hiram Ketehum was added to 
tlie number. 

The committee met repeatedly, and, on February 1, 1833, 
a report was laid before the trustees, stating tliat the proposition 
was to transfer the schools of the Manumission Society to the 
Public School Society, on condition that the latter purchase the 
properties at a fair valuation. The real estate consisted of a 
house and lots in Mulberry street, near Grand, a house in Wil- 
liam street, near Duane, on ground held by a perpetual lease 
from the city for school purposes, and the furniture and fixtures 
of the schools. 

Beside these there were four smaller schools, kept in hired 
apartments. The whole number of scholars on register M'as 
1,400, with an average attendance of fifty per cent. 

The committee, on a full review of the circumstances, 
although persuaded that a separate organization was most ex])e- 
dient if it could be maintained without a diversion of the school 
fimd from its special purpose by the Manumission Society, recom- 
mended the transfer. The same committee was continued to com- 
plete the arrangements, William W. Fox being substituted for 
John K. Hurd, Avho resigned. 

On the 2d of August, the committee reported that an impedi- 
ment had been discovered, by which the Manumission Society 
was incapable of conferring a title to its property until an act to 
authorize such transfer should be passed by the Legislature, and 
recommending that the measure be suspended. Tlie report was 
adopted by the board. 

The application of the Manumission Society was laid before 
tlie Legislature at the ensuing session, and the act was passed 
authorizing the transfer of the real and personal property to the 
Public School Society. On the 2d of May, 1S34, the facts were 
I'eported to the board, and also that the Common CoiTueil had 
consented to the transfer of the leaSe for the William street 
property'. Copies of the law, the resolution of the Common 
Council, and of the agreement between the two Societies were 
submitted with the report. The committee were directed to pro- 
ceed and complete tiie duty assigned them. 



676 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

On the 1st of August, the cominittee made a final report. 
The property had been examined by appraisers chosen by the 
joint conference committees, and the value fixed at $12,130.32, 
which had been paid by the ■ Treasurer of the Public School 
Society. 

The Mulberry street property, two lots, 50 by 100 feet, with 
a two-story brick house thereon, 35 by 75 feet, M'as valued at 
$9,500. 

The William street school-house, one story high, 35 by 59 
feet, $1,000. 

The fixtures, apparatus, cabinets of specimens, books, &c., 
in these houses, and in seven hired rooms, $1,630.22. 

The transfer was not actually comj^leted in all its forms until 
some time in July, but as it had been determined in the early 
part of the year by the act of the Legislature, the schools were 
deemed to be under the care of the Public School Society from 
the 1st of May. The salaries of the teachers, and other expen- 
ses, were all commenced, on the part of the Society, at that 
time, and the teachers' reports for the quarter made to conform 
to the transfer. 

The names of the teachers then on duty are as follows : 

No. 1, Eansom F. Wake, of No. 2 (temporary teacher). 

No. 2, male, Abel Libolt, teacher ; Ransom F. Wake and Charles 
Reason, assistants. 

No. 2, female, Catharine Eoe, teacher ; Mary Eoe and Maria M. 
De Grass, assistants. 

No. 3, male, John Brown, teacher. 

No. 3, female, Sarah M. Douglass. 

No. 4, " Eliza D. Richards. 

No. 5, " Fanny Tompkins. 

No. 6, " John Peterson, teacher ; Rebecca Peterson, as- 
sistant. 

No. 7, " Levi Folsom, teacher ; Sarah Freeman, and Sarah 
M. Freeman, assistants. 

No. 7, " (branch) William Hamilton, teacher ; Elizabeth 
Brady, assistant. 

At the meeting of the Manumission Society, held on January 
13, 1835, the trustees of the schools presented thair final report, 
asking to be discharged from their duties. The report was ac- 



TRANSFER OF COLOEED SCHOOLS. 677 

eepted, and the labors of the Society in its educational depart- 
ment were terminated. 

At the time of sale the Treasurer of the Manumission Society 
had in his hands an unexpended balance, from the scliool moneys 
of 1833, of $1,063.43, to which was added the whole of the 
apportionment for 1834, amounting to $8,241.21, making a total 
of §9,304.64, which was paid to the Treasurer of the Public 
School Society. 

The committee submitted several recommendations in regard 
to the reorganization of the colored schools. They were to be 
subject to the same by-laws, and conducted on the same system 
as the other schools. No. 2, in Mulberry street, was to take 
rank as No. 1, while the original No. 1, in William street, was 
to be called Primary No. 1, and the other primary schools num- 
bered consecutively. 

A special committee was also recommended to examine the 
schools, and report on such changes in the system of conducting 
them as might be expedient and proper. 

Tiie report was adopted by the board. The following gentle- 
men, members of the Manumission Societ\', were balloted for 
and elected members of the board : Israel Corse, Thomas Bus- 
sing, Edmund Willetts, Henry Hinsdale, Charles Walker, Ed- 
mimd Haviland, Thomas L. Jewett, William L. Stone, and Ira 
B. Underhill. These gentlemen, together with Samuel Wood 
and Mahlon Day, were appointed the section for the colored 
schools. 

Messrs. Samuel W. Seton, George T. Trimble, Samuel De- 
milt, Ira B. Underhill, and Thomas Bussing were appointed a 
committee on the course of studies and examination. 

On the first of May, the number of scholars on register was 
1,608, with an average attendance the previous quarter of 757. 

On the 7th of November, the Committee on Examination and 
Change of System laid a report before the board, recommending 
that the school in William street be reorganized as Primary No. 
1, and placed under the care of a female teacher, and made to 
conform to the other primary schools. The report was adopted. 

At the time of the transfer there were five primary schools ; 
No. 2, had been suspended, and No. 1, in William street, had 
been known as African School No. 1. The others were the fol- 
lowing : No. 3, in Amity street ; No. 4, at 199 East Broadway ; 



678 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

No. 5, 161 Duaiie street ; No. 6, 108 Columbia street ; and No. 
7, 38 AYliite and 24 Laurens streets. 

On the 6th of February, 1835, the committee subuiitted a 
long report in which many recommendations were made, relating 
to the system of instruction, transfer of schools, and salaries, 
with other plans, all of which were referred to the Executive 
Committee, with power. 

One of the most impoi-tant measures recommended was the 
erection of a new school-house, west of Broadway, for a large 
school, to which the pupils of No. 7 should be transferred. 

On the 7th of August following, the Committee on Locations 
reported the purchase of lots in Laurens street, near Broome, for 
the new school-house. The price, $5,250, had been paid for the 
property. At the same meeting, the Property Committee was 
empowered to procure plans for the building, subject to the 
approval of the Executive Committee, and erect the house as 
soon as possible. 

On the otii of February, 1836, a proposition for a school 
for colored monitors was made to the board, which, with other 
measures relative to these schools, was referred to a special com- 
mittee, consisting of Samuel F. Mott, Lindley Murray, James 
F. Depeyster, Joseph B. Collins, and Robert Pardow. These- 
gentlemen were to act in connection with the section on African 
schools, 

One of the most important matters taken into consideration 
by the committee was tiie great decline in the attendance, and 
the deterioration in the grade of the schools. They were ac- 
counted for, in part, by the fact that the transfer was unpopular 
among the colored people, w'ho had always regarded the Manu- 
mission Society with a grateful esteem, and the members of 
which they had always loved as their devoted friends. In addi- 
tion to this, the riots and disorders of the year 1834, by men 
who had been prompted by violent leaders to attack prominent 
friends of the emancipation movement, had made the parents 
very timid about trusting their children at long distances from 
their homes. The course of studies and books were also novel, 
and the children were not easily trained to the new discipline. 
Public meetings were held in order to interest the colored people 
in their scliools, and Prince Leveridge, a colored agent, was 
employed to visit the families throughout the city, in order to 



DISSOLrxiON OF THE MANUMISSION SOCIETY. 679 

press tlie importance of education upon their attention person- 
ally. _ _ _ ,, 

Tlicse impediments to the successful operation of the schools 
gradually wore away, and they have since that time heen con- 
ducted with the average success of the white schools of the same 
grade. 

At the meeting of the board, held May 4, 1838, a petition 
from the teachers ot tliese schools was presented, asking that the 
name be changed. After some discussion on the matter, the 
petition was responded to affirmatively, and the title of the 
schools was changed to " Colored," in place of " African." 

A proposition was made to the Board of Trustees to open 
one or more new schools for colored children, but a report *bn 
the proposition, on the 1st of March, 1839, determined the board 
not to entertain it. The Manumission Society, by its committee, 
offered to contribute $2,500 toward the cost of a new school, 
but the board felt it necessary to decline the liberal donation. 

Soon after this period the Manumission Society, feeling that 
a new class of agencies, far more extensive than their own, and 
adapted to a different and vastly larger population, had been 
called into existence, believing that its work had been prac- 
tically accomplished, adopted a resolution to terminate its exist- 
ence. It had nobly filled its place as an agent in protecting the 
helpless, rescuing such as were unjustly held in bondage, restor- 
ing free persons to the liberty of which they had been dei>rived 
by kidnappers, or otherwise, and in educating the children 
of the colored people in the city of New York. It had also 
witnessed the grand event of emancipation in New York and 
New Jersey, and the institution whose sorrows and evils had 
called it into existence had migrated far beyond its sphere of 
action. In a consciousness of pure and exalted motives, self- 
sacrificing and laborious action, and hallowed in the sacred 
memories of lofty philanthropy and Christian benevolence, it 
ceased its labors, to be remembered as one of the noblest and 
earliest of American institutions devoted especially to the cause 
of humanity and freedom. 



680 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETT. 



CHAPTER XX. 
HISTORICAL NOTES OF THE SCHOOLS. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 1. 

The first school of the Public School Society was opened in 
a house in Bancker (now Madison) street, on the 17th of May, 
1806, and continued tliore until removed to the Almsliouse build- 
ing in the Park. Tlie necessity of cnlai'ged accommodations had 
induced the Society to apply to the Corporation for a grant, and 
an old building, known as tl)e Arsenal, was accordingly donated 
for the iise of the Society. Tliis, however, proved insufheient, 
and measures were taken to secure the erection of a commodious 
structure. Tiie efforts of tlie trustees were successful, and, on 
the 11th of December, 1809, the building was publicly opened 
with approjiriate exercises. The President of the Society, De 
Witt Clinton, delivered an addi-ess on the occasion. William 
Smith, teacher. 

On the 18th of December, the committee met to receive 
applications for admission. A large number of pupils offered 
themselves, and the registering proceeded rapidly. On the 26tir 
of January, 1810, an arrangement having been made with the 
Fire Department, a committee, consisting of Kobert Wardell, 
Peter Sharp, and John Caldwell, attended to superintend the 
admission of pupils from that department. Fifty pupils' were 
to be instructed in the school, the tuition fee being $6 each per 
annum. Forty-four were admitted on the 26th, and the remain- 
der on the 29th of January. 

The school was an object of great interest not only to citi- 
zens, but to strangers, and so frequent were their visits as to 
interfere with the operations of the school. A regulation ap- 
pointing Thursday morning for visitors was adopted — none being 



PtTBLIC SCHOOL NO. 1. 681 

admitted at other hours, except by the special request of a 
trustee. 

On the 22d of January, 1810, John Missing, afterward prin- 
cipal of No. 2, was employed as an assistant in No. 1. In April, 
1810, Shepherd Johnston, afterward principal of No. 3, was 
employed as a monitor, together with William McAlpin, both 
pupils in the school. 

At the end of a year the school numbered 560 pupils. 

In 1816, Lloyd D. Windsor was appointed principal, in place 
of William Smitli. 

On February 2d, 1813, a committee of twenty-four ladies, 
of the Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, Associate Reformed, 
and Reformed Dutch Cliurches, attended to catechise the chil- 
dren. On the 9th, thirty, and on the 16th, forty ladies attended 
to give religious instruction. Bishop Ilobart opened the exer- 
cises with prayer. One afternoon in the week was devoted to 
these religious services. 

In 1820, the managers of the American Bible Society were 
engaged in selecting a location suitable for their depository, and 
it was proposed to sell No. 1 for that purpose. A committee of 
the Public School Society was appointed to present a memorial 
to the Corporation, asking that a fee-simple of the ground be 
vested in the Society, to enable it to sell the property and pur- 
chase a less public and noisy location. The application was 
referred to the Finance Committee, who reported adversely, and 
the proposition failed. 

In 1823, the Female Association, which had until that time 
sustained the girls' school in No. 1, resolved to close it, and the 
trustees immediately reorganized the female department, so that 
the girls in that part of the city should not be deprived of in- 
struction. 

In 1824, the Corporation made an offer to purchase No. 1, 
but, after some negotiation, the project was abandoned. 

In 1825, John Scudder, the proprietor of the American 
Museum, proposed to hire' the building on a perpetual lease, at 
a rent of 6 per cent, on $30,000, and an annual admission of the 
pupils of the schools to the museum, which failed, as the Cor- 
poration made a new proposition for the propert}', and, in 1826, 
appointed a committee to obtain a release of the ground to the 
city for the purpose of extending the Park. The trustees adopted 



682 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

a preamble and resolutions, setting forth, that, as the property 
was held for purposes of public instruction, the Society could 
not surrender tlie property without an equivalent, so that the 
object of the donors, by whose liberality the building was erected, 
might be secured in another place, and calling for a joint board 
of iive appraisers to make an award. Two appraisers were ap- 
pointed by the Common Council, and the Committee of Confer- 
ence were authorized to appoint two on behalf of the Society. 
Asa Mann and Henry Wyckolf, for the Corporation, and Peter 
Augustus Jay and E. W. King, for the Society, awarded $26,500 
as the value of the lease. The negotiation was not completed. 
In 1831, a similar movement met with a similar fate. 

In 1832, Messrs. W. D. Coit, J. H. Taylor, and others, 
formed an association for the teaching of apjirentiees, and other 
pupils, and applied for the use of No. 1, two evenings in the 
week, for an evening school. The Executive Committee granted 
the request, subject to the decision of the section of No. 1, by 
whom it was deemed inexpedient to grant the building for the 
purpose. 

In 1833, the Board of Assistant Aldermen appointed a Com- 
mittee of Conference to take measures to obtain absolute pos- 
session of the property. The committee renewed the offer on 
the terms of the joint award previously made, but no result was 
reached. 

In 1837, the long-vexed question was terminated by the order 
of the Common Council to open Centre street. The commis- 
sioners allowed the Society $22,000 damages, and left part of 
the lot as the property of the Society. 

The building in William street, formerly occupied by Colored 
School No. 1, had been appropriated for a court-house, to which 
the pupils would have been immediately transferred, but for this 
occupancy. Until the Society could regain possession of the 
premises, the pupils were accommodated in other places. The 
boys' school was held in St. Phillip's Church, in Centre street, 
and the girls' school in the Brick Church chapel. A new build- 
ing was erected in "William street, and, on October 16, 1838, the 
pupils were transferred from their temporary quarters to the new 
house. Appropriate exercises were had, and James I. Koose- 
velt, Jr., and Samuel W". Seton addressed the audience. 

The teachers of No. 1 have been as follows : 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 2. 683 

William Smith, 1806-1810. 

Lloyd D. Windsor, 181G-1S36, wlio was removed from his 
post by death, Augiist 1. 

AVilliam Belden, Jr., 183G-1S39. 

Eichard S. Jacobson, 1839-1848. 

William W. Smith entered on duty September, 1848, and 
continued until the transfer of the schools to the Board of Edu- 
cation, in 1853. 

Tlie school was reorganized in 1837, and a female depart- 
ment established, under the care of Eliza Harris. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 2. 

Col. Henry Rutgers having donated lots of ground to the 
" Free-School Society," and a new school being demanded by 
the wants of the eastern portion of the city, it was resolved to 
erect a building npon the lots so generously granted. A com- 
mittee was accordingly appointed, consisting of Col. Henry Rut- 
gers, Thomas Collins, and Garrett Van Wagener, to superintend 
the erection and opening of the building. It was completed 
during the month of October, and opened for the I'eception of 
pupils on the 13th of November, 1811. Forty -seven scholars of 
both sexes were admitted, and the number was increased in two 
weeks to 197, under the care of John Missing, teacher. 

Tlie boys and girls occupied the same room, all being under 
the care of one principal. But the number increased so that it 
became desirable to separate the scholars into two departments. 
The building was two stories high, with a basement, the school 
being in the upper stor3^ The tirst floor was occupied in part 
as the residence of the teacher, and in part by one of the schools 
of the Female Association. It was proposed, in 1821, to pro- 
cure other accommodations for the teacher, extend the school- 
room, and separate the boys and the girls. The alterations were 
made, and the girls' school was opened on the 1st of November, 
under the care of Rebecca Leggett, at a salary of $200. 

In 1822, the crowded state of the girls' school suggested an 
exchange of apartments — the boys being transferred to the lower 
floor, and the girls to the upper, which was accordingly done. 



684 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

In 1823, tlie school of the Female Association was removed from 
the building, and the partitions being taken down, the whole 
floor was ajiproprlatcd to the boys' school. Other alterations 
were made, in 1827, to make the house better fitted for the use 
of the pupils. The following year (1828), in consequence of 
widening Ilenry street, it became necessary to cut ofl' about 
eight feet from the front of the building, and to make other 
alterations corresponding to the reduced size of the house, all of 
which were promptly executed, and the school was reopened on 
tiie 15th of September. It continued in that condition until 
1834, when it was rebuilt, being larger and more convenient 
than its predecessor, and finished and furnislied for a model 
school. It was opened on the 1st of November. The primary 
department was organized at that time. 

The succession of teachers in No. 2 was somewhat rapid after 
]\Ir. Missing resigned his charge, in 1825. lie was followed by 
Nathaniel C. Hart, wlio vacated on the 15th of February', 1824, 
to assume the charge at the House of Refuge, surrendering his 
place to Henry Hart. He continued in his position only a few 
months, when he suddenly resigned, in October, much to the 
regret of the trustees. Jotham Wilson, a monitor in No. 5, and 
Thomas P. Okie, monitor in No. 3 (and subsequently for many 
years the principal of No. 6), were placed in charge of the 
school. Early in 1825, Mr. Thomas Macy entered upon duty as 
teacher. He lield the post until 1832, being followed by A. V, 
Stout, afterward President of the Shoe and Leather Bank, who 
found another position in 1833, leaving William Belden, Sr., in 
his place. Henry Kiddle succeeded Mr. Belden in 1849, and 
continued to discharge the duties of the principal sliip until 1856, 
when he was elected Assistant City Superintendant. 

In the female department, Miss Eunice Dean followed Miss 
Leggett, in 1829. She was removed from her labors during 
vacation (1831) by death, and Mrs. A. C. Ilalleck succeeded. 
Margaret L. Miller, in 1835; in 1837, Miss M. C. Megie ; in 
1838, Charlotte L. Wykes, who became Mrs. Sammis, in 1841, 
when Miss Sarah A. Olmsted took the charge until 1844, when 
Miss Martha Macy succeeded. In 1849, Hannah G. Barnes fol- 
lowed Miss Macy, and, in 1852, resigned her charge to Miss F. 
A. Westervelt. 

It is worthv of remark that James B. Brinsmade entered the 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 3. 685 

Free School Society, and became a member of the " section " of 
trustees having charge of No. 2, in 1826, and continued to serve 
in that capacity until 1853, a period of twenty-seven years, and 
was chosen as one of the trustees under the act of union with 
the Board of Education, making his whole term of service until 
his death a period of twenty-nine years. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 3. 

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees, held on March 6, 
1818, information was commimicated that a room in a station- 
house, owned by the Corporation, at tlie corner of Hudson and 
Christopher streets, in what was then known as the village of 
Greenwhich, could probably be obtained for school purposes, 
and Thomas C. Taylor, Najali Taylor, and John K. Murray 
were apjjointed to make the inquiry. The committee reported, 
in April, that they had made an application for the room, which 
had been granted for two years. The same committee was au- 
thorized to fit up 'the premises and propose a teacher. At the 
meeting in May, a school was directed to be opened at the 
earliest pei'iod possible, and Samuel Boyd, Najah Taylor, and 
Thomas C. Taylor were appointed a committee of No. 3 to 
organize and superintend the school. The school was opened 
on the 25th of May, with 51 children, the number being in- 
creased to 196 on the 1st of June. On the 12th of June, the 
ssliool was so overcrowded with pupils, that a special committee, 
consisting of William Torrey, Lyman Spalding, and Benjamin 
Marshall, was appointed to report on the best measures to be 
adopted. The committee recommended an application to the 
.Corporation for the upper floor of the building, which was ob- 
tained and fitted up, and 87 new scliolars admitted up to the 
7th of August. The large number of pupils made it necessary 
to relieve the school, and it was proposed to send such of them 
as resided below Spring street to No. 1 ; but the parents objected 
80 strongly, that it was deemed advisable to obtain separate 
accommodations for the girls' school. In 1819, " The Eagle 
Factory " was proposed for a temporary purpose, and William 
Torrey, Isaac Collins, Ezra Weeks, Leonard Bleecker, and Oliver 



686 THE PUBLTC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

II. Hicks were appointed to i-eport in general on the subject. 
The report recommended the erection of a building on the lots 
owned by the Society, deeded by Trinity Cliurch, April, 11, 
1815, which report was adopted by the boai-d, but reconsidered 
at the next meeting, and a committee appointed to confer with 
the vestry of Trinity Church relative to the property, certain 
conditions of the transfer being an impediment to the plans of 
the Society. In 1820, tlie conference resulted in the sale of the 
property to the Society nnconditionally for $1,250. ■ 

In April, a committee was apjjointed to obtain estimates, 
which were deemed foo high, and, at the following meeting of 
the board, Stephen P. Britton, Whitehead Hicks, and William 
T. Slocum were appointed for a similar purpose, iiuder instruc- 
tions. The committee reported a plan, which was adopted, for 
a house 45 by 80 feet, the whole expense, including fences, &c., 
not to exceed $6,500. Tiie report was adopted, and William 
' Torrey, Najah Taylor, and Samuel Boyd were named as the 
BuikUiig Committee. 

The building was erected, and opened for boys on the 15th 
of October. Tlie pupils assembled in the old rooms at 9 o'clock, 
369 being present, were transferred to the new house, and were 
all engaged at their usual exercises at 10 o'clock. 

On the following Monda}', the 22d of the month, the girls, 
under Sarah Field, the teacher selected for the pui-pose, were 
transferred to their apartments in the building. On the 2d of 
November, 279 female pupils were on the register. 

The work having been completed wii/ii/i the estimates, and 
only $217.50 of extra work, the excess over the appropriation 
amounted to only $109.9-1. 

In September, 1821, a committee, consisting of William Tor- 
rey, William T. Slocum, and Edward Kirby, was appointed to 
have tlie basement fitted up for school purposes. 

On the 10th of September, 1824, General La Fayette visited 
No. 3, and witnessed the exercises in both departments. The 
Mayor, some of the Aldermen, and many visitors were present. 
General La Fayette witnessed a review of all the pupils of the 
public schools in the Park on the afternoon of the same day. 
He was unanimously elected a member of the Society at a meet- 
ing of the Board of Trustees. 

Shepherd Johnston had the charge of the school until March 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 3. 687 

.22, 1825, -when he left it, to take the principalship of the junior 
department of the ".New York Iligli School," in Crosby street. 
between Grand and Broome. 

Benjamin F. Hart succeeded Mr. Johnston, and continued in 
the position until October 18, 1835, when he resigned. Dr. 
David Patterson assumed the charge of the school, and remained 
on duty through the whole period of its control by the Society, 
and passed under the supervision- of the new school oificers at 
the time of its transfer to the Board of Education. 

Miss Sarah Field, in the girls' school, became Mrs. Bowron, 
in May, 1821, and resigned on the 15th, giving way to her sister, 
Maria Field, who had charge until 1825, when Miss Catharine 
R. Dean succeeded. In 1827, the school was placed under the 
care of Miss Frances M. Hart, till 1831, when Miss J. F. 
McCormiek followed, and was succeeded, in 1832, by Isabella 
McCormick, who remained until transferred under the new 
system. 

In November, 1832, Floyd Smith and others applied for 
permission to use No. 3 for an evening school, to be taught 
gratuitously, for the benefit of apprentices and others. 

Joseph Lancaster visited the school on the 17th of Septem- 
ber, 1838, and left the following minute on the visitors' book of 
the boys' school : 

Ninth month, 17. — Joseph Lancaster. Much pleased with the order, obe- 
dience, attention, and mental interest displayed in this school. He can only 
record his general satisfaction, being too much exhausted to enter now into 
particulars ; but he truly rejoices in the prosperity which he has seen, and 
hopes it will go on and increase. It is by the perfection and example of such 
schools as this that he hopes knowledge and civilization will extend over 
the world, 

Far as the ocean waters roll, 

Wide as the heavens are spread. 

The entry in the record of the female school is as follows : 

Ninth month, 17. — Joseph Lancaster. Highly delighted with the behav- 
ior of the excellent pupils in this school. The children and youth in the 
New York schools may be called the children of attention. Their ears and 
their hearts seem generally, if not universally, open to instruction, and they 
eminently distinguish themselves as good listeners. The pupils in this 
school are so in a most remarkable degree. I find so much to congratulate 
the public .and the friends of these schools respecting their condition, that 



00b THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

I am cautious of repeating the same expressions relative to " the soul's calm 
sunshine," and the heartfelt joy which I have experienced in eveiy school 
that I have been in ; yet, on expressing my feelings here, and my satisfac- 
tion in other schools, I can truly say, the current of hopes and the bright- 
ness of blessings in prospective from the schools, for the people of another 
day, have flowed on, as the poet exjiresses himself, repeeting other and 
higher themes, " One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze." I leave my best 
wishes and cheering approbation for the children, youth, monitors, and 
teachers of this school, and if I could leave as many blessings as good 
wishes, they would be abundant indeed. 

Mr. Johnston, the original teacher of this school, after an 
ahsence of a quarter of a century, returned to visit the scene of 
his early labors, and left the following minute : 

June 12th, 1851. — With feelings of pleasure I enter this room in which 
I have spent so many delightful days. Things, however, I found much 
changed ; the whole .ippearanee of the room was altered for the better, and, 
by the liberality of the present board, the worthy head of this department 
enjoys advantages which I never had reason to suppose would be extended 
to the public schools. However, with all of these advantages, I stUl remain 
strongly attached to our old system. 

S. Johnston. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 4. 

In the early part of 1817, Adam Brown, Noah Brown, and 
Peter Ogilvie addressed a petition to the Society, and a com- 
mittee was appointed to report the measures necessary to secure 
the erection of a new school-house in the neighborhood of what 
was then called " Manhattan Island," Corlear's Hook. Thomas 
Eddy, James Palmer, Henry Eckford, Noah Brown, and White- 
head Ilicks were named for the purpose. They reported that 
Adam Brown, Noah Brown, Peter Ogilvie, and Henry Eckford 
would give two lots, and that another could be purchased for 
about $4-00. Lots in Columbia street were selected, but after- 
ward rejected, and the committee discharged. In March, 1818, 
John Murray, Tliomas Taylor, Samuel Wood, Whitehead Hicks, 
and Leonard Bleecker were appointed to select lots in the north- 
eastern part of the city. On the 1st of May, the committee re- 
ported the purchase of three lots on the south side of Kivington 
street, between Pitt and Eidge streets, for $700 each. The report 
was approved, and the committee directed to close the purchase. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. i. 689 

John Murray, Jr., John K. Murray, and Thomas C. Taylor were 
named as the Building Committee, to report plans and estimates. 
The report not being satisfactory, John Pintard was added. In 
September, the report of the committee was submitted and 
adopted, and the same gentlemen were contimied for the super- 
intendence of the new building. An additional committee was 
subsequently appointed to solicit contributions toward the build- 
ing, from the residents in the eastern part of the city. The ■ 
upper room was finished for occupancy, and opened on tlie 1st 
of May, 1819, with 133 scholars, under the care of Charles Pic- 
ton, from England — a gentleman sent by request of the Society, 
as one specially qualified to illustrate the Lancasterian. system 
as there perfected. Dr. Lyman Spalding, James Palmer, and 
George T. Trimble composed the School Committee. On the 
1st of June, 200 boys and 156 girls had entered the school. On 
Monday, August 30th, 1819, the girls' school was opened with 
182 pupils, under the care of Mrs. Picton. 

In 1820, the basement was finished and furnished for school 
purposes, and occupied by the lower classes of the boys' school, 
in November. A bell was put up in 1821. 

Charles Picton resigned, in 1824, to return to England, being 
succeeded by E. Wheaton, who remained only until the follow- 
ing year, when he accepted an appointment in the Mechanics' 
School. In July, he resigned, to be followed by Henry A. 
Cooper. 

On the 31st of October, 1828, Mr. Cooper terminated his 
services in No. 4, and Mr. S. Hammond took the charge, which 
he continued until 1834, when Seneca Durand became principal, 
but he was transferred to another school, and was succeeded by 
John Patterson, who resigned on the 5th of May, 1852, when 
Charles W. Peeks succeeded, and remained on duty until after 
the transfer of the schools to the Board of Education. 

In 1820, Mrs. Picton resigned her charge, and Eunice Dean 
was appointed to the vacancy, which she continued to till until 
1823, when Caroline B. Knapp succeeded, and continued to dis- 
charge her duties until 1836, when Mary Doane took charge, 
and filled the position until 1850. Catharine White succeeded 
her, under Avhose care the school passed to the Board of Edu- 
cation. 

44 



690 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 5. 



At a meeting of the Board of Trustees, held on May 11, 
1821, a committee, consisting of Leonard Bleecker and Najah 
Taylor, was appointed to procure lots from Stephen Yaii Eens- 
selaer, at some j^oint between Broadway and the Bowery,* and 
below Bleecker street. The committee were unable to secure 
the lots desired. On the 13th of March, 1822, the Bethel Bap- 
tist Church having taken measures to secure an extraordinary 
proportion of tlie school moneys, the board deemed it advisable 
to anticipate the projjosed school under the care of that church, 
by appointing a new committee, and Isaac Collins, Rensselaer 
Havens, William T. Slocum, John L. Bowne, and James Palmer 
were directed to purchase lots near the Cathedral, and procure 
estimates for a building. On the 18th of the same month, at a 
special meeting, the committee reported the purchase of three 
lots on Mott street, near Prince, for $2,300, which was ajiproved, 
and the proper authority given to complete the conveyance. 

The committee were authorized to erect a school-house, at a 
cost of $8,000, on these lots, Samuel Boyd being added to the 
committee. The lots cost $2,295.94. Contracts were made with 
Rogers & Price, masons, and Woodruff & Thompson, carpen- 
ters, for the work, and a loan of $10,000, secured by mortgage 
on Nos. 4 and 5, was authorized to pay for the structure. The 
committee were directed to act as temporary School Committee 
for the organizing and opening of the school, and Joseph Belden 
was chosen teacher of the boys, and Mary Otis of the girls. The 
building was erected and completed at a cost of $9,591.09, in- 
cluding the furniture, &c., making the whole cost, including the 
land, $11,887.03. 

The school was opened on the 28tli of October, and, on the 
1st of December, the number of pupils was 529 — 328 boys, and 
201 girls. 

In September, 1832, Joseph Brewster, John H. Smith, Charles 
Durfee, and others applied for the use of No. 5 for a free evening 
school, on Friday evenings, for colored persons, which was 
granted. 

In December, 1832, Francis D. Allen and others made ap- 
plication for the use of No. 5, three evenings each week, for a 
free school for apprentices, &c., which was granted. In October, 



PtlBLIC SCHOOL NO. 6. 691 

1833, the section organized an evening school under their own 
care, the average attendance weekly being from 75 to 103. 

In 1826, at the time of reorganizing the school system, and 
the appointment of " sections " of the trustees, the section for 
N. 5 consisted of Isaac Collins, Israel Dean, Dennis McCarthy, 
J. Sm'yth Rogers, Knowles Taylor, and James F. Depeyster. 

Mr. Josepli Beklen, the first teacher, filled his post until 
September 15, 1828, when he was transferred to !N"o. 11, when 
Mr. John Tuomy succeeded, and discharged the dirties until he 
surrendered the school to Monmouth B. Hart, in 1832. It passed, 
in 1836, into the hands of Joseph McKeou, who was afterward 
City Superintendent, and who, on his resignation as teacher, was 
followed, on the 2d of November, 1846, by Michael J. O'Don- 
nell. Mr. O'Donnell remained mitil the transfer. 

At the close of 1823, Mary Otis resigned her post, and Miss 
Eliza Covin succeeded her in the early part of 1824, but re- 
mained on duty only a few months, when Catharine Dean took 
charge of the school. Miss Dean's connection with the school 
was brief, and, in 1826, Miss Maria M. Field took her place. 
She became Mrs. Bowron, and remained till 1834, when Sarah 
A. Olmsted succeeded in the chair till 1841, and was followed 
by Margaret T. Henratty, who yielded her place to Eliza Ann 
Field, in 1848. In 1851, Miss Henrietta C. Shepard took 
charge, but resigned, the following year, to Charlotte A. Purdy. 

In March, 1845, the Female Association siirrendered the 
school they conducted in the basement of No. 5, and a primary 
department was? organized, under the care of the section. 
• No. 5 was used as the depository for some years, until the 
erection of the Trustees' Hall, now the Hall of the Board of 
Education. It was also used for the normal school, uutil it was 
removed to the Trustees' Hall. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 6. 



From a veiy early period in the history of the Society, the 
children of the Almshouse department had been educated by 
the Society, until 1823, at which time that establishment was 
removed from the City Hall Park to Bellevue, the premises of 



692 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

which were at the time very extensive, but which have since 
been much reduced by the extension of streets to tlie river, and 
the erection of dwellings and other buildings on the new high- 
ways. This transfer removed the children from the care of the 
Society, and it became therefore a matter of anxiety to the trus- 
tees to afford instruction to tliem in their new locality. 

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees, June 6th, 1823, a 
proposition was submitted to make application to the Corpo- 
ration for permission to establish a school at " Bellevue Hospital " 
for the benefit of the children in the Almshouse department. 
The pi'oposition was referred to a committee, consisting of Isaac 
Collins and Kensselaer Havens. The committee had an inter- 
view with the Mayor, and other public officers, and the plan 
being regarded with approbation, a memorial was reported by 
the committee for adoption by the board, to be laid before the 
Coi'poration. The recommendation was adopted, and the ap- 
plication was made. The Corporation granted the authority, 
and, at a meeting of the Society, the trustees were directed to 
establish the said school. 

At a meeting of tlic trustees on the 12th of August, Isaac 
Collins, William T. Slocum, John K. Hurd, Lindley Murray, 
and Joseph Grinnell were appointed to select a teacher. Dr. 
Charles Belden Avas chosen for the position. Booms were -pre- 
pared and furnished with the necessary fixtures and apparatus, 
and the school was ojjened on the 27tli of October, with 270 
boys and girls, under the temporary charge of Shepherd Johns- 
ton, of No. 3, and monitors di-afted from other schools. 

In 1826, when the sections were organized, Samuel Wood, 
Heman Averill, Samuel F. Mott, Arthur Burtis, and N. C. 
Everitt were appointed as the first section for No. 6. There 
were at the time 268 children in the Almshouse, with 13 pupils 
outside of the institution. 

The children were removed from Bellevue to the " Nursery " 
at the " Long Island Farms," in August, 1842 ; thence to Black- 
well's Island, in April 1847, and were finally removed to Ban- 
dall's Island, the present location, April 25, 1848. 

In August, 1825, Dr. Belden, the principal, was removed by 
death, and Albert De Montfredy succeeded. Francis WinUsor 
took charge of the school in 1826. In 1829, during the sickness 
of Mr. Windsor, his brother, Lloyd D. Windsor, had temporary 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 6. 693 

cliarge, and subsequently William Guest supplied for Mr. "Wind- 
sor. Thomas P. Okie succeeded Mr. Windsor, May 1, 1831, 
and continued in cliarge of the school until the transfer of the 
system. 

The boys and girls were separated into two departments, in 
1839, Miss Jane Steel having had charge of the primary school. 
Miss Anna Balentine was appointed principal of the primary 
department, in 1839 ; she became Mrs. Guest, in 1840, and was 
followed by Miss Susan Jackson, who remained until the close 
of the schools under the Society. 

In July, 1853, the schools passed to the care of the ward 
school officers of the Twelfth Ward. Ou the 17th of August, 
the school officers held a meeting, at which the "section " of the 
trustees of the Society were present by invitation. The section 
consisted of Peter Cooper, Joseph Curtis, Linus W. Stevens, 
and John Davenport. A consultation was had, the schools were 
visited, addresses made, and the only section of the trustees of 
the Public School Society which then remained bade farewell in 
an official manner to their interesting 'charge, and surrendered 
the schools they had so long cherished and sustained to the hands 
of the new guardians. 

By reference to the minute-book, it will be seen that Mr. 
Lancaster did not omit this school in his examination of the sys- 
tem. His remarks are as follows : 

Tenth month [^Octdber] 3, 1838. — Joseph Lancaster considers this school 
to be very much like a wire-drawing machine, which can draw out a small 
quantity of silver or other metal to great fineness and amazing extent. 

If a grain of gold be mixed with a pound of silver, it is said that the 
sign of the gold will be found visible, to all the extent of wire-drawn silver. 

Let the wisdom of human knowledge be esteemed as silver ; let the 
knowledge and fear of God be as gold. Oh, may it please the Giver of 
every good and perfect gift that the pure gold may shine on all the silver in 
this school, and in every other in New York. The effect of this (tigurative) 
mixture in this school has been very precious and acceptable to my mind. 
When I do die, I think it will be in more peace for having seen the poor, 
<lear children of this school so happily and usefully jirovided for in regard 
to order and learning. 

Delighted with the school, and rendered truly happy by the good harvest 
springing up under the teacher's judicious care. As a father and a friend, 
I wish him and his very interesting charge " Good speed in the name of the 
Lord." Peace be with all his exertions, prosperity with all his labors, and 
the blessing of heaven with all this family of children. 



694 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

I have been accompauied in this visit by a great-grandson, Charles Gay- 
lor, who seenied as much pleased as myself. 

I am truly pleased to see the lively, active attention and diligence of the 
monitors. They appear to me like the tools of a superior workman, well 
kept, clean, acute, polished, and in good condition for their work. The 
monitors of drafts look like u\en and women, and do their work in a work- 
manlike style. I am richly rewarded with pleasure and peace for the time 
given up to visit this school, so highly creditable to all concerned, and so 
honorable to the city of New York, and its humble, praiseworthj', benevo- 
lent institutions and public spirit. 

The following noteworthy memorial is found in the niinute- 
book, under date of April 12, 1852 : 

Eleven years ago to-day seven trustees assembled at the Brick Church, 
comer of Chatham and Nassau streets, for the purpose of visiting this school, 
then at Long Island Farms. It was in the midst of one of the severest snow- 
storms of the season. It had already fallen eight Inches. In two carriages 
we crossed the Grand street ferry to Williamsburgh, thence up East Kivcr, 
crossing the toll-bridge over Newtown Creek, arriving at the school a few 
minutes after 3 p. m. We found every thing in good order, and had an e.\- 
amination that compensated us for all our toil and expenses. 

"We returned the same route we came. Storm still continuing and un 
abated. 'We did not arrive at our homes until quite dark. I allude to this 
circumstance (it being its eleventh anniversary), trusting that some who 
come after us will read this and be inspired with the zeal that impelled sucls 
men as Samuel Demilt and others to pursue and persevere in a cause with 
an ardor that nothing but duty and public good could have induced to leave 
their comfortable firesides in such a storm as prevailed on the 12th of April, 
1841. 

Tiie trustees present on the occassion alluded to, were Samuel 
Demilt, Heman Averill, Timothy Hedges, Frederic De Peyster, 
Samuel W. Seton, 'William Rockwell, M.D., and Burritt Sher- 
wood, M.D. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 7. 



The great controversy, growing out of the action of the trus- 
tees of the Bethel Baptist Church respecting the school fund, 
being terminated, the trustees of the Public School Society were 
prepared to press forward with greater energy and usefulness, 
the integrity of the common school fund having been secured by 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 7. 695 

the law of 1825. At the meeting of the trustees, held May 6th 
of that year, a committee of five was appointed to report on the 
expediency of hiring, purchasing, or erecting buildings for addi- 
tional schools, and to select locations. James I. Roosevelt, Jr., 
J. F. Depeyster, George T. Trimble, E. C. Cornell, and Stephen 
Allen were chosen as the committee. A location was selected 
and reported upon in Anthony street, and, on the 16th of Sep- 
tember, a location in Chrystie street, between Hester and Pump 
streets, the name of the latter being afterward changed to Walker, 
and now known as Canal street. The report was adopted, and 
William W. Fox, James Palmer, and Isaac Collins were named 
as the Building Committee. Plans and estimates were submitted 
at a special meeting, held on the 23d of the same month, which 
were adopted, and the committee authorized to proceed, Stephen 
Allen being added to the committee. On the 6th of January, 
1826, Leonard Bleecker, George T. Trimble, and Lindley Mur- 
ray were appointed a committee to select a teacher for the new 
school. On the 3d of February, Stephen R. Kirby was reported 
as the choice of the committee. Frances C. Coit was subse- 
quently appointed to take charge of the female department. 

On the 7th of April, the Building Committee reported that 
the house would be ready for early occupancy, and Najah Taylor 
and George T. Trimble were assigned to take charge of the 
opening and organization of the school. 

The school was opened on the 1st of May, 1826, with 87 
pupils. Tlie house was erected by J. & J. Bunting, masons, for 
$4,500, and Isaiah Macey, carpenter, for $5,886.62. The total 
cost, including a few items for extra work, was $10,761.20. 

In October, Messrs. Joseph Belden and Stephen R. Kirby 
applied for permission to use No. 7 for an evening school, to be 
nnder their care. This appears to be the earliest effort to estab- 
lish an evening school under the supervision of the Society. 
The teachers were to receive compensation fi'om the pupils, as a 
private remuneration ; but they desired the use of the school- 
house on account of their own relations to the Society, as well 
as the convenience of the building. 

In 1830, Andrew V. Stout, who afterward became principal 
of No. 13, in Madison street, was appointed monitor general. 
During a period of temporary absence on the part of Mr. Kirby, 
he had the charge of the school, and the " section " remark in 



G96 TUE rcBLic school society. 

the miuute-book, " The school has been satisfactorily kept up 
by Andrew V. Stout, the monitor general of the schooL" On 
the 1st of February, he left No. 7 to go to a private school as 
teacher. Thomas P. Okie, then of No. 12, succeeded him for a 
sliort time, when he returned to his former post, and Kobert S. 
Mills took his place. 

Mr. Kirby resigned, in 1833, and was succeeded, on the 1st 
of April, by William P. Lyon, who surrendered his post in May, 
1835, and, on the 11th of that month, John W. Ketchum, the 
present Superintendent of the House of Pefuge, took charge of 
the school. Mr. Lyon gave full satisfaction to the trustees, hut 
he did not like the requisition of tlie extra service in the evening 
schools, and preferred resigning his position to a compulsory sac- 
rifice of his evenings to school duties, which conflicted with other 
arrangements. Mr. Ketchum remained in the school until May, 
1846, when he assumed the care of the House of Pefuge, and 
William II. Reuck followed, and filled the post until after the 
transfer of the schools to the Board of Education. 

Frances C. Coit resigned the charge of the girls' school, Sep- 
tember 1, 1836, and Mary A. Belden was a2:)pointed to the suc- 
cession. Much to the regret of the Society and to the friends 
of the school, she was compelled by ill health to resign on the 
20th of March, 1839, and was called to rest from earthly labors 
on the 28tli of the same month. The following tribute to her 
memory appears in the annual report of that year : 

When tlie excellent of tlie earth are removed fi-om time to eternity, some 
notice of the fact seems clue as a record of the feelings of those who knew 
and ajipreciated the wortli of the departed ; and the trustees cannot close 
this report -without expressing the regret they feel at the loss this institution 
and the public have sustained in the recent decease of Mrs. Mart Ann Bel- 
den, late princiiDal of Girls' School No. 7. Her peculiar skill in governing 
children -with mildness, and her success in communicating information to 
them, were conspicious and gratifying to the trustees through the long 
course of years she was in their employ. Early imljued with the principles 
of piety, the moral and religious influences exerted by her over the three 
hundred girls daily attending her school, cannot but have a lasting cflect on 
many of their susceptible minds ; and in reference to the whole character 
and course of Mary Ann Belden as a jjublic school teacher, the trustees may 
say, " Many teachers have done well, but thou escellest them all." 

Hannah N". Collins succeeded Mrs. Belden, but held the 
position only till 1842, in the early part of which year she was 



PDBLIC SCHOOL NO. 7. 697 

followed by Miss Sarah Ann Bunker, wlio remained until the 
schools were transferred. 

On the 7th of September, 1837, N. P. Beers entered on duty 
as assistant monitor, and, by promotion, became principal of Xo. 
15, in Fifth street, which position he now holds. 

On May 6, 1847, Thomas Palmer, first monitor, was trans- 
ferred to the First Ward school, and Lafayette Olney, present 
principal of Xo. 14, sircceeded him. 

On the 22d of July, 1853, the section of the trustees met 
officially to bid farewell to their charge. The gentlemen present 
were William H. Maey, John T. Adams, and George T. Trimble. 
They distributed sixty-eight certificates in the boys' school, and 
fifty-four in the girls' school. Mr. Trimble made the following 
entry in the minute-book : 

This act, witli some valedictory remarks, closes the official connection 
of the section with this school. The writer of this minute haying been 
attached to it since it was opened, on the 1st of May, 1826, and made the 
opening minute on that day. William 11. Macy has been in this section 
since 1837, and John T. Adams since 1840. The other members for shorter 
periods. Some much respected members of this section only closed their 
labors with their lives. These recollections, with the reflections arising 
therefrom, cause the events of this occasion to impress our minds with great 
seriousness, accompanied by the hope that our labors have not been in vain. 

Mr. Lancaster visited this school several times, and it was 
on his way from ITo. 7, which ho had just left, that he met with 
the casualty which resulted in his death a day or two afterward. 
The following are the memoranda he left on the records of the 
school : 

Kinth month, 6. — Joseph Lancaster visited this school, and was most 
highly pleased with the exemplary behavior and order of the very interest- 
ing boys and youth who assemble here for instruction. In this school he 
has found, felt, and seen abtmdance to delight a father's eye and gratify the 
best feeling of a father's heart. If he is to take youth like these as a speci- 
men of American native character, truly he may congratulate the citizens 
of New York and the American nation, that they possess youth of such high 
hopes and favorable capacity. May they ever do the same honor to their 
teachers and parents, and the same credit to these schools, and may the love 
and peace of God dwell with them, and they all become as diamonds of the 
purest water, enclosed within the pearl of greatest iiriee. 

2^inth mmitli, 6. — Joseph Lancaster. The most delightful conduct and 
mental attention, good behavior and wise deportment of the highly esti- 



698 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

mablo children and youth in this school, merit from me a tribute of respect 
which seems almost inexpressible. I have often been highly delighted and 
gratified with schools, but never more so than in my visits to this school. 
I congratulate their parents, friends, and teachers on the princiiDles of good 
conduct, the love of learning, and also rectitude and virtue which I am sat- 
isfied are among them. There now are children and youth in this school 
who do the highest credit to themselves, to their teachers, and to these in- 
stitutions that the most excellent conduct can do. May they go on and 
increase and prosper, till heaven shall rejoice and earth be glad for them ; 
till knowledge shall abound iu perfection among them, and they grow up 
to maturity, like their Reedemer, in favor with God and man. 

Ninth month, 25. — Joseph Lancaster. School much increased. We love 
to see bees in swarms; it is a sure sign there will be more honey. Found 
the pujjils as busy as bees at their writing) with minds intent on working 
up as much improvement as possible. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 8. 

The Committee on Locations for new schools, appointed in 
1825, continued their labors, and, in April, 1826, recommended 
the purchase of lots in Grand street, between Laurens and 
Wooster streets, To by 100 feet. On the 19th, the committee 
rejiorted that the purchase bad been made for $5,000, where- 
upon Isaac Collins, George T. Trimble, William W. Fox, and 
Kobert C. Cornell were appointed to report plans and estimates 
for a building to be erected thereon. On the 29tli, the report 
was laid before the board, adopted, and William W. Fo.x, Isaac 
Collins, and James Palmer were constituted a Building Com- 
mittee. On the 6th of October, Messrs. Isaac Collins, Stephen 
Hasbrouck, Daniel Lord, Eleazar Lord, and Samuel Boyd were 
appointed section for No. 8. Tiie school was opened on the 1st 
of November, and during the lirst quarter there were admitted, 
.in the boys' department, 144 pay and 159 free scholars — total, 
303 ; in the girls' department, 132 pay and 44 free scholars — 
total, 176. The school opened under the care of C. B. Sherman, 
in the male, and Eunice Dean, iu the female department. 

On the 4th of April, 1827, the building was considerably 
injured by fire, but the repairs were promptly made, and the 
school reopened on the 3d of May following. 

Mrs. Joanna Bethune, on behalf of herself and other ladies, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 9. 699 

applied, ia Maj^, 1827, for the use of the basement for an " iu- 
ftint school," imder theu" care. The application was referred to 
the Executive Committee. The imponant improvements in the 
system growing out of this eflbrt, are detailed iu the chapter 
devoted to that subject. The "junior department " was organ- 
ized on June ith, by the section. On the 11th of May, 1829, 
the section adopted a resohition declaring it expedient to discon- 
tinue the "junior department," and establish an " infant school." 
The organization was found to be inefficient, and, in December, 
1830, it was changed into a " primary school," in compliance 
with the new plans of the board. 

In May, 1831, there were on register 23G boys, 270 girls, and 
239 in the primary department. 

Mr. C. B. Sherman, the first principal, resigned in Septem- 
ber, 1841, and was followed by Charles S. Pell, who was suc- 
ceeded by Cornelius A. Cooper, on the 1st of March, 1852, who 
remained in the school and passed with it to the jurisdiction of 
the Board of Education. 

Eunice Dean, the first teacher of the girls' school, remained 
imtil 1830, when she was followed by Elizabeth Dean, who re- 
mained untill 1833, when Elizabeth Wiuans took the cbai'ge of 
the school. In 1834, Miss Harriet Bartine was appointed to the 
vacancy occasioned by the resignation of Miss Winans, and con- 
tinued in her position until the transfer of the school to the ward 
officers. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 9 

This school was organized by the vestry of St. Michael's 
Church (Episcopal), at Bloomingdale, and was continued under 
their care until the enactment of the law excluding church 
schools from participating in the school fund, passed November, 
19, 1824, when it was about to be abandoned for want of suffi- 
cient income. At the solicitation of the rector, Kev. William 
Richmond, the situation of the school was laid before the Board 
of Trustees of the Society, by James F. Depeyster and Stephen 
Allen, on May 5, 1826, and a committee was appointed, consist- 
ing of Stephen Allen, James F. Depeyster, and George T. Trim- 



700 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY'. 

ble, to examine and report on the expediency of establishing 
schools in the Twelfth Ward. The committee reported, at the 
meeting on the 12th of the same month, that they found 48 chil- 
dren in school (22 boys and 26 girls), who were taught by Mr. 
Thomas C. Richmond, son of the rector, who had volunteered 
his services gratuitously since the withdrawal of the school fund. 
The committee recommended the employment of a teacher for 
not more than si.x months, at a salary of $30 a month, and the 
adoption of the school as one of the charges of the Public School 
Society. Jotham Wilson Avas appointed teacher, and entered on 
duty on the 22d of May. Stephen Allen and James F. Depeys- 
ter were appointed section for ^o. 9. 

The negotiations relative to the other schools in the ward 
never resulted in any change or transfer, and the action in the 
ease is not important to tlie_ reader. 

In July, 1827, the committee were directed to ascertain 
.whether a donation of land for a school site could be obtained ; 
and if not, to purchase a suitable location at a cost of not over 
$500, and the Building Committee were directed to erect thereon 
ii house not to cost more than $2,600. A plot of ground, 100 
feet square, was purchased for $250, on Eighty-second street, 
between Tenth and Eleventh avenues. A difficulty arising, the 
Building Committee did not immediately proceed with their 
work, and new apartments were hired, which afforded better ac- 
commodations, until the impediments were removed. In 1830, 
a committee on the state of No. 9 recommended the erection of 
the school-house, and the Building Committee were directed to 
proceed and put up a house not to cost more tlian $1,500. The 
instructions were obeyed, and the house was finished and occu- 
pied on the 19th of July. 

On the 19th of March, 1830, Dr. Abraham Y. Williams was 
elected a trustee of the Public School Society, and being a resi- 
dent of Bloomingdale, he was able to give the personal super- 
vision required, and which the other members of the section 
could not give. Dr. Williams was immediately placed on the 
section of No. 9. Eobert Sedgwick was also soon afterward 
added to the section, so that it consisted of Messrs. Allen, De- 
peyster, Williams, and Sedgwick. 

Mr. Wilson resigned his post as teacher on the 1st of May, 
1832, and was succeeded by Seneca Durand. On February 5, 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 10. 701 

1833, the school had increased to 09, and Dr. Williams, in his 
minute made that day, remarks the pleasing and unusual cir- 
cumstance that evei^ scholar on the register teas in attendance. 

In June, 1834, Mr. Duraud was transferred to No. 4, and 
succeeded by Mr. J. P. Iloyt on the 24th of that month. He 
remained in charge until August, 1844, when Benjamin G. Binice, 
who had been his assistant for several years, was promoted to 
the post of principal. 

In 1850, the female department was organized, and Miss 
Majy Kelly, who had been assistant in the school, was appointed 
principal. 

Under the care of Mr. Bruce and Miss Kelly, the school 
passed to the jurisdiction of the Board of Education, July, 1853. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 10. 

The Committee on New Schools, appointed May C, 1825, con- 
sisted of James I. Boosevelt, Jr., James F. Dejjeyster, George 
T. Trimble, K. C. Cornell, and Stephen Allen. Previous to 
making the report in favor of No. 7, in Chrystie street, they had 
selected a location in Anthony street, but the negotiations were 
of a protracted nature. In September, 1826, the same recom- 
mendation was repeated, and a conditional resolution, authoriz- 
ing the erection of a house, was adopted. In November follow- 
ing, a location in Chm-ch street, between Duane and Thomas 
streets, was suggested and approved. In January, 1827, tlie 
committee reported that they had not been able to obtain the 
lots, but that three lots in Duane street, 75 by 100 feet, could be 
purchased for a site for the new school. The committee were 
authorized to make the purchase, the price being $8,300, and a 
right of dower of $50 per annum. The Building Committee was 
directed to make contracts for the erection of a house on the lots, 
similar to No. 8, with such improvements as might be deemed 
expedient. The contracts were made with J. & J. Bunting, ma- 
sous, and Israel Macy, carpenter, the whole cost, including fix- 
tures, &c., being $12,488.50. On the 13th of October, Benjamin 
L. Swan, J. Groshon, Thomas R. Mercein, and J. H. Taylor 
were appointed as the school section ; and on the 1st of Novem- 



70S! 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



ber, 1827, INo. 10 was opened for tlie reception of pupils, under 
the care of Albert De Montfredy, in the boys' department, and 
Eliza J. Cox, in the girls' department. 

In 1832, Messrs. W. D. Coit, J. II. Taylor, and others ap- 
plied for the use of No. 10 two evenings a week, for a free even- 
ing school for apprentices and others. The application was 
referred to the section, with power. 

In 1853, the debts of the Society being considerable in 
amount, and a large school under the care of the ward ofBcers 
having been erected in the neighborhood, the Board of Trustees 
were induced to consider the expediency of selling No. 10. This 
was rendered the more advisable in consequence of the change 
that had taken place in the vicinity, many of the dwellings hav- 
ing given place to business establishments of various kinds, and 
the resident population removed to other portions of the city. 

At this time, the bill for the imion of the two systems of 
education — -the Public School Society and the Board of Educa- 
tion — ^was pending in the Legislature, and, after a full discussion, 
it was deemed necessary to sell the proj^erty. The Board of 
Education had failed to appropriate all that the Society required, 
and the floating debt was on the increase, and the ultimate ex- 
tinction of the Society was a matter of discussion and anticipa- 
tion. The Finance Committee were therefore to take steps 
toward the sale, provided the bill did not become a law. If the 
bill passed, and received the Executive signature, the property 
would be transferred to the Board of Education. The bill failed 
of its final reading, and the committee sold the premises to 
Thomas Hope for $39,900, on the 31st of May, at auction. At 
an extra session of the Legislature, held a few weeks after the 
sale, the school bill became a law, but too late to reverse the 
sale. 

Teachers : Mr. Albert De Montfredy conducted the school 
until 1836, when N". "W. Starr succeeded him ; and, in 1852, 
Charles B. Stout became principal, imder whom the school was 
transferred to the Board of Education. 

Miss Eliza J. Cox remained in the girls' department until 
183i. She was succeeded by Harriet E. Phelps ; and the teach- 
ers of this school successively were Angeline Slater, 1837; 
Maria G. Balsh, 1838 ; and Maria F. Savage, 1851. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 11. 703 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. IL* 

The Committee on New Schools recommended, on the 8th of 
Sej)tember, 1826, in connection with JSTo. 10, the purchase of lots 
in Wooster street, between Houston and Bleecker streets. The 
recommendation was adopted, and the lots p\irchased. 

On the 1st of June, 1827, the Building Committee was in 
structed to lay the foundation of a house similar to No. 10, on 
these lots. At the meeting on the 6th of July, the committee 
reported tlie work commenced. Contracts were made with the 
builders of No. 10, and the house completed and occupied on the 
15th of September, 1828. The total cost of the house and ap- 
pointments was $12,400. 

On the 1st of August, Kobert C. Cornell, Rensselaer Havens, 
and George T. Trimble were appointed a temporary section for 
No. 11. The school was organized under the care of Joseph 
Belden, of No. 5, with 40 boys, and 31 girls in charge of Mary 
Shourt. On the 1st of November, the number had increased to 
82 boys and 92 girls, all " pay scholars." 

Ml-. Belden died on September 12, 1834, and William H. 
Brownne became principal, and remained in his post \mtil his 
death, March 31, 1844, when Michael J. O'Donnell succeeded. 
During the early pai-t of 1847, Mr. O'Donnell was transferred 
to No. 5, and George Moore was apj^ointed to fill the vacancy. 
He served during the remaining period of the existence of the 
Society. 

Miss Shourt, in the girls' schqol, was succeeded, in 1833, by 
Caroline Carpenter, who resigned in 1840, when Sophia Carjjen- 
ter temporarily filled the position, giving way, in a few months, 
to Anna M. Bussell. Miss Bussell was followed, in 1843, by 
Sarah Field, who had long been an assistant in the school, and 
who was on duty until the Society and its schools were merged 
into the ward school system. 

The primary department was organized in the early part of 
1832. 

The following entry, by Hon. J. S. Buckingham, is on the 
minute-book : 

Fnday, Deceinber 8, 1837. — I li.avc bad the pleasure to visit, to-day, in 

* Subsequent to the sale of No. 10, the numbers of the schools were altered— 
No. 11 became No. 10. No. 18 (the last) became No. 17. 



704 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

company witb 'my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Mott, the Public Scliool No. 11, 
and, after examining tlie four departments of tlie male and female infant 
classes, and. tlie two more advanced, my gratification has been of the high- 
est kind. The accuracy of reading and the knowledge of geography were 
peculiarly striking, as evinced in both boys and girls, and in an equal degree 
of perfection with each. The specimens of writing were such as surpassed 
any thing I have ever before seen of the kind ; and, on the whole, I think 
the schools highly creditable to both pupils and teachers, an honor to the 
city, and a blessing to the nation. J. S. Buckingham. 

A deputation of clergymen from England to the United 
States, on a special mission, also visited the school, and left the 
following note in the minute-book : 

April 16, 1834. — Revs. Reed and Mattheson, from England. Much 
gratified with the examination. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 12. 

On the 5th of February, 1830, at a meeting of the Board of 
Trustees, a communication was received from a committee ap- 
pointed at a meeting of citizens residing in the vicinity of the 
Eighth avenue and Twenty-first street, representing the demand 
for a school in that section of the city. In connection with the 
communication, a letter was read from Gideon Lee, Esq., Alder- 
man, and afterward Mayor, nrgiug the application, and pledging 
a conti'ibution of $500 toward building the house. Ho also 
recommended the erection of a school in the vicinity of Third 
avenue and Twenty-eighth street, endorsing his proposition with 
a subscription of $500 when it should be built. The whole 
subject was referred to Messrs. Cliarles Oaldey, Ovid P. Wells, 
E. C. Cornell, and Samuel F. Mott. On the ITth of March, 
the committee reported in favor of locating a school in that 
vicinity, and also a new school between Nos. 2 and 4, on the east 
side of the city. The report was accepted, and the recommen- 
dations recommitted, with the addition of Messrs. Underbill, 
Fox, and Brinsmade to the committee. On the 25th of June, 
the committee was discharged, and Messrs. Oakley, Cornell, and 
Mott Avere appointed as the committee. A report Avas submitted 
by these gentlemen at the same meeting in favor of a location in 
or near Seventeenth or Eisrhteentli street and the Eiglith ave- 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 12. Y05 

nue. A subseqnent recomniendatioii, on the 19tli of July, of 
four lots on Seventeenth street, at $G75 each, was approved bj 
the board, and the pnrchase was ordered. The Property Com- 
mittee was directed to report plans and estimates for a building. 
A donation of $200 was made by George Rapelye, Esq., on the 
price of the lots. The plans and estimates were submitted on 
the 28t]i of July, and the committee authorized to contract for 
the building. The contracts were made with J. & J. Bunting, 
masons, and James Russell, carpenter, and the house built and 
furnished with books, apparatus, &c., as in the case of other 
houses, at a total cost of $10,878.85. The school was opened 
with api^ropriate exercises on the 17tli of January, 1831, in pres- 
ence of a number of members of the Common Council and other 
citizens, and daily sessions were held in it until the 22d, when it 
was destroyed by fire. An insurance had been effected on the 
building and its fixtures, &c., so that the loss to the Society was 
only about $3,000. On the 4th of February, the Building Com- 
mittee reported the completion of their duties, together with the 
fact of the fire, and recommended the immediate rebuilding of 
the house. The board approved the repoi't, and temporary ac- 
commodations were provided for the schools. Jacob P. Bunt- 
ing, mason, and James Russell, carpimter, rebuilt the house, 
which was completed and opened on the -il)th of August follow- 
ing. 

Mr. George Everett, the first princi]);il, resigned in 1834, and 
was followed by Benjamin Wightman, who resigned November 
1, 1841, Asa Smith being his successor, assisted by William II. 
Reuck, afterward principal of No. 7, in Chrystie street. Mr. 
Smith had been in the school several years as an assistant, and 
held his post until the dissolution of the Society. 

Miss Fanny F. Greenoak, principal of the girls' school, was 
succeeded, in 1836, by Elizabeth Lindon, who resigned in 1849, 
at which time Miss Susan Wright took the charge of the school, 
in whose hands it was transferred to tlie Board of Educatiun, in 
1853. 

The primary department was organized July 2, 1832, under 
the care of Caroline Carpenter. 
45 



706 THE PUBLIC! SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL KO. 13. 



The Committee on Locations (_1830) recommended one on the 
Biist side of the city, between No. 2, in Henry street, and No. 4, 
in Eivington street. Ko farther action was had at tliat time : 
but in 1S32, at the meeting of the trustees held on June 8, a 
committee was appointed to review the question, and Messrs. 
James Heard, Swan, Oakley, Mott, Fox, and Cornell were 
named for that duty. In November, the committee reported the 
purchase of a location in Madison street, at the cost of $8,000 
for four lots of ground. The Property Committee also reported 
that contracts had been made for the building. In May, 1833, 
Dr. Samuel R. Chikls, W. W. Chester, and S. Ilaff were ap- 
pointed section for No. 13, which was opened on the 21st of that 
montli. The school was organized with 143 boys, 58 girls, and 
15G boys and girls in the primary department. At the public 
exercises in the afternoon, lion. Gideon Lee, the Mayor, a portion 
of the Common Council, the School Commissioners, a portion of 
the trustees, and many visitors, were present. The attendance 
rapidly increased, so that, when the school closed for vacation, 
there were on register 275 boys and 204 girls. 

The school was placed under the care of Andrew V. Stout, 
who resigned on the 1st of May, 1844, when John H. Fanning 
entered upon duty, and filled the post until transferred to the 
ward school officers. 

Miss Martlia Grier was the first principal of the girls' school, 
and was followed by Miss Sophia S. Cornell, in 1836, who re- 
signed in 1844, and Mary E. Vail assumed tlie post. In 1846, 
Miss A. Harrison was appointed to till the vacancy occasioned 
by the withdrawal of Miss Vail, and Mary F. English followed 
Miss Harrison, in 1848. In 1851, Anna M. Marsh entered upon 
duty, and in her charge the school was transferred to its new- 
guardians, July 29, 1853. . 

Miss Catharine King was the first teacher of the primary de- 
partment. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 14. 707 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 14. 

The Committee on Lots and Locations, appointed June 8, 
1832, reported, on the lltli of December, that tliey had pur- 
chased four lots of ground in North (now Houston) street, near 
Norfolk, for §G,000. On the 1st of February, 1833, the Prop- 
erty Committee reported that contracts had been made for a 
building. On November 1, Messrs. Brinsmade, B. S. ColHns, 
and Timothy Hedges were appointed a temporary section for 
No. 1-1. Tlie building was opened on November 4, 1833, witli 
appropriate exercises. A large number of citizens were present, 
and addresses were made by Hon. Peter Augustus Jay, and His 
Honor Gideon Lee, Mayor, and others. On the 8th of Novem- 
ber, the pupils numbered, boys, 180 ; girls, 125 ; primary depart- 
ment, 168 ; tile attendance on tliat day being 171 boys, 96 girls, 
and 64 boys and 76 girls in tlie primary school. 

Dr. Samuel L. Kennedy, Hiram N. Peck, Matthias O. Hal- 
sted, William Beach Lawrence, and Thomas McElrath were 
appointed permanent section for No. 14. At the annual meet- 
ing in May, 1835, Mr. Lawrence was transferred to another sec- 
tion, and Hamilton Fish, afterward Governor of the State and 
United States Senator, was placed on tlie section to fill the 
vacancy. 

Mr. Anson Willis was the fii'st principal of the boys' depart- 
ment. He filled the post two years, until 1835, when Leonard 
Hazeltine succeeded, and continued in charge until the schools 
passed to the care of the Board of Education. 

Miss C. Wynans was appointed to the girls' department at 
the organization of the school, and discharged her duties until 
1837, when she was followed by Mi's. J. M. AVheaton. This lady 
died in January, 1841, and Sarah A. Bunker succeeded for a few 
months, when, in July of the same year, Miss Jane W. Miller 
was placed in the chair. In 1845, Miss Miller resigned, to take 
charge of Ward School No. 45, in Twenty-fourth street, and 
Miss Georgiana Watson became principal. The school was in 
her charge at the time of the transfer to the ward school officers. 

The primary department was organized under the care of 
Miss A. Hanks. 



708 TOE FOBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 



PUBLIC SCUOOL NO. 15. 



At a meeting of the Board of Trustees lield September 24, 
1S33, a memorial was presented from about forty residents of 
that part of the city near the Third avenue and between Four- 
teentli and Twenty-eighth streets, asking for a school in that dis- 
trict. This was the location which Hon. Gideon Lee had pre- 
viously indicated, and who also repeated his request in a letter 
accoinjjanying the memorial. A Committee on Locations was 
appointed, consisting of Messrs. Charles Oakley, James Heard, 
B. S. Collins, B. L. Swan, and J. N. Wells ; William W. Fox 
was subsequently added to the committee. The report was laid 
before the board on October 3, in favor of the measure ; the 
committee was authorized to purchase suitable lots, and the 
Property Committee was directed to erect a house similar to No. 
li, in Houston street. Four lots in Twenty-seventh street, be- 
tween Second and Third avenues, were purchased for $800 each. 

At the annual meeting in May, 1834, the following gentle^ 
men were appointed section for No. 15 : Dr. Samuel K. Childs, 
Anson G. Phelps, Samuel Demilt, Robert C. Cornell, and Sam- 
uel F. Mott. 

Daniel F. Tieman and Peter Cooper were members of the 
section for No. 15 for a number of years. 

The house was put under contract, finished, and dedicated on 
the 4th of May, 1835. The following-named members of the 
board were present on the occasion : Messrs. Oakley, Murray, 
Demilt, Childs, Collins, Phelps, Baldwin, Whitmore, Day, Hal- 
sey, Seton, Depeyster, James Heard, and Peck. Appropriate 
exercises by pupils of other schools formed the principal feature 
of the occasion, with an address by Samuel W. Seton. 

On the 18th of November, 1848, a lire broke out in the ex- 
tensive stables corner of Third avenue and Twenty-seventh 
street, belonging to the omnibus company, when the buildings 
were all destroyed, together with the Methodist church, the par- 
sonage, and the school-house. The loss of jiroperty was almost 
total, only a portion of the books, furniture, &c., being saved. 
The building was destroyed. The amount of insurance was 
$7,500, making a loss of $2,887.81. 

Arrangements were immediately made to secure temporary 
premises, and apartments in the Almshouse buildings, on First 



PCBLIC SCHOOL NO. 16. 709 

avenue and Twenty-sixth street, were secured and fitted up. 
The schools went into operation on the 4th of December. The 
new building was erected, and school resumed therein on the 4th 
of June, 1849. 

William A. "Walker, afterward School Superintendent, was 
the first principal of No. 15, and held the office until 1846, when 
he was succeeded by William II. Wood, who remained in charge 
of the school until after its transfer to the Board of Education. 

Miss Elizabeth Cox organized the girls' school, but remained 
only a short time, being succeeded, in 1836, by Caroline T. 
Whiting, who was on duty, and in whose care the school was 
transferred, in 1853. 

The primary department w-as organized in 1838, under the 
care of Miss Louisa Lynch. 

The autograph of William Callen Bryant appears in the vis- 
itors' book, under date of January 5, 1854. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 16. 

At the meeting of the Board of Trustees held September 24, 
1833, a committee of five, consisting of Charles Oakley, James 
Heard, B. S. Collins, B. L. Swan, and J. N. Wells, was appoint- 
ed to select locations for new schools. At the meeting in Octo- 
ber, William W. Fox was added to the number, and they were 
directed to select a location near the Dry Dock. In 1834, the 
same committee was continued, and on the 6th of February, 
1835, they reported progress, and were authorized to purchase 
lots in that part of the city. At a special meeting held at 
School No. 5, at the examination of that school, the committee 
again reported progress ; and on May 1st, a diversity of opinion 
respecting the location having retarded the action of the com- 
mittee, the chairman submitted a report in favor of a site in 
Fifth street, and recommending the purchase of the lots selected, 
at the price of $1,500 each. The board adopted the I'esolution 
so reported. 

The negotiations for the purchase were interrupted for some 
time, and the lots were sold at auction for $1,700 each. The 
purchaser held them at $2,000 ; and, on the 6th of November, 



710 THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the chairman of the committee reported the facts, requesting 
final instructions as to the course to be pursued.' The board 
dii'eeted the purchase, and on the 6th of Maj, 1836, it was 
reported as having been made. On the 5th of August, the 
Property Committee Avas authorized to erect a building. On 
the 4th of August, 1837, the committee reported that contracts 
had been made with James Russell, carpenter, and Lorenzo 
Moses, mason, and that the building was commenced. The 
house was completed, and opened with appropriate exercises on 
the 27th of April, 1838, Messrs. Charles Oakley, J. B. Collins, 
II. W. Field, and S. W. Seton being the Committee of AiTange- 
ments. The Mayor of the city, Hon. Cornelius W. Lawrence, 
was present, M-ith Isaac L. Varian, and other citizens, the au- 
dience being addressed by the Mayor, and James I. Eoosevelt, Jr. 

Tlie school was organized on the 7th of May, witii 8i boys, 
72 girls, and 233 boys arid girls in the primary department. 
During the first quarter, the number rapidly increased, and the 
first retm-ns made were as follows : 270 boys, 181 girls, and in 
the primary department, 236 boys and 215 girls. The average 
attendance was 166 bo^'s, 115 girls, and in the primary school, 
264 boys and 223 girls. 

The section originally appointed for '^o. 16 consisted of the 
following gentlemen : George T. Trimble, Samuel Demilt, Wil- 
liam Smith, James II. Blaisdell, Joseph Washburn, Meigs D. 
Benjamin, and Peter Stuyvesant. 

Joseph Curtis was appointed a member of the section in 
1839, and so remained until May, 1S47, when he was transferred 
to No. 6 (Kandall's Island), and Colored School No. 2. The sec- 
tion adopted the following resolution : 

Ht'solird, That we have heard with regret of the transfer of Mr. Joseph 
Curtis from this section. His eiRcient and interesting labors, and his exten- 
sive information in affairs of public education, have made him extensively 
useful, and placed us and the public under lasting obligations to him. 
Though he will be lost to our section, we are gratified with the fact that his 
services will not be lost to the Society and the public, and congratulate the 
section to which he is transferred on the acquisition of his valuable services. 

The section for 1844-'45 adopted the following resolution : 

In the opinion of the section, the time has arrived that vocal mu.sic be 
taught in our schools, and that this our wish be made known to the Execu- 
tive Committee, and through them to the board. 



PUBLIC SCUOOL NO. 17. 711 

Abraham K. Van Vleck organized the boys' school, and con- 
ducted it with great fidelity and success, until he was called from 
his labors by death, in March, 1850. On the 1st of April, Mr. 
N. P. Bikers, assistant in No. 7, Chrystie street, took charge of 
the school, and passed with it to the supervision of the ward 
school officers, in 1853, when the change of system took place. 

Miss Mary McKay was the first principal of the girls' school, 
who remained only till ISiO, when her successor, Miss Fezzan 
T. Robbins, followed. Miss Robbins became Mrs. Stiles, and 
resigned in 1848, when the vacancy was supplied by Miss S. J. 
Hatfield, who retired in 1851, to bo succeeded by Miss Urania 
Downs, who remained in the school at the time of the dissolu- 
tion of the Society'. 

The primary departtaent was organized by Miss Sarah C. 
Glover at the time of opening the school in 1838. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 11. 

The special meeting of the Board of Trustees for the exami- 
nation of No. 4 was held April 10, 1838. After the exercises 
were concluded, the board held a meeting to consider a recom- 
mendation of the Executive Committee relative to the purchase 
of lots for a new school in Thirteenth sti'eet, near the Sixth ave- 
nue, to relieve the pressure upon No. 3, in Hudson street, and 
No. 12, in Seventeenth street. The Committee on Locations 
were directed to piu-chase the lots recommended, but in conse- 
quence of a defect in the title, the negotiations were suspended. 

In February, 1843, the sections of Nos. 3 and 12 reported 
that there was an urgent necessity for a new building to relieve 
their overcrowded condition ; and the board, at the meeting held 
on the 5th of May, referred the matter to the Executive Com- 
mittee, with power. A sub-committee was immediately appoint- 
ed, and after examining a number of locations, the report 
recommended the purchase of four lots in Thirteenth street, near 
Seventh avenue, each 25 feet by 103 ft. 3 in. The report was 
accepted and adopted, and the Property Committee reported 
plans and estimates for the house, which were also adopted. 
The committee were authorized to close the contracts with 



712 THE PUCLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

James Russell, carpenter, and Lorenzo Moses, mason. Tlie 
Building Committee consisted of Linus W. Stevens, B. E. Win- 
throp, and Tlionijjson Price. 

Ou the 20tli of November, the following gentlemen organ- 
ized as section No. 17 : Ployd Smith, Hamilton Murray, Fred- 
erick Havemeyer, Benjamin Ellis, and John R. llurd. The tirst 
three named were elected to the board on the 3d of November, 
and assigned to that section. 

Benjamin Ellis and John R. Ilurd were appointed the Com- 
mittee on Opening, and the arrangements were accordingly 
made. The house was completed at the close of the year, and 
the boys' school was organized, and the building appropiiately 
dedicated on the 4th of January, 1841. Col. William L. Stone 
and Benjamin Ellis made addresses on the occasion. The girls' 
school was opened for the reception of pupils on the next day, 
and organized and went into operation on the 8th of the montli. 
On the 1st of February there were in attendance 242 boys and 
220 girls. 

Mr. Marvin W. Fox organized the boys' school, and sus- 
tained it imtil the time of his resignation, August 1, 1852, when 
Arthur Murphy succeeded, and continued it until the change of 
system was made. 

Miss Mary C. Kicrsted was appointed principal of the girls' 
department, where she remained till 1845, when she resigned, 
and was succeeded by ]\liss H. M. Mackenzie, in whose charge 
it passed to the care of the ward school officers. 

The following entry, by John Inman, appears on the mimite- 
book of the primary department : 

January 27, 1845. — Visited the school for the first time, and derived par- 
ticular gratification from seeing the neatness of aj^pearance and apparent 
enjoyment of the little ones in their exercises. The school appears to be 
admirably conducted. John Inman. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 18. 



Tlie extreme northwestern ])art of the city, in 1840, was 
thinly settled, and the wants of the district were supplied by 
Primary School No. 21, which was provided with accommoda- 
tions in the basement of the Methodist church in Forty-first 



PUBLIC SCHOOL NO. 18. 713 

street. The population, however, increased with great rapidity, 
and the necessity for increased facilities, and adapted to a more 
advanced class of children, became apparent. The section of 
No. 12, in Seventeenth street, had some discussion on the expe- 
diency of opening a new school in the neighborhood of Fortieth 
street. At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the board, 
held September 7, 1843, an extract from the minutes of sectiim 
No. 12 was read, asking for the opening of a school of a higher 
grade than a primary. The matter was referred to a committet-, 
consisting of Messrs. Murray, Hurd, and Demilt. The commit- 
tee reported in October, recommending that the basement of the 
church corner of Eighth avenue and Forty-third street, then 
building, and which had been hired by the Primary School Com- 
mittee, be hired by the Executive Committee ; that a girls' school 
be opened therein, under a suitable teacher and assistants ; that 
Primary No. 21, in Forty-first street, be changed to a school for 
boys, and regularly organized ; that they be known as Public 
School No. 18, and that a special committee be appointed for the 
purpose. 

These recommendations were adopted, and Messrs. John R. 
Hurd, J. W. Howe, Joseph Curtis, and Linus W. Stevens were 
appointed said committee. The proper arrangements were 
made, and the schools were opened for the reception of scholars 
early in the month of May. 

The boys' school was organized on the 14th of May, under 
James A. Ferguson, in the Methodist church in Forty-first street, 
near Seventh avenue. The girls' school was organized the same 
day, in the Baptist church corner of Eighth avenue and Forty- 
third street, under Amelia Kiersted. Mr. Samuel W. Seton 
made an address on the occasion. 

In the early part of 1845, the demand for increased school 
accommodations became so urgent, that the section pressed upon 
the Board of Trustees the inevitable duty of erecting a school- 
building. At the meeting of the section held on May 12, a reso- 
lution was adopted authorizing an application to the board ; and 
one of the section reported that he had secured the refusal of 
four lots of ground in Forty -seventh street, until the 1st of June 
following, at the price of §1,900. 

The Board of Trustees approved of the measure, but as the 
state of the funds made it of doubtful expediency to apj^ropriate 



714: THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

the money at that time, a committee was appointed, who report- 
ed in favor of raising $25,000 by mortgage of property of the 
Society. This course was adopted, and the means provided. 
On the 5th of February, 18*10, tlie Executive Committee author- 
ized the Property Committee to issue proposals for estimates, 
and close contracts for the house as soou as they should be in- 
formed by the treasurer that the money had been secured. 

The building was opened for tlie registry of pupils on Mon- 
day, November 9, 181G ; and on tlie 16th, the public dedicatory 
exercises were held in the primary department. Addresses were 
delivered by Samuel W. Setoii and William Oland Bourne. 

Tlie erection of this edifice gave rise to the question relative 
to the power of the Public School Society to erect new houses, 
and it occasioned much anxiety ; for it was a test question which 
vitally affected its existence as an institution. When its power 
of expansion ceased and its limits became circiimscribed, another 
and contemporaneous system could not fail to absorb it by its 
overshadowing growth and patronage. Tiie question was c}e- 
cided in favor of the right of the Society to Public School No. 
18, but further expansion was denied. This was, therefore, the 
last school-building erected by the Society. 

On the 5tli of October, 1817, the primary department in this 
school was organized with 117 pnpils of both sexes, withdrawn 
from the upper departments. In October, 1818, the number of 
pupils had increased to 177, and in October, 1851, there were 
436 in attendance. 

Mr. James A. Ferguson, the first principal in the boys' 
school, remained until the 1st of February, 1851, when he was 
succeeded by William T. Graft', in whose care the scliool contin- 
ued until transferred to the Board of Education. 

Miss Amelia Kiersted, who organized the girls' department 
at the original location in the church, continued in uninterrnjjted 
service until the change of system took place, by which the Board 
of Education became the guardian of the schools of the city. 

Miss C. C. Cowen was the first principal of the primary de- 
partment. 

[Note. — The original numbers of the schools are retained in this cliapter. By the 
sale of No. 10, in Dijane Street, the numbers of the remaining schools were changeJ, 
and No. 18 became No. 17, under which enumeration the schools passed to the Board 
of Education. After the transfer the numbers of tlie Ward Schools were also changed 
as required by the law, and Ward School No. 1 became No. 18, and others lollowcd in 
their proper succession. 



APPENDIX. 



A. 

REPORT 



Of the Law Committee of ttie Common Council, to whom were referred the 
Petitions of Trustees of Church Schools for Participation in the Distri- 
hution of the School Fund. 

[The law of November 19, 1824, gave to the Common Council the i^nwer 
to appoint ten commissioners of common schools, and to designate the insti- 
tutions which should be the recipients of the school money. The trustees 
of St. Patrick's and St. Peter's Roman Catholic schools, the Methodist, and 
other church schools, submitted their petitions for a continuance of the ap- 
portionment to these schools, which were referred to the Law Committee, 
together with the fourth section of the law. On the 28th of April, 1835, 
the committee submitted their report.] 

The Committee on Laws, to whom were referred the fourth section of 
the act of the Legislature of this State, relating to common schools in the 
city of New York, passed the 19th of November, 1824; the memorials of 
the trustees of the charity schools attached to the Reformed Dutch Church 
of the city of New York ; of the trustees of the First Protestant Episcopal 
charity school in the city of New York ; and of the trustees of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, praying respectively for a participation in the com- 
mon school fund ; and also the report of a committee of the trustees of the 
Free-School Society, on the distribution of the said fund, proposing a 
change in- the constitution of that Society, so as to admit children of all 
classes to their schools, for a compensation not exceeding fifty cents per 
quarter, with power to remit in proper cases, report : 

That the subject referred to them is one of vital importance to this com- 
munity, involving, as it does, the high and essential interests of education 
and of public benevolence in their application to the numerous poor chil- 
dren of our city. The various institutions which have been established for, 
or have undertaken from the best of motives the relief of this portion of 
our inhabitants, have been rejjrescnted before your committee ; and their 
respective claims to a participation respectively in the public bounty have 
been urged, on the part of their delegates, by all the obligations and motives 



716 APPENDIX. 

which could be drawn from the sources of piety and philanthropy, and with 
all the force and energy of the most persuasive eloquence and the most 
cogent argument. 

These discussions have instructed your committee, and have, at the same 
time, proved the depth of talent, the eminent virtue, and the laudable jjub- 
lic spirit which distinguish those of our fellow-citizens who deservedly take 
the lead in meliorating the condition of the human race, and especially that 
of the poor and destitute among the rising generation. 

These institutions consist, on the one hand, of the churches and religious 
societies, many of which maintain charity schools ; and, on the other, of 
societies whose members are of different religious persuasions, and whose 
exclusive object is the gratuitous instruction of the poor. 

On the part of the churches, it has been maintained that the charity 
schools are of long standing, and have heretofore received the fostering care 
of the Legislature ; that the children are taught in them the branches of a 
plain, ordinary education, with little or no difterence as to eflBciency when 
compared with the other institutions, and in supj5ort of this, they offer to 
submit them to a fair examination ; and it is superadded, with much empha- 
sis, that, in these schools, the children receive also the advantages of re- 
ligious instruction. 

On this latter subject it is urged, in the first place, by the advocates of 
the churches, that for this they receive no compensation ; and, in the second, 
that religion is the best and only foundation of all private hajijjiness, of all 
• sound morality, and of all capacity for public usefulness ; and, in answer to 
the charge of efforts on their part to promote sectarian influence, they deny 
I that such is their intended object; and they further reply and explain, that 
religion cannot exist but according to some specific form and system ; that 
no religious sentiment can be advanced except of the most general nature,, 
about which professing Christians will not differ ; and that the objection 
would exclude all practical religious instruction whatsoever, since religion 
must be presented in some definite shape, or it can hardly find access to the 
heart and become influential on the conduct. And it has, in turn, been 
argued, " Show me a man of wo sect, and I will show you a man of )m> 
rell/;ion" and that it is better to have a community of conscientious secta- 
rians, than a community of nothingarians. And it is further added, that 
the children attached to the charity schools are habitually instructed in the 
observance of Sunday, not only by causing them to be kept out of the 
streets, and to be removed from the temptations and dangers to which they 
would be there exposed, but by causing them to go to church, and to engage 
in the duties of that sacred day. 

It is further insisted by the churches, that they and the lay corporations 
together are the only associations for the benevolent purpose of instructing 
the poor of this city ; and that, under the act of the Legislature as it now 
stands, each will alike be subject to a constant and wholesome supervi-sion 
on the part of the commissioners appointed by the Common Council. They 
further contend that there can be no danger of a church establishment grow- 
ing out of the assistance they wish to receive from this fund, which will fall 



REPOET OF THE LAW COMMIITEE. 717 

far short of a support, and that the rendering of such assistance only is differ- 
ent altogether from endowing or entrusting them with public funds, without 
a definite and specified object. Under this head, it is maintained that no 
danger is felt by the General or State Government from the growth of cleri- 
cal influence, or of its tendency to church establishments, as the employment 
of chaplains by the House of Representatives, and in the Army and Navy, 
and also in the State Legislatures, is still continued with the general appro- 
bation. The instance of the employment of a chaplain by this board is also 
mentioned, to prove that no such apprehension is here entertained. It is 
urged, further, that the State has heretofore directed the division of this 
fund among the churches maintaining charity schools, and the other lay 
corporations, as the former wish it still to continue to be divided. That the 
Legislature of this State has heretofore made to churches considerable 
grants, and a prominent instance is mentioned of a donation of $4,000 to 
one of the churches of this city (sec. 37, p. 144) ; and a further and general 
argument is drawn, favorable to the high literary and intellectual qualifica- 
tions of the clergy of our country, from the fact that in very many, Lf not in 
the large majority of instances, the presidents of colleges and seminaries of 
learning are chosen from that body by the general consent and approbation 
of the community at large. 

In regard to the argument that children ought to be instructed in cate- 
chisms and forms of religion at home, as is the case with those taught in the 
ordinary pay schools, they insist that the situation of poor children, such as 
are taught in the free and charity schools, does not admit of instruction at 
home on any subject that is useful, much less that of religion in any form ; 
and they say that the trustees of the free schools, conscious of this, do teach 
the children under their care some religion, but of that kind and in that 
degree which is calculated to meet the views of numerous and influential 
sects of Christians. And on the subject of the prevalence of sectarianism, 
and the common anxiety to extirpate it, it has been very strenuously insisted 
that, should either of the lay corporations have the entire benefit of this 
fund, the so much apprehended effects of sectarian jealousy and animosity 
would soon be experienced by that body, and that its members would be- 
come the subjects, and its place of meeting be transformed into the arena, 
of their baneful operations. Assuming, therefore, what is predicted of 
them, the delegates of the churches contend that this sectarian tendency, if 
it be an evil, is now kept within reasonable limits by encouraging all 
religious denominations ; whereas, by placing its now divided forces into a 
more concentrated form, its native intensity would be excited, and the con- 
sequences would be fatal to the body or the association which it might 
infect. 

These are some of the most prominent reasons on which the claims of 
the churches are rested for a participation in this fund. 

On the other hand, and in behalf of those institutions not of an ecclesi- 
astical description, but formed out of all religious persuasions indiscrimi- 
nately, it is insisted that the common school fund will soon become of very 
large amount, and the annual distribution be consequently greatly increased. 



718 APPENDIX. 

And it is asked, Shall such a portion of the public moneys be placed in any 
degree under clerical influence ? A proposition to tax the people for the 
support of religion, it is said, would never have been sustained by the Con- 
vention of 1777, nor by that of 1831 ; and the Common Council is now 
called upon officially to act, as those bodies would have acted had they been 
called upon to settle this question. The churches, it is alleged, ought not 
to 2)articipate in this fund, because it would be in violation of that rule of 
civil policy admitted to be prevalent, which forbids all connection between 
matters of Church and those of State, and upon which the fourth section of 
the seventh article of the present Constitution, and which is reenacted from 
the old, is founded, forbidding any minister of the gospel from holding any 
civil or military office. 

It is strongly contended that the trustees of churches are irresponsible 
to, and independent of, any civil authority, being appointed not by a spe- 
cial law of the Legislature, but by their own act, under the general law for 
the incorjjoration of religious societies. That this state of irresponsibility 
and independence is calculated to produce relaxation in discipline, and an 
enfeebled attention on their part to the minute and perplexing business of 
education ; and that, as to this branch of their duties, there is no control 
over them whatsoever. 

That part of this fund is raised by tax, and to devote any portion of it, 
so that by possibility it may be turned into sectarian channels, would be to 
compel one portion of the community, without their consent, to become the 
supporters of the religious opinions of others. That to pay teachers of sec- 
tarian schools out of this fund, is the same thing, in effect, as to pay the 
clergymen of the congregations ; and that sectarian purposes may be equally 
promoted by teaching children as by maintaining clergymen. 

That, when it is maintained that religion is taught in the charity schools, 
it must be understood that the catechisms and confessions of the churches 
are taught, and that, though religious creeds and dogmas are equally toler- 
ated by the law, it by no means follows that all are equally true and equally 
entitled to support ; and that it is impossible they should all be true and 
equally entitled to support, since some are directly opposed and contradic- 
tory to the others. It is further maintained, that one system or the other 
must be the best, and entitled to a preference ; and that, therefore, if a 
religious education be the best, and entitled to such preference as relates to 
this fund, the institutions promoting and inculcating it ought to be estab- 
lished, and every other prostrated and condemned. 

That churches and religious societies have no common standard, no com- 
mon principle, and can be sul/jected to no common superintendence or 
inspection ; and that the school "fund, which is founded on taxation and 
public income, shall be applied indiscriminately to the support of all hold- 
ing such conflicting and irreconcilable tenets, it will follow, not only that 
error will be placed on the same ground with truth, and receive at least an 
equal share of support with it, but that it will produce an unequal, and 
consequently vmjust bearing on diflferent members of the same community, 



EEFOKT OF THE LAW COMMITTEE. 719 

who contribute in the same proportion to this as to the other public bur- 
dens. 

It is maintained that religious societies do not admit of visitations as 
such ; and in reply to any proposed discrimination between the churches or 
their schools, it is said that any piovision in favor of one must be founded 
on a principle which, in its operation, will admit all alike— the long-estab- 
lished with the one of yesterday — the one venerable for its antiquity and its 
well-acquired reputation for piety and usefulness, with another which may 
be the offspring of cupidity and speculation, and under the direction of an 
individual of questionable morality, and set up for the very purpose of dep- 
redating on the public charity and munificence, and, consequently, on the 
hard earnings of the people, which are tlie sources of that charity and mu- 
nificence. On the subject of aiding in the support of churches, which, it is 
contended, results from the late law, and the practice under it, it is strongly 
urged that true religion requires and admits of no aid from the secular 
j>ower ; that her only resources are from heaven, and the contributions of 
willing hearts ; that she seeks only for protection, and not for support ; and 
that the arm of the State, though strong, has no jjotency or legitimate con- 
trol beyond such protection. 

These propositions, it is contended, are unanswerable in themselves, and 
derive great strength from the example of every other county in this State 
where the common school fund is confined in its application to the pm-poses 
of a common or literary education alone, and is not permitted to receive the 
least share of religious or clerical influence in its distribution ; and also from 
the examples of some of our sister States, who, in the recent revision of 
their constitutions, have severally struck from these instruments the pro- 
vision formerly incorporated in them, favorable to ecclesiastical participa- 
tion in similar funds in these States. 

And it is further contended that, on this very subject, we are admon- 
ished and instructed by an act which jjassed the Assembly (though not the 
Senate of this State) in the year 1824, founded on the report of a commktee 
of that body, in which the committee state that " the city of New York is 
the only part of the State where the school fund is at all subject to the con- 
trol of religious societies. This fund is considered by your committee 
purely of a civil character, and therefore it ought never, in their opinion, to 
pass into the hands of any corporation or set of men who are not directly 
amenable to the constituted civil authorities of the Government, and bound 
to report their proceedings to the public." And that committee more than 
intimate that, in their opinion, it would be " a violation of a fundamental 
principle of legislation to allow the funds of the State, raised by a tax on 
the citizens, designed for civil purposes, to be subject to the control of any 
religious corporation." * 

In regard to religious instruction, it is contended, on the part of the civil 
or lay corporations, that they cause to be communicated, in imitation of the 
Bible S(jciety, who publish the Scriptures without note or comment, such 
precepts, in the form of reading-lessons and catechisms, in the original lan- 
guage of the Bible, on such interesting and familiar subjects of human duty 



720 APPENDIX. 

and obligations as children can best comprehend. And as to the specific 
or sectarian forms of religion, they leave them to be communicated by the 
parents or guardians at home, or by the churches or Sunday schools, to 
which it is their constant wish and direction that the children may be sent. 

It is further maintained that, if the system which, until lately, was tol- 
erated in this city, should now be revived and perpetuated, the consequence 
will be a continued and more successful rivalry than heretofore, not on the 
part of the old, settled, and well-conducted churches, but by others which 
may be set on foot to discover which can obtain the greatest number of 
scholars on their registers, and to whose principal object the business of in- 
structing and training up poor children will be altogether subsidiary ; and 
that, while these will be depredating on this fund, which is designed for the 
most beneficent purposes, the free schools, which have been unparalleled in 
their useful effects upon the poor, will fall into decay, and become utterly 
abandoned. 

In the conclusion of the argument on this side of the question, it is 
stated that, before the existence of tlie common school fund, the charity 
schools flourished and increased, and, in all probability, will continue to 
have the same success from the liberality of their frieuds and patrons. That 
the free schools will be open for those children v>'ho may be left without a 
cliarity school, should the churches not be permitted hereafter to participate 
in this fund ; that the instances of such destitution are not likely to be 
numerous ; and that, at all events, a greater number of poor children will 
be instructed in the free schools alone, than are instructed in all the institu- 
tions at present partaking of this fund, in consequence of the more concen- 
trated and successful efforts which they will be enabled to make by the erec- 
tion of such buildings and the employment of such teachers as may be 
required, if the common school fund shall be approjjriated and expended in 
the manner proposed by them. 

And it is added, that the following are among the further results which 
may be expected from this mode of distribution : 

First, an increased economy in the expenditiire and use of the public 
moneys, arising form the singleness of the object to which they will be 
devoted, whereby the greatest quantity of good may be expected from the 
smallest amount of means. 

Second, the utmost expedition in the acquirement of useful knowledge 
by the poor children at large, and in all sections of our city, by reason of 
the highly-improved methods which are established, and the excellent 
teachers which are employed in the free schools. 

Third, a greater uniformity in the rule, government, and branches of 
instruction which will be pursued in the public seminaries, than can be 
expected at present in the diversified and variously conducted schools of the 
churches and other societies. 

These are among the reasons urged by the Lay, in opposition to the 
religious societies, why the latter should be excluded, and the former alone 
receive the benefit of this fund. 

Your committee have thus, with the single desire of truth, laid before 



EEPORT OF THE LAW COMMITTEE. T21 

the Common Council the result of their inquiries, and the substance of the 
communications that have been made to them. 

In the performance of this duty, they have felt all the importance and 
responsibility of the task assigned to them ; and \\hile they would willingly 
have retired from the appointment, and do each individually wish that the 
Legislature had passed the necessary law on this subject, on the recent 
application to them for that purpose, yet your committee cannot permit 
themselves to hesitate or falter in the course of public duty, when that 
course is plainly manifest to their understandings. Your committee will not 
conceal either their own private and personal wishes at the commencement 
of their duties, that the well-organized churches and religious societies in 
our city might be permitted to continue in the reception of a part of this 
fund as heretofore ; but the weight of the argument, as urged before tbem, 
and which they have endeavored to condense in this report, and the estab- 
lished constitutional and political doctrines which have a bearing on tliis 
question, and the habits and modes of thinking of the constituents at large 
of this board, require, in the opinion of your committee, that the common 
school fund should be distributed for civil purposes only, as contradistin- 
guished from those of a religious or sectarian description. 

As to the existing institutions among which it is now divided, the Com- 
mon Council will give to the reasons and arguments which have been stated, 
stich weight as they may deserve, on the decision of the question whether 
they in general ought to participate in the division of a fund drawn in part 
like the present, from the people, by taxation. 

But it would seem to your committee to be a departure from the most 
ordinary prudence, to pemiit such religious societies as might hereafter 
spring up and choose to add to their establishmenls a charity school, to par- 
take indiscriminately of this fund, since neither the character of their man- 
agers and conductors, nor the object which such societies might have in 
view, could now be foreseen or apprehended. And the arguments and con- 
stitutional barriers, and the modes of thinking of our citizens before men- 
tioned, are conclusive, in the opinion of your commiltee, why any one 
church or religious society now established, however exemplary or merito- 
rious, equally with all others, should be excluded from a participation in 
this fund. 

In regard to the project contained in the report of a committee of the 
trustees of the Free-School Society, proposing a change in their constitu- 
tion, your committee have concluded, as it would require an application to 
the Legislature before it could be carried into execution, and the present 
session is probably too far advanced for that purpose, to recommend that it 
be laid on the table for further consideration. 

On the main subject referred to your committee, they I eg leave to sub- 
mit the accompanying draft of an ordinance to the consideration of the 
Common Council. Respectfully submitted, 

S. COWDREY, 

TnoMAs Bolton, 
E. Vy. KiKG. 
46 



7-22 



B. 



[At a meeting of tlie trustees of Romau Catholic cliurches, held at St. 
Peter's Churcli, Barclay street, February 17, 1840 (see page 179), a petition 
to the Common Council was adopted, which was submitted to the Board of 
Assistant Aldermen on March 2, when the trustees of the Public School Soci- 
ety submitted a remonstrance. On the 16th of March, the Hebrew congre- 
gation in Crosby street, and the Scotch Presbyterian Church, presented a 
petition for school money. Remonstrances were presented from Lockwood I 
Smith and 309 others; William Holmes and 61 others; the Public School 
Society, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Reformed Protestant Dutch 
churches. On March 30, a remonstrance, was presented from the East Broome 
street Baptist Church, and from S. Devercaux and others. On April 13, the 
remonstrance from the Reformed Presbyterian Church was presented. These 
papers were referred to the Committee on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, who 
reported April 27th.] 

DOCUMENT NO. 80. 

BoAUD OF Assistant Aldermkk, April 27, 1840. 

Report of the Committee on Arts and Sciences and Schools, on the peti- 
tion of the officers and members of the Roman Catholic and other Churches 
in the city of New York, for an apportionment of school moneys to the 
schools attached to said churches. Presented by Mr. Dodge. Adopted, 
and two thousand copies ordered to be printed, with the accompanying peti- 
tions and remonstrances, under the direction of the committee. 

Edward Patterson, Clerk. 



The Committee on Arts and Sciences and Schools of the Board of Assist- 
ants, to whom were referred the petitions of the tr.;stecs and members of the 
several Roman Catholic churches in the city of New York, the Scotch Pres- 
byterian Church in said city, and the Hebrew congregation in Crosby street, 
for an appropriation of a portion of the school moneys to the schools 
attached to said churches or congregations ; and to whom were also referred 
the resolutions of the Commissioners of School Money, and the remon- 
strances of the Public School Society, and of other societies and individuals, 
against making such appropriations, respectfully report : 

The subject-matter referred to your committee is one of the highest im- 
portance, not only as regards the rights and interests of the petitioners, but 
as it affects the great cause of public ediication, the wishes and feelings of 
the ))eople at large, the intentions of the founders of the existing system of 
public instruction, and the requirements of the Constitution and laws of the 
State. Fully impressed with the magnitude of the questions invulved, (he 
committee proceeded to the examination of the subject with an anxious 
desire to render complete justice to all, to advance the interests of the pub- 
lic, and extend the benefits of education to the utmost possible limit. 
Knowing that many objections were urged by a large and respectable por* 



EEPOET OF COMMITTEE ON AKTS AND SCIENCES. 723 

tion of our citizens against the prayer of the petitioners, and that much 
excitement existed among the petitioners, and in the public mind generally, 
upon the subject, the committee deemed it their duty to give all parties an 
opportunity of fully and thoroughly discussing the merits of the question 
before them. For this purpose, public notice was given that the committee 
would meet, for the purpose of considering the subject, on the 13th day of 
March, in the chamber of this board, and all who felt interested were in- 
vited to attend. The petitioners on the part of the Koman Catholic church- 
es appeared at the time and place appointed for the meeting, by a commit- 
tee of three gentlemen appointed for that purpose. The Public School Soci- 
ety, one of the remonstrant parties, also appeared by a committee. 

It is unnecessary to detail fully the proceedings of the committee at this 
meeting. It is sufficient to say, that both the parties who appeared Iiad 
every opportunity of stating their views to the committee, and that a full 
discussion of the subject was had. On the part of the petitioners who 
appeared, it was stated that there were, in the city of New York, seven 
Roman Catholic churches, each of which maintained a free school, estab- 
lished for the purpose of educating the children of the poor attached to 
their respective congregations. This, it appears, is the primary object in 
establishing the schools ; though the children of persons attached to other 
religious denominations are not excluded, and do, in fact, attend them. It 
was further stated that no religious test or qualiticatinn was requisite to 
admission, and that no means were used to alter the religious views of the 
child of a person not attached to the Catholic Church. This statement, 
your committee have no doubt, is correct. 

Objection was made, on the part of the Catholic petitioners, to the pub- 
lic schools now existing and supported from the school fund, on the ground 
that no religious instruction was communicated there ; or, if any was given, 
it was of a character which reflected upon the doctrines of the Catholic 
Church. The latter branch of this objection was denied on the part of the 
Public School Society. 

The petitioners who appeared also contended that they contributed, in 
common with all other citizens who were taxed for the purpose, to the 
accumulation of the common school fund, and that they were therefore enti- 
tled to participate in its advantages; that now they received no benefit from 
the fund, inasmuch as the members of the Catholic churches could not con- 
scientiously send their children to schools in which the religious doctrines 
of their fathers were exposed to ridicule or censure. The truth and justice 
of the first branch of this proposition cannot be questioned. The correct- 
ness of the latter part of the argument, so far as the same relates to books 
or exercises of any kind in the public schools reflecting on the Catholic 
Church, was, as is hereinbefore stated, denied by the School Society. 

On the part of the Public School Society, it was contended that any ap- 
propriation of the school money to any religious denomination, for the pur- 
pose of educating the children of that denomination, was foreign to the design 
of the common school system as organized by law, hostile to the spirit of the 
Constitution, and at variance with the nature of our free institutions. 



724 APPENDIX. 

It may be proper here to state that, in the argument, it was admitted, on 
the part of the Catholic petitioners, that, in the schools attached to their 
churches, religious instruction in the doctrines of the Church would be given 
after the usual school hours, with the understanding that no child would be 
required to attend at that time without the approval of the parents. 

The preceding is a brief abstract of the views presented to your com- 
mittee by the petitioners and remonstrants. It is important that a statement 
of tliese views should be presented in this form to the board, that they may 
fully understand the wishes of the parties, and through them, as far as they 
can be ascertained in this way, the feelings and opinions of the public. 

Upon the lacts presented to the committee, two questions have arisen of 
great moment to the people of this city and State. These questions have 
received our most attentive examination, and the conclusions to which the 
committee have arrived are such, they trust, as will meet the concurrence of 
the board and the approval of the public. 

The questions to wliieh the committee have directed their attention arc 
as follows : 

First : Have the Common Council of this city, under the existing laws 
relative to common schools in the city of New York, a legal right to apjjro- 
priate any portion of the school fund to religious corporations ? 

Second : Would the exercise of such power be in accordance with the 
spirit of the Constitution and the nature of our Government ? 

It is undeniable that the Common Council of the city of New York liave, 
by statute, the power of designating the " institutions and schools " which 
shall participate in the benefits of the common school fund. Under the 
statute confirming this power, the question naturally arises. What associa- 
tions of individuals does the phrase " institutions and schools" include ? A 
brief view of the legislation of the State upon the subject of public instruc- 
tion in this city will throw much light upon the subject. 

The common school system of the State of New York was designed by 
the people, through whose representatives in the Legislature it was organ- 
ized, to afford to every child the opportunity of acquiring a plain and prac- 
tical education of that character which would fit him for the ordinary busi- 
ness of life. To afford to all citizens the privilege of educating their chil- 
dren under the public care and at the public charge, the Legislature per- 
ceived the necessity of placing the schools beyond the reach of those 
influences which might render them obnoxious to the feelings of any citizen. 
To avoid the introduction of subjects of instruction into the schools that 
might by possibility lead to the creation of angry and unpleasant feelings in 
the little neighborhoods which compose the school districts of the State, the 
entire management and control of the schools, in the first instance, was given 
by law to commissioners, inspectors, and trustees, elected immediately by 
the people of the several towns and districts. Private associations and 
religious coqiorations were excluded fi'om the management of the funds and 
the government of the schools. Private interest, under this system, could 
not appropriate the public treasure to private purposes, and religious zeal 
could not divert them to the purpo.ses of proselytism. The watchful eye of 



EEPOET OF COMMITTEE ON ARTS AND SCIENCES. 725 

an interested community guarded the treasure of the schools, and mutual 
jealousy prevented the introduction of any system of education into the 
school-room which might by possibility be the means of propagating the 
doctrines of any denomination at the expense of others. It is evident from 
the strictly popular character of the system of public instruction as origi- 
nally established, that the Legislature intended the public school fund to be 
employed for the purpose of communicating to the children of the State 
instruction of a strictly secular character, altogether unconnected with either 
political or religious education. This system for the government of the 
schools has existed in the State, excepting in the city of New York and 
some other cities, from the year 1813 to the present time, and has been pro- 
ductive of the happiest results. 

The first general act for the establishment of common schools was passed 
in the year 1813. By that act the common school system was organized in 
the manner and with the design hereinbefore stated. All the provisions of 
the act in question did not extend to this city. The officers charged with 
the expenditure of the school money and the supervision of the schools in 
the city of New York, were not intended to be elected by the people, nor 
were the j)eople, through their immediate representatives, to exercise a 
direct control over the subject. A subsequent act was passed on the 13th 
of March, 1813, relative to common schools in this city (and supplementary 
to the act of 1812), by which the Commissioners of School Moneys were 
directed to pay the moneys received by them to " the trustees of the Free- 
School Society in the city of New York " (now known as the Public School 
Society), and to " the trustees or teachers of the Orphan Asylum Society, 
the Scciety of the Economical School in the city of New York, the African 
Free School, and of such incoi-porqted religious societies in said city as now 
support, or hereafter shall establish, charity schools within the said city, 
who may apply for the same," &c. Revised Laws, vol. 1, p. 3G7. 

It will be perceived that, by this act, " incorporated religious societies *' 
were expressly named as proper recipients of the public bounty provided 
for the support of common schools ; and it appears, too, from the language 
of the act, that the commissioners had no discretion as to the admission or 
exclusion of religious societies from a participation in the fund. The law 
was imperative in its character, and the several religious societies of the 
city possessed a legal right to draw their respective portions of the fund 
from the public treasury, subject only to the restriction that the money so 
received should be appropriated to the purposes of free and common edu- 
cation. Under this law many churches of different denominations partici- 
pated in the benefits of the school fund. At diff'erent periods, special acts 
of the Legislature were passed, conferring portions of the same fund upon 
several charitable societies other than those of a sectarian character. An- 
other act, which eventually led to the change in the system, which your 
committee are about to state, was passed in 1833, authorizing the Bethel 
Baptist Church (then one of the participants in the school fund) " to em- 
ploy the surplus of school money in their hands in the erection of school- 
houses and all other needful purposes of a common school education, but 



T26 APPENDIX. 

* 
for no other 2)urpose whatfiver." Under this act gross abuses occurred, and 
the funds received by the church were applied to other purposes than those 
contemplated by the act. This misapplication of the public money, devoted 
to the sacred purpose of common education, induced the Legislature, in the 
session of 1824, not to repeal the act passed for the benetit of the Bethel 
Church, and under which the abuses in question had occurred, but to repeal 
that portion of the act of 1813 which included "incorporated religious 
societies " among the recipients of the school fund. Tlie committee will 
proceed to state the extent and manner of the reijcal in detail. 

On the lOtli of November, 1824, the Legislature, in consequence of the 
abuses of the Bethel Church, and evidently with a view to guard against 
the recurrence of similar or any abuses thereafter, passed a general act. en- 
tering fully into details, for the better management of the school fund in 
the city of New York, By this act many important alterations in the sys- 
tem were effected ; and, among others, the whole power of selecting the 
recipients of the school moneys was delegated to the Common Council. 
The act to which your committee refer is entitled, " An Act Relating to 
Common Schools in the City of New York." By the fifth section of this 
law it is provided as follows : " The institutions or schools which shall be 
entitled to receive of said school moneys, shall, from time to time, and at 
least once in three years, be designated by the Corporation of the city of 
New York, in common council convened, who shall also have jiower to pre- 
scribe the limitations and restrictions under which said moneys shall be 
received by said institutions or schools, or any of them." Laws of 1824, 
p. 338. By the ninth section it is provided that the act take effect on the 
15th day of May, 1825, and that, from and after that day, the act entitled 
" An Act Supplementary to the Act, Entitled ' An Act for the Establishment 
of Common Schools,'" passed the 12th of March, 1813, and all, each and 
every other act or section and sections of acts heretofore passed, relating to 
common schools, to moneys arising from the school fund of the State, or to 
the distribution or ajjportionment thereof, so far as relates to, or in any wise 
concerns, the city and county of New York, and societies supporting charity 
schools therein, and no further, is and are hereby repealed. Laws of 1824, 
p. 339. 

Previous to 1824, the Legislature of the State designated the societies or 
schools who were entitled to receive a portion of the school fund, but by 
the act of that year, reC-nacted in the Revised Statutes, that power is con- 
ferred upon the Common Council ; and the question now presented to the 
board is, whether the Common Council have an unlimited discretion in the 
matter, or whether they are subject to any limitation ; and if so, to what ? 

By the school act of 1812, " incorporated religious societies " supporting 
or establishing charity schools were expressly named as entitled to receive, 
with other societies, their ratable proportions of the school fund. One of 
the " incorporated religious societies " participating in the fund, and author- 
ized by law to employ it for a special purpose, misapplied the money and 
abused the trust reposed in it. The Legislature immediately thereafter re- 
pealed the law of 1813, under which religious societies were then recipients 



EEPOET OF COMMITTEE ON ARTS AND SCIENCES. Y27 

of the money, and autliorized the Common Council to designate the " insti- 
tutions '' and " schools " which should be eutitled to receive it. 

There is something peculiar in the language of the repealing act of 1824, 
which fully satisfies your committee that the Legislature intended, ever after, 
to exclude religious corporations from the recej)tion of the school moneys. 
Jn the act of 1813 they are named as " incorporated religious societies," 
and this is the only act under which they ever received any portion of the 
fund. 

By the act of 1824, " institutions " and " schools '' are to receive it. It 
would require much ingenuity to induce any person to believe that the 
Legislature of the State would, in a solemn legal enactment, describe a 
church as an " institution " or a '• school." The language employed, your 
committee believe, should be constructed in its plain and familiar meaning ; 
and it must be evident to all, that if the Legislature, in 1824, intended to 
confer any portion of the school fund upon religious societies, they would 
have used the words found in the act of 1813, or words of a similar imijort. 

The attention of the board is also called to that part of the ninth sec- 
tion of the act of 1824 which repeals the act of 1813, relative to common 
schools in this city. This section declares, in the most unequivocal and 
forcible manner, " that the act of 1813, and all and every other act or sec- 
tions of acts relating to the distribution and apportionment of the school 
fund, so far as the same relates to the city of New York, and to societies 
suj)portiug charity schools therein, are repealed." No language can be more 
clear and explicit than this, and your committee cannot hesitate in express- 
ing it to be their opinion that the only authority under which religious 
societies participated in the school fund, was contained in the act of 1813 : 
and that this act was repealed by the Legislature with the full intention 
that religious societies, as such, should no longer receive any jjortion of the 
schoot money from the public treasury, even for the purpose of supporting 
common schools. This opinion of your committee is confirmed by the 
almost universal opinion of the people of this city, from 1824 to the present 
time. 

It is undeniable that the Common Council have a general discretion as 
to the schools to be supported by the public money ; but it appears to your 
committee that the intentions of the Legislature and the people, although 
not reduced to the form of a positive legal enactment, should, so far as they 
can be gathered from the proceedings of the Legislature, be respected by 
the Common Council. Believing that the act of 1824 was intended to pre- 
vent a participation in the school moneys by religious societies, your com- 
mittee suggest to the board, that their power to apportion the fund among 
societies of that character, is, at the least, very questionable ; and that a, 
prudent regaid for the obligations of duty should prevent the exercise of 
so douljtful a power in any case whatever. 

It may be proper here to observe, that the act of 1824, relative to the 
distribution of school moneys in the city of New York, was reenactcd in 
the Revised Statutes (vol. 1, new ed., p. 483). In the reC-nactmeut of this 
statute, the words " societies or schools " are used in defining the recipients 



728 APPENDIX. 

of the fund. It may bo urged that the alteration of the language of the 
act in question indicated an intention on the part of the Legislature to re- 
turn to the system of distribution established by the act of 1813. But 
your committee cannot entertain this view of the subject. The revisers of 
the laws were appointed to digest and codify the then existing statute law 
of the State. In the performance of this duty, they, in various instances 
adopted language which they believed to be more clear, explicit, or appro- 
priate than that of the original act. The language of the Revised Statutes, 
iu relation to the subject under consideration, may jserhaps be preferable, 
in some respects, to that of the original act of 1824, but it certainly cannot 
be construed as intended to alter the legal effect of that law. It relates to 
the same subject-matter, and is virtually declared to be a reOnactment of 
the former act, by the reference contained in the accompanying note ; and 
the committee can therefore adopt no rule of construction that would defeat 
the object of that act, which it was evidently the design of the revisers and 
the Legislature to confirm and perpetuate. 

The same remark may be made in relation to the provisions of the Re- 
vised Statutes that was ma<le in reference to the act of 1824. If the revisors 
or the Legislature intended to include religious corporations among the 
recipients of the school fund, they would have used the words " incorpo- 
rated religious societies," or words of a similar meaning and import. 

There is another important view of the subject to which the committee 
would call the attention of the board. The Constitution of the State, in 
the following impressive language, secures to every citizen the utmost liberty 
of conscience : " The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and 
worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed, in 
this State, to all mankind." Art. 7, sec. 3. There can bo no constitu- 
tional guarantee more full and general than this ; and it was certainly the 
object of the convention which framed, and of the people who adopted, the 
Constitution, to prevent the Legislature of the State, and all other branches 
of the Government, from creating any distinctions between citizens on 
account of religious faith, or giving to one sect any preference or advantage 
over another. That this is the object of the constitutional provision referred 
to, none can deny. The question then arises. How far will the approjiriation 
of the school moneys asked for by the petitioners conflict with the require- 
ments and intentions of the Constitution ? This branch of the subject has 
been attentively considered by your committee, and they offer the following 
as the results of their deliberations : 

The people of the State of New York are divided into almost innumer- 
able religious sects and denominations. These different sects view the prog- 
ress of each other with watchful jealousy. The natural desire that all men 
possess, to make converts to the opinions which they have honestly formed 
and zealously maintain, ever has led, and ever will lead, to exertions and 
struggles to extend those opinions to the utmost limit. This is true of all 
opinions ; but the history of the world proves that it applies more justly to 
religious opinion than to any other. The Old World, and even our own 
country, has witnessed not only religious zeal endeavoring to make prose- 



EEPOET OF COMMITTEE ON AETS AND SCIENCES. 729 

lytes to its own faith by the means of persuasion, argument, and even de- 
nunciation ; but persecution for opinion's sake is known to the history of 
every civilized government. Religious zeal, degenerating into fanaticism 
and bigotry, has covered many battle-fields vpith its victims ; the stake, the 
gibbet, and the prison have fallen to the lot of countless martyrs ; exile 
from the land of their nativity, expulsion from the seats of civilization to 
the wilderness of the savage, have been experienced by hundreds of almost 
every sect, who could not honestly subscribe to the religious opinions of thi- 
majority. To prevent, in our day and country, the recurrence of scenes sc 
abhorrent to every principle of justice, humanity, and right, the Constitu- 
tions of the United States and of the several States have declared, in some 
form or other, that there should be no establishment of religion by law ; 
that the affairs of the State should be kept entirely distinct from, and un- 
connected with, those of the Church ; that every human being should wor- 
ship God according to the dictates of his own conscience ; that all churches 
and itligions should be supported by voluntary contribution ; and that no 
tax should ever be imposed for the benefit of any denomination of religion, 
for any cause or under any pretence whatever. These principles are either 
expressly declared in the several constitutions, or arise by necessary implica- 
tion from the nature of our Government and the character of our republican 
institutions. 

In the cases before your committee, the petitioners ask for an appropria- 
tion of the public money to the support of schools established by, and con- 
ducted under the control of, certain religious corporations ; and these 
schools, in the one case, are established principally for the instruction of the 
children of indigent members of the Roman Catholic Church. The teach- 
ers — if your committee are correctly informed — are appointed by the trus- 
tees of those churches, and the plan of instruction pursued is adopted by 
the same officers. This plan includes religious instruction at stated periods, 
to be communicated by means of the catechism of the Catholic Church. 
Your committee are unable to say positively whether any devotional exer- 
cises are used or required in the schools ; but they regard this as immaterial 
to be considered in this stage of the question. They are also unable to state 
whether any religious instruction is given, or intended to be given, in the 
schools of the other petitioners — the Scotch Presbyterian Church, and the 
Hebrew congregation. The schools sought to be supported from the public 
treasury (being controlled by religious corporations) are, to that extent, 
religious schools. 

To a correct understanding of the relation this case bears to the consti- 
tutional provisions and principles hereinbefore referred to, it will be neces- 
sary to refer briefly to the sources and present extent of the school fund 
appropriated to the city of New York. This fund arises, in part, from the 
annual income of the proceeds of hinds sold by the State, which belonged 
to the people of the State in common, the interest of the United States 
Deposit Fund, and also from annual taxation upon the people of this city. 



730 



The amount received from the State Treasury in the 

year 1838 was, ..... $34,173.47 

Amount of tax raised by the Corporation for cnmraon 
schools, under the general laiv relating to common 
schools, for the same year, ... . 34,172.47 

Amount of tax raised in this city for common school 

purpose's, under special statutes, in the same year, 73,150.00 



$141,494.94 



The whole amount received from the school fund of the State, the com- 
mon property of the people, is |34, 173.47. The amount raised by tax in the 
city of New York, for the support of common schools for 1838, was 
$107,323.47, or nearly the one twelfth part of the whole amount of taxes 
levied in this city. 

It is urged, on the part of the Catholic petitioners, that they, as taxpay- 
ers, contribute to the fund thus annually' raised, and that they are therefore 
entitled to participate in its benefits. This is undoubtedly true ; but it 
should be borne in mind that they are taxed not as members of the Roman 
Catholic Church, but as citizens of the State of New York ; and not for the 
purposes of religion, but for the support of civil government. The Consti- 
tution acknowledges no distinctions among men on account of their reli- 
gious faith ; and your committee would call the attention of the petitioners 
to the fiict that our institutions are designed not to create or perpetuate 
religious distinctions, but to place all mankind upon a common footing of 
equality. Any legal acknowledgment of any religious denomination, as a 
dependant upon the public bounty for any kind of pecuniary aid or sup- 
j)ort, would be an abandonment of the great constitutional principle, that 
the end and aim of all just government is the equal protection of all men in 
the free exercise and enjoyment of the rights derived from the written Con- 
stitution of the land, or the still higher authority of nature. The appro- 
priation of any portion of the public treasure to the Roman Catholic or any 
other churches in this city, must be regarded as violative of this great doc- 
trine. Admit the correctness of the claim that the Common Council of the 
city, or the Legislature of the State, may rightfully ap2)ropriate the public 
money to the purposes of religious instruction of any kind in any school, 
and the consequence will bo, that the jjeople are taxed by law for the sup- 
port of some one or other of our numerous religious denominations. The 
amount of one hundred and seven thousand dollars and upward, as herein- 
before stated, has been raised by annual tax in this city, for purposes of a 
purely civil and secular character. An appropriation of any portion of that 
sum to the support of schools in which the religious tenets of any sect are 
taught to any extent, would be a legal establishment of one denomination 
of religion over another, would conflict with all the principles and purposes 
of our free institutions, and would violate the ycry letter of that part of our 
Constitution which so emphatically declares that " the free exercise and 
enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or 
preference, shall forever be allowed, in this State, to all mankind." By 



EEPOET OF COMSIITTEE ON ARTS AND SCIENCES. 731 

granting a portion of tlie school funrl to one sect, to tlie exclusion of others, 
a ^'■preference'''' is at once created, a '■^discrimination'''' is made, and the object 
of this great constitutional guarantee is defeated ; taxes are imposed for the 
support of religion, and freedom of conscience, if not directly trammelled 
and contined, is not left in the perfect and unshackled state which our sys- 
tems of government were intended to establish and perpetuate. It requires 
no argument to prove that taxation of all sects, for the benefit of one, is a 
violation of the rights of conscience. No difierence can be perceived, iu 
principle, between the taxing of the people of England for the support of a 
(•hurch establishment there, and the taxing of the people of New York for 
the support of schools in which the doctrines of religious denominations 
are taught here. It is immaterial whether the amount of tax imposed is 
great er small ; so long as a tax is imposed for the purposes of religious 
instruction to the slightest possible extent, that tax is unauthorized by the 
Constitution, violates the rights of conscience, defeats, to some extent, the 
purposes, and conflicts with the spirit, of our free institutions. 

It may be said, in reply to these observations, that all constitutional diffi- 
culties will be removed, by admitting all religious denominations to a partici- 
pation in the fund. This, your committee have no doubt, the petitioners would 
willingly assent to. The petitioners have no desire of securing a portion of the 
fund for themselves, and excluding others from the enjoyment of the same ad- 
vantages. They are willing that other sects should establish schools on simi- 
lar principles with their own, and that those schools should receive equal en- 
couragement from the public with theirs. These remarks are made with a 
view to exonerate the petitioners from the suspicion of having been influ- 
enced by selfish or illiberal motives. The committee are fully satisfied that 
they have acted under a conviction of duty, but with au erroneous view of 
their rights as religious societies, the provisions of the law, and the powers 
of the Common Council, and not from a desire to advance the interests of 
the several churches to which they are attached, at the expense of the Con- 
stitution. 

An extension to all other denominations of the bounty asked for by the 
petitioners would be not only impracticalile, but would be, equally with the 
grant sought by the Roman Catholic churches, and the Scotch Presbyterian 
and Hebrew congregations, repugnant to the principles of our Government. 
If the doctrines of all the religious denominations in the State were taught 
in the slightest degree at the expense of the j)eople, under the authority of 
law, there would still be a legal religious establishment, not confined to one 
or a few sects, it is true, but covering many. Ta'Xes, under such a system, 
would still bo raised for religious purposes ; and those who professed no 
religion, or belonged to no sect, would be taxed for the benefit of those who 
did. It is immaterial, in the eye of the law, whether a citizen professes any 
or no religious faith ; he is still a citizen, and, as such, is entitled to the free 
enjoyment of whatever opinions he may entertain : and there is no differ- 
ence, in legal principles, between taxing him for the purpose of educating 
the young in the doctrines of many churches, to which he does not belong, 
and taxing the Catholic for the benefit of Protestant schools, or taxing the 



732 APPENDIX. 

Protestant for the support of Catholic seminaries. The rights of conscience 
are the same in the one case as in tlie other ; and the cases are identical in 
principle, although, in the one instance, but few may deem themselves 
injured, and, in the other, thousands may complain of the violation of their 
rights as free citizens. No government can rightfully deprive any — the 
humblest being — of the rights which he may derive from nature as a man, 
or of those which he possesses as a citizen under the Constitution of his 
country. 

There are insuperable objections to dividing the school fund among reli- 
gious societies for the support of schools. The dependence upon the bounty 
of the civil government -which it induces, is as foreign to the nature and 
character of the Christian religion as it is hostile to the theory of our Gov- 
ernment. Religion needs not the support of secular power ; its apjjeals are 
to the judgments and hearts of men. Truth is its only weapon ; and the 
only shield it requires is that of broad and equal protection. Religious lib- 
erty is necessary to the free development of religious trutli. That liberty 
all sects possess in the fullest degree, and no sect can rightfully procure 
more. The purity of the Clmrch and the safety of the State are more surely 
obtained by a distinct and separate existence of the two than by their 
union. The opinions of the American people are settled upon this subject, 
and they will observe with jealous anxiety any approaches to a retstablish- 
ment of the exploded doctrine that it is the duty of the State to protect 
the religious interests of the people, or propagate, at the public expense, the 
doctrines of any iaith, however true they may be. 

Tbe division of the school fund among the different religious denomina- 
tions of the city would lead to the most unfortunate results. If a division 
of this character should be made, it would be, doubtless, in proportion to 
the number of children taught in each school. The schools, although free 
to all that might desire to enter, would be mainly sectarian in their charac- 
ter. To increase the number of scholars in each school, and thus secure to 
themselves as large a share of tbe public bounty as possible, would be the 
natural desire of each denomination. The main object of the interested 
parties would be, to make proselytes to their respective faiths, and thus to 
increase the power and numerical strength of the several clmrchcs, and the 
number and extent of the several schools. The consequence of this state of 
things it would be difficult to imagine. Jealousies, rivalries, and dissen- 
sions would supplant those gentler feelings which should guide and mark 
the conduct of men toward each other in civil society. Bigotry, fanaticism, 
and violence might assume the place of charity, meekness, and love ; and 
thus a train of evils be induced, destructive to the true interests of religion, 
and dangerous to the harmony, the permanency, and the freedom of the 
State. The history of the world teems with examples of religious excite- 
ment degenerating into wild and embittered fanaticism ; jealousies convert- 
ed into open dissensions, and dissensions ripening into ware, and those wars 
devastating whole nations, until the angry feelings of the partisans were 
satiated by the blood of their victims. 

If the school money should be divided among the religious denomina- 



EEPOET OF COMMITTEE ON ARTS AND SCIENCES. 733 

tions generally, as some have proposed, there will be nothing left for the 
support of schools of a purely civil character ; and if there should be, in 
such a state of things, any citizen who could not, according to his opinions 
of right and wrong, conscientiously send his child to the school of an exist- 
ing sect, there would be no public school in which he could be educated. 
This might, and probably would, be the case with hundreds of our citizens. 
The committee would ask, if any individual could desire to see a fellow- 
citizen, however humble he might be, deprived of the opportunity of pro- 
curing for his child that education which, as a citizen and a taxpayer, he 
has a right to demand ? 

An objection is urged by the Roman Catholic petitioners against the 
schools of the Public School Society, to the effect that no religious instruc- 
tion is there given ; or, if any is given, it is of a character which reflects 
upon the doctrines of the Catholic Church. The committee are disj^osed to 
believe that there is some error in relation to this matter. They have been 
informed, by the officers of the Public School Society, that no books are 
used in their schools which reflect in any degree upon the Catholic Church. 
At the meeting of the committee referred to in the preceding part of this 
report, several officers of the Public School Society, then present, offered to 
submit the text-books of the schools to the inspection of the highest cleri- 
cal officers of that Church for examination, and freely profl'ered to purge 
from the exercises and books of the schools every thing (if any could be 
found) that exposed the Roman Catholic Church, or any thing connected 
with it, to ridicule or censure. 

If any books are used in the public schools relating, in the slightest 
degree, to the doctrines or ceremonies of the Roman Catholic or any other 
religious denomination, the directors of the schools, or other proper officers, 
should cause them to be immediately removed. If religious instruction is 
communicated, it is foreign to the intentions of the school system, and 
should be instantly abandoned. Religious instruction is no part of a com- 
mon school education. The church and the fireside are the proper semina- 
ries, and parents and pastors are the proper teachers of religion. In their 
hands the cause of religion is safe. Let the public schoolmaster confine his 
attention to the moral and intellectual education of the young committed to 
his charge, and he fully performs the duties of his profession, discharges the 
trust rejjosed in him as a public agent, and fulfils his obligations as a 
citizen. 

The committee have given the subject referred to them a thorough con- 
sideration, and they feel bound to say that, in their opinion, the petitioners, 
coming before the Common Council in the capacity of religious denomina- 
tions, have not made out a valid claim to a participation in the common 
school fund in that capacity. The reasons that have led the committee to 
this conclusion are hereinbefore stated. The intentions of the Legislature, 
the will of the people as expressed through their representatives, and the 
imperative requirements of the Constitution, preclude the Common Council 
(in the opinion of the committee) from granting their petitions. In arriv- 
ing at this opinion, the committee have not had reference to one or a few, 



734 APPENDIX. 

but to ail denominations in religion ; and had such a petition been present- 
ed from the other denomiuations in this city, all would have received from 
tlie committee the answer that is given to these. No desire exists to include 
one sect in the benefits of the school fund, and exclude others, but the object 
of the committee has been, to keep that fund sacredly appropriated to the 
purposes for which it was created — the purposes of free and common secular 
education. To this purjjose all the provisions of our lavvs and all the re- 
quirements of our Constitution invariably tend ; and the committee can do 
nothing but suggest to the board that the obligations of the laws and the 
Constitution are such, that the approj)riation of the school fund asked for 
in the several petitions before them, cannot be rightfully granted. 

In this opinion, your committee hope, the board, the petitioners, and the 
public will concur. The question is one of that character which appeals to 
the liveliest feelings of our nature, and one which is too apt to create ex- 
citement and jealousy. That this may not be the case among any portion 
of our citizens, your committee most earnestly desire. They conclude by 
expressing the hope that the petitioners, upon a full examination of the 
question, will perceive that the granting of their petition would be at least 
of doubtful legality, foreign to the design of the school fund, and at vari- 
ance with the spirit of our public institutions. 

The committee ask to be discharged from the further consideration of 
the subject. • 

All which is respectfully submitted. 

, Charles J. Dodge, 

D.wiD Graham, Jr., 
Thomas Conner, 



Committee on Arts 
and Sciences, &c. 



c. 

DOCUMENT NO. 22. 

Board op Aldeemex, July 2G, 1841. 

Report of the Commissioners of School Moneys for the year ending May 
1st, 1841. Laid on the table, and double the usual number of copies 
ordered to be jirinted. Samuel J. Willis, Cleric. 

To the Corporation of the City of New Yorl; and the Superintendent of Com- 
mon Schools of tin; Stats of Neio Yorl: 

[The report opens with a summary of the condition of the schools for 
the year, with the moneys received and expended. The commissioners state 
that officially they do not know, or care to know, any differences of religious 
doctrine, and proceed : — ] 

* * * * Their office is one in which their individual 

convenience and avocations are very often made to yield to their public 
duty ; which is imconnected with any power of patronage or favor ; which 



EEPOKT OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 735 

they have always been willing to resign to any who, with their amount of 
zeal, would surpass their humble ability ; which was accepted only because 
some must perform it, and none who can attend to it faithfully should re- 
fuse ; and which has rendered no compensating return, but in the feelings 
awakened by the immense public benefits of which it has made them the 
witnesses. 

It is well known that the education of the youth of this city, by means 
of the public fund devoted to that purpose, has been placed mainly in the 
hands of a body of citizens denominated " The Public School Society of 
the City of New York." So inconsiderable are the exceptions from this 
control, and so peculiar the circumstances under which each exception is 
made, that the citizens alluded to may be deemed to have the entire prac- 
tical execution of the city system of instruction committed to them, sub- 
ject only to the limitations and government hereafter adverted to. In this 
broad view we shall consider the Society throughout this report. 

As erroneous impressions partially exist in matters which ought to be 
better understood, it will be proper to prepare the way for their correction 
by some statements in regard to the fund devoted to public education in 
this city ; to the body by whom the schools are designated which partake 
of that public fund ; to the officers by whom the division of it is made ; 
and to the composition and performance of the Public School Society. 
These details will swell this report beyond the compass within which we 
had hoped to confine it ; but their importance and necessity seem so mani- 
fest, that we must run the hazard of prolixity. 

The public fund, then, assigned to the education of youth in this city is 
derived, to the extent of somewhat more than one fourth part of its amount, 
from our just proportion of the income of certain funds of the State ; an 
equal sum is raised by taxation on the real and personal estate in the city, 
by virtue of a general law which places the city, in that respect, under the 
like ratable burden imposed on the inhabitants of the rest of the State, for 
purposes of education. In addition to these amounts, however, a tax, pecu- 
liar and confined to the city, is raised on the real and personal estate within 
it, of a sum almost equalling both the proportions of the fund which are 
before mentioned. The latter tax grew out of the willingness of our citi- 
zens to pay this further amount in order to secure to our community the 
comprehensive, liberal, and efficient system of education adopted by the 
Public School Society. If this object shall be defeated, wholly or partially, 
by a discouragement of their schools, a'nd the substitution of establishments 
of less general benefit, the repeal or the non-assessment of the additional 
tax would, we presume, fojiow as a matter of course. 

The designation of the schools which participate of the above fund is 
confided to the Corporation of the city ; the members of the Common Coun- 
cil being annually chosen for the several wards by the citizens of the wards 
possessing the like qualifications as the electors for members of the State 
Legislature ; and the Mayor, or corporate head, who has a veto on their 
proceedings, being elected by the whole body of citizens authorized to vote 
for members of the Common Council. The Corporation is required by law 



736 APPENDIX. 

to prescribe the rules and regulations under which the public moneys shall 
be distributed, and provision has accordingly been made for protecting the 
rights of the people in the schools of the Society, for the due supervision 
of the schools, both on the part of the public and of the trustees, and for 
securing from the schools a full performance of all their obligations. A 
failure in the performance would be followed by the penalty of a withdrawal 
of the fund appropriated for the sujiport of the schools. 

The payment of the school moneys, which is regulated by rules pre- 
scribed by law, is committed to a Board of Commissioners chosen by the 
people of the city through their representatives in the Common Council, in 
a mode analogous to that by which appointments are made by the State 
Legislature, to the ofBces of Secretary of State (who is ex-officio the super- 
intendent of ail the common schools of the State), State Treasurer, Comp- 
troller, Canal Commissioners. Senators in Congress, &c. One commissioner 
of school money is thus selected.'from each ward, for the tenn of three years, 
and any vacancy in their boarjl is supplied by the Common Council for the 
residue of the term. The moneys to be distributed are lodged by the cham- 
berlain of the city, to the credit of the commissioners, in an incorporated 
bank, from which they are drawn only by checks signed at a meeting of the 
board, by a majority of the commissioners, and made payable to the Society. 
The commissioners are bound to make visits half-yearly at least, to all the 
schools ; which duty is jjcrformed, as to such of the primary schools as are 
not held in the same building as the public schools, by committees ; and as 
to the residue, and to all the public schools, by the whole board. The 
board, before making these general visits, are bound to give three days' 
notice of the intended visitation to all the members of the Common Coun- 
cil, and to such members of tlie Legislature as reside in the city ; and some 
of these representatives of the people always accompany the board on such 
occasions. The examinations of the pupils are invariably made at the 
opening of the book, by any connnissioner or visitor named by the chair- 
man, at the instant, without any knowledge until that moment, on the part 
of the examiner, teacher, or pupil, what book or subject would be selected, 
or what individual would conduct it. The Board of Commissioners have, 
beside their stated quarterly meetings, a sufficient number of meetings for 
the half-yearly visitations, and special meetings whenever occasion requires ; 
and they perform, individually or by committees, any duties which their 
office may demand, additional to those above enumerated. Of all their pro- 
ceedings and reports a regular record is kept ; and fines are, l)y a voluntary 
regulation, exacted from absentees from their meetings, without sufficient 
excuse, to be judged of by the whole board. Their actual expenses, not 
exceeding $500 in any year, are reimbursed to them. Reports, annually 
made according to law, to the Superintendent of Common Schools and to 
the Corporation of the city, show the division of the school moneys, and 
the manner in which those allotted the preceding year have been expended. 
They also show the average number of scholars who have belonged to the 
schools within each quarter, and the average attendances during the whole 
year ; the year being arbitrarily composed of five hundred half days, and 



KEPOET OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MOXETS. 737 

the distribution being determined upon tlie latter average. In regard to 
attendances, the law of the State prescribes 'a different mode of reporting 
them for this city, as distinguislied from the rest of the State ; the attend- 
ances reported from the district schools in the latter, embracing everj- pupil 
who has been at school for even a single day, and the distribution being 
governed by the whole number of children residing within the respective 
districts, without regard to the extent or duration of their attendance. 

The Public School Society, to whom the daily conduct of the schools is 
committed, is, in effect, under the laws of the State and of the Corporation 
of New York, the body of citizens possessing the qualifications prescribed 
by the Legislature, and the regulations it has authorized, to entitle them to 
become voters at the election of trustees of the schools which carry out the 
system af general education in the city. The qualification consists in the 
payment at any time of the sum of $10, which forever entitles the contribu- 
tor to this elective franchise ; and, as will be seen hereafter, is founded on a 
more liberal principle than the c^ualification prescribed for voters for trustees 
of the common schools of the rest of the State. The Society has the cor- 
porate powers often annexed to other franchises, suitable to the accomplish- 
ment of its objects ; and does not difier in character in this respect from 
the quasi-coriiorations which regulate the district schools. No control can 
be exercised by the Society over the admission of a member ; the franchise 
being obtained as a matter of right, by any citizen, without election, solici- 
tation, or badge of sect or party, by the mere act of the contribution. No 
one can be excluded from the qualification, who chooses to submit to its re- 
quirements ; and its essentials are such as every industrious, prudent citizen 
can attain, by renouncing, for a short time, superfluities or injurious indul- 
gences. The contribution is equal to a perpetuity of only seventy cents per 
year. Fifty trustees are annually elected by these voters from their own 
body. The Society has, in practice, generally adopted the wise jiolicy of 
preferring those who, in a former execution of the same oiEce, had signal- 
ized themselves by their assiduous and persevering attention. An abstract, 
exhibiting the extent of each trustee's visitation and superintendence during 
the antecedent year, is compiled from the school records, and publicly shown 
at every election, when inexcusable omission of duty meets its due requital. 
These fifty, of the very elite of the Society, as regards the love of the labor 
committed to them, and of its faithful discharge, may choose, if they think 
jsroper, an equal number of the whole body entitled to vote, as associate 
trustees ; and in doing so, they elect those whom it is supposed will be 
most ardent and efiicient in the performance of their duty. Such is the 
formation of the Board of Trustees. For the practical performance of their 
duty in the supervision of the schools, the weekly examination of the pupils, 
and the occasional advice necessary for the teachers, the trustees are divided 
into sections, each embracing one public school-building, and the primary 
schools attached thereto. Each section meets once in each month, to con- 
sider the concerns and interests of its own schools, and to appoint school 
committees to superintend them during the recess of the section, and dis- 
charge the duties of examination and advice before mentioned. In books 



738 



APPENDIX. 



of minutes, kej^t at each of the schools, each member of the committee must 
note his attendances, and write any transactions worthy of record. This 
book is produced and read at the stated monthly meetings of the section, 
who make a quarterly report to the whole Board of Trustees, embracing a 
view of the state of the schools of the section ; of its own jjroceedings, and 
those of its committees ; of the number of times each member of the School 
Committee has, during the quarter, visited the schools ; and of any propo- 
sitions intended for the consideration of the Board of Trustees at its quar- 
terly meeting^. An Executive Committee, of which the chairman of such 
section is ex officio a member, is charged with the general superintending 
care of the schools during the recess of the Board of Trustees ; and meet 
accordingly once in each month, and oftener, at the request of either of 
their number. This committee reports annually, on the general state of the 
schools, to the Board of Trustees ; who, from the materials obtained from 
all the reports presented to them, and their own observation, report to the 
Society at large. In addition to their quarterly meetings, meetings of all 
the trustees are annually held in school hours, in each of the schools, for 
the purpose of general inspection. 

The trustees are obliged, annually, to report to the Corporation of the 
city, and to the Superintendent of Common Schools, " a particular account 
of the state of their schools, and of the moneys received and expended by 
them the year preceding, so as to exhibit a full and iDcrfect statement of the 
property, funds, and afl'airs of the Society." 

The schools of the Society are designated by the names of Primary and 
Public. The former, of which all the teachers are females, are open to all 
girls over four years of age, and to boys between four and ten. In these the 
simplest elements of literary education are taught ; and also, among the 
girls, plain sewing. Perfection in the studies of a lower class is requisite 
before a child is advanced to a higlier. When a pupil has learned to spell 
correctly and deliberately, read audibly, and write pretty well on the slates, 
a recommendation is given by the teacher for admission into a public school, 
and, after satisfactory examination, the child is advanced. It is enjoined 
as a duty on the teachers of these schools, to make themselves acquainted 
with the inhabitants of the district in which the school is located, and par- 
ticularly with those of the poorest classes, in order to induce them to send 
their children to school. The better to ensure the attention of the teachers 
to this duty, the amount of their pay is made dependent on the number of 
children under their tuition. 

In the public schools, where due provision is also made for the tuition 
of boys over the age of ten years, who have not acquired the knowledge 
imparted by the primary schools, the tuition of the boys and of the girls is 
conducted in separate rooms of the school-house, under teachers of their 
own sex. The course of instruction for the boys embraces spelling, reading, 
including' definitions and questions concerning the meaning of the author, 
writing, making and mending pens, arithmetic, geography, use of the globes 
and drawing of maps, English grammar, composition and declamation, book- 
keeping and the elements of history, astronomy, algebra, geometry, and trigo- 



KEPORT OF COMMISSIONEES OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 739 

nometry, respectively. The girls are taught in all these branches, except decla- 
mation, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, and with the addition of needle- 
work. Strict rules of the Society secure the punctual attendance of the teach- 
ers ; their attention to the comfort, cleanliness, and morals of the scholars, to 
the ventilation and temperature of the school-rooms, to the causes of the ab- 
sence of pupils, and to the care of the children, as far as possible, both in and 
out of the schools. The mildest punishments which can produce reform are 
alone resorted to, and the teachers can expel a pupil only with the consent of 
the School Committee or of the section, for habitual disregard of duty or 
flagrant oflence — of which the reason must be communicated to the parent, 
who may appeal to the Board of Trustees. Registers kept of the names and 
occuijations of the jjarents, the names of the children, and of the attend- 
ance, merits, and deficiences of the latter, are duly exhibited to the trustees. 
The system of teaching throughout the schools is uniform, so that a child 
removing from one neighborhood to another is not interrupted in his course 
by the change of bis school. But in order to obtain any advantages that 
may accrue from the experience of the teachers, or the suggestions of others, 
stated meetings are held by the teachers for the purpose of considering the 
means of improving their schools, at which meetings, also, they compare 
the progress of the schools respectively. Any improvement in the mode of 
teaching recommended by a majority of them, if formally ajjproved of by 
the trustees, is adopted in practice. 

Each school is provided with a thermometer, in order to regulate the 
temperature of the school in the cold season ; and in each public school- 
building a library is contained, of the value of not less than $50, nor more 
than one $100, consisting of books of voyages, travels, history, &c., to which 
such pupils as may be selected by the teacher, on account of proficiency and 
good conduct, are admitted, and may take home from thence one book at a 
time. 

The schools are all divided into classes, pursuing in each the same stud- 
ies. A mere certificate, properly authenticated, that a child is within the 
ages of four and sixteen years, entitles him to admission in the schools ; and 
the tuition and all books and materials necessary for the education of the 
pupil are furnished without cost to his parents or guardians. 

By these regulations, governing the Society and its schools and other 
auxiliary provisions, a constant supervision is kept over the scholars, the 
teacliers, the Board of Trustees, its sections, committees, and individual 
members, producing among all the greatest zeal and emulation for the 
accomplishment of the public aim in view, and resulting in a practical edu- 
cation, ofi'ered to the whole youth of the city, carried out in all its bearings 
with a perfection and elBcicncy which challenge a comparison of the schools 
with any others in the world professing the like range of instruction. More 
than one hundred of these schools are now scattered throughout the city, 
determined in their location by the wants of the respective neighborhoods, 
and inviting, by means of agents who patrol the districts for the jiurpose, 
every poor and destitute child whose parents are insensible to their duty to 
their offspring, to coine and partake of the benefits within his reach. Nearly 



740 APPENDIX. 

forty thousand children have, during the year ending the first day of May 
last, been enrolled on their registers, and obtained instruction for a greater 
or lesser period. All this good is eflected without the payment of any sal- 
ary or expenditure, other than the compensation of teachers and agents, the 
purchase of books and necessaries for the instruction of the pupils, and the 
erection and repair of the school-houses. No personal or iudiWdual advan- 
tage results to the trustees from their services, which, springing from the 
noblest feelings of the human heart, secure gratuitously public benefits of a 
character and extent that mercenary motives could never accomplish. 

Blessings of the magnitude and interest we have described ought to be 
carefully chei-ished by all who can exercise any control over them, and the 
hand of experiment should be stayed from an interference that, with mere 
partial objects of disputed utility, might impair or destroy the general bene- 
fit. Sensible of these truths, the great body of the citizens of New York, 
and their representatives in their local Legislature, far from asking any alter- 
ation in the system, have uniformly ajjproved of and defended it. A num- 
ber of persons, however, mostly of foreign birth, and belonging to a resjject- 
able denomination of Christians — the Koman Catholic — have solicited a 
change, on the ground that their conscientious scruples require that any 
schools in which the children of their communion are educated shall, during 
a certain part of the day, combine the religious instruction of their faith 
with the literary studies pursued in them. It is i)roper to add, that by no 
other denomination has any complaint been made, and that we understand 
that the sentiment alludetl to is not general among the Catholic residents 
among us from abroad ; a large proportion of them believing that the pro- 
posed schools would be, for the most part, composed of the children of for- 
eigners, who might thus lose, in a great measure, the temporal benefits to be 
derived from an association, at school, with the native children of the repub- 
lic, and that the fitting place for sectarian culture is the pupil's home, or his 
church. At the solicitation, however, before referred to, projects have been 
submitted to the consideration of the Legislature, which, if adoijted, would, 
we believe, violate the received political maxims which have governed our 
country, and erect, over the ruins- of the noble structure we have described, 
institutions of narrow and partial utility, exclusive in theu- composition and 
government, and condemned by former experience. 

Vague and general rumors having found their way to the public, aflect- 
iug the character and efficiency of the schools, and impugning the conduct 
of the trustees of the Public School Society, several gentlemen of the city, 
described by the Secretary of State to be " eminently qualified," were select- 
ed by him for the purpose of making a personal examination of the schools, 
who diligently conducted a laborious inquiiy, and submitted to that func- 
tionary " a mass of valuable information." In his report to the Legislature 
on the subject of the system of education here, he bears the testimony which 
will ever be the consequence of such investigations, as long as the schools 
are conducted as they have hitherto been. " The results of these inquiries" 
— we copy his language — " show very satisfactorily that commodious houses 
and good teachers are provided by the Public School Society ; that the sys- 



EEPOET OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 741 

tem of instruction is well devised and faithfully executed ; that an efficient 
plan of visitation and inspection is prescribed by the trustees ; and, although 
he has not jjositive information on the subject, he has no reason to doubt 
that such a plan is carried into practical execution." " Certain it is," he 
adds, " that the trustees of the Society have exhibited the most praisewor- 
thy zeal and devotion in discharge of the great trust devolved on them ; 
and many, if not all of them, have spared no exertions to bring into the 
schools the destitute children of the city." But notwithstanding these 
favorable results of the efforts of the Public School Society, the Secretary 
of State informs the Legislature that the memorials referred to '• coniijlain 
of the operation of a system which, in fact, devolves upon any private cor- 
poration the discharge of one of the most important functions of the Gov- 
ernment, without that responsibility to the people which is provided in all 
other cases. They allege," he states, " that, in its administration, the con- 
scientious opinions and feelings of large classes of citizens are disregarded ; 
that other schools, maintained for the same objects and accomplishing the 
same benevolent results, ai-e arbitrarily excluded from a participation of a 
common fund, collected by the joint contributions of all ; and that a 
fearfully large portion of the indigent children arc not reached, or in any 
way benefited, by the system of public education which now prevails." 
After a long examination of the subject, he recommends, nevertheless, the 
continuance of the very schools against which such grave objections are 
advanced, modifying their powers, however, in such wise as to impart to 
them the character of charity schools, in which no children are to be in- 
structed gratuitously but those of parents whose poverty is proved in exemp- 
tion of papnent, and subjecting to charge the children of all whose means 
have exposed them to a double taxation for the support of the system, or 
who have too much self-respect to claim the privilege of paujaers. He pro- 
poses to engraft on the existing system provisions introducing the district 
plan in operation in the rest of the State, confining gratuitous instruction in 
the schools as before mentioned. These propositions are combined with 
sofne others which will hereafter be adverted to, in referring to the bill 
introduced into the Senate, which, we fear, if adopted, will connect the 
schools with the political struggles at the polls; contemplating, as they do, 
the creation of ofiices sufficiently lucrative to tempt the cupidity of the par- 
tisan, and thus making institutions intended for the advancement of the 
young along the quiet paths of learning, the sport of party management, 
contention, and triumph. Of the district system, it is here, perhaps, the 
proper place to say — seeing that the bill in the Senate does not adopt that 
part of the recommendation — that we believe it to be wholly unsuited to 
the city, whose population is frequently changing residence from one dis- 
trict to another ; and that schools teaching by dissimilar books, classes, and 
modes of tuition would be of at least doubtful advantage to the children 
of the city. Other olijections to this plan exist which it is needless to enu- 
merate, when the fact is before our eyes that the Commissioners of Common 
Schools in Brooklyn, a city separated from our own only by the intervening 
river, and whose population more resembles ours in its composition and hab- 



742 APPENDIX. 

its than any other in the State, have pronounced the district system to be 
inefficient and inapplicable there, and lament that they do not possess 
schools founded on the plan of those of the Public School Society of New 
York. Of 7,966 children residing in Brooklyn, between the ages of iive and 
sixteen years, only 2,374 appear, by the last schedules presented to the Legis- 
lature, to have attended these schools for any period ; being about in the 
ratio, of twenty-three out of eighty. In Williamsburgh, !\n adjoining com- 
munity on the same side of the river, where the district system also prevails, 
only 136 attended out of 943 ; being in the proportion of one out of seven. 

Leaving, then, the further consideration of the results of the district sys- 
tem, which we deem to be virtually abandoned as respects this city, we 
advert to the objections alleged by the memorials of a portion of the reli- 
gious sect to which we have before referred. We shall consider them in the 
order they have been mentioned. 

The Catholic memorials complain, first, of the operation of the system 
which places the education of the youth of the city under the direction of 
the Public School Society, as " devolving upon a private coiporation the 
discharge of one of the most important functions of the Government, with- 
out that responsibility to the people which is provided in all other cases." 

Let us look into this allegation. 

In the discussion regarding the Public School Society, it has been 
thought advisable not only to denominate it a private corj)oration, but, iu 
some of the publications ancf speeches that have been made on the subject, 
it has been branded as a close corjjoration. What attribute it has of a close 
corporation, no scrutiny has enabled us to discover. That name can be 
strictly applied only where the trustees, or other governors, constitute the 
whole corporation, and, in case of vacancy iu the board, supply the succes- 
sion by their own votes. The freest definition could only extend it to insti- 
tutions who are judges of their own members, and can admit to or exclude 
from their privileges at the volition of the corporation itself. No such 
characteristic belongs to the Public School Society. How far it can justly 
be considered a private corjjoration, has been seen in the requisites to mem- 
bership, to which we have adverted. Erected by a law of the State, for the 
avowed attainment of a momentous public object, in the benefits of which 
every child of that public to which their sphere of action is confined may 
participate ; open, as to membership, to the whole public who choose to 
acquire the qualification prescribed by the Legislature of this State, as the 
only requisite to admission, and which depends alone on the act of the indi- 
vidual, without regard to any wish or objection on the part of the other 
members ; subject to the sni^crvision of officers appointed by the representa- ' 
tives of the whole people of the city; and submitting their accounts to the 
insiiection and scrutiny of those reijresentatives, and, through the publica- 
tions of the latter, of the whole people — we aijprehend that the coi-poration 
has been denominated a private one without due reflection. It is not to be 
regarded in that light, but as the body of voters in the city of New York, 
on whom the Legislature of the State, representing the sovereignty of the 
whole people, have thought lit to devolve, through their own enactments, and 



EEPOKT OF COMMISSIONEES OF SCHOOL HONEYS. Y43 

the powers they have conferred on the Corjjoration of the citj', the selection 
of the guardians and supervisors of public education veithin the city. The 
qualification to constitute a voter is a single payment of a small sum of 
money, which every man of correct habits may soon lay aside out of his 
earnings, if he feel any interest in the cause of education. The Legislature, 
in 1826, when they changed the charity formerly called the Free-School 
Society of New York, whose tutition was coniined to the children of parents 
unable to pay for their education, into the Public School Society, for the 
purpose, as the statute expresses it, " so far as their means may extend, for 
the education of all children in the city of New York not otherwise pro- 
vided for; whether such children be or be not the proper objects of gratui- 
tous education, and without regard to the religious sect or denomination to 
which such children or their parents may belong," evidently expected that 
the education of all the children in the city, whose parents did not prefer to 
send them to i)ay schools, would fall under the control of the Public School 
Society. They therefore defined, by law, the qualification that would be 
required from any jierson desirous of being a voter at the election of trus- 
tees of the public schools. Proceeding, probably, on the belief that all men 
are not equally qualified by education and habit to judge of the necessary 
attainments for the beneficial discharge of a literary duty, they deemed some 
other qualification than mere residence necessary, and fixed upon one in the 
nature of a property qualification, which, however temporary in its posses- 
sion, would, it was supposed, be durable in its results. Each intended voter 
was required to make a single payment of ten dollars, for which the privi- 
lege sought was promised him for life. This qualification is somewhat anal- 
ogous to that prescribed for voters at elections of trustees of common 
schools in the other parts of the State, which is strictly a property qualifi- 
cation, though, if not durable in its possession, is only temporary in its 
results — every person being subject to a fine of the very same sum of ten 
dollars for voting at any annual election for trustees of a common school, 
unless he be a freeholder within the town where he votes ; be assessed the 
same year in which he votes, or the preceding year, to pay taxes in said 
town ; or possess personal property liable to taxation, in the school district 
of the value of fifty dollars over and above the list of articles exempted 
from execution. Between the elective privilege in the city and the country 
there will be seen this striking difference, that, in the city, the individual 
who at any tiine possesses and pays over a ten-dollar bill, which, if of gen- 
eral circulation, may pass hence in a few hours to Plattsburg or Buffalo 
obtains a privilege which, whatever be his subsequent fortunes, always 
accompanies him, and is promised to continue forever ; but as regards the 
country resident, the property qualification is connected with local owner- 
ship, and must be continued in its possession ; for if, after having been the 
possessor of real or personal property, in his town or his school district or 
paid taxes in his town, he become irretrievably ruined, his privilege sinks 
with his fortunes, and is lost forever. 

That the Society is a private corporation, cannot, therefore, be success- 
fully sustaineil. Equally untenable, in our opinion, is the allegation that 



744 APPENDIX. 

the function discharged by the Society is performed " without that respon- 
silrility to the people wliich is provided in all other cases." The trustees 
are placed under the dii-ection of the rejjresentatives of the people of the 
very community in which they perform their functions, who, upon any 
unfaithfulness on the part of the trustees, can deprive them and their con- 
stituents of the power conferred on them, and of the funds necessary for its 
execution. The Society is compelled, by the law of the State, to conform 
to any rules and restrictions in regard to the receipt of the public moneys 
which the Corporation of the city may by ordinance prescribe ; and the 
ordinance jjassed accordingly by the Corporation subjects them to every rule 
and restriction that has been deemed proper to secure a strict supervision 
and accountability. The Commissioners of School Moneys, by whom the 
visitations to the schools are made on behalf of the community, are charged 
to rejjort to the Common Council any failure or omission of the trustees in 
regard to the public moneys they receive, in regard to (he admission of chil- 
dren to the schools, and to the jsroper weekly visitation and inspection, on 
the part of the trustees, of all the schools under theii' direction. The books 
of the schools, containing the memoranda of this performance, are at all 
times subject to the examination of the commissioners, to whom the returns 
required by law are made under oath or atiirmation. In addition to these 
guards, the Society is obliged to submit, in an annual report to the Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools appointed by the State, and to the Common 
Council of the city, a particular account of the state of their schools, and 
of the moneys received and expended by them, which may be examined by 
any citizen disposed to investigate it. 

These provisions, if in any manner they differ from those generally gov- 
erning officers who perform important functions of the Government, certain- 
ly secure, in degree, as ample a responsibility to the people. The Society 
has now exercised the powers confided to them for more than fifteen years, 
and in that whole period no valid impeachment lias been preferred of infi- 
delity to their trust. 

It may he added, in connection with this matter, that, in all the plans 
which have been devised for the alteration of the present system, not a sin- 
gle provision has been suggested that guarantees from the Public School 
Society, or the proposed additional schools, increased responsibility to the 
people. 

The second charge assumes tliat, " in the administration of the Society, 
the conscientious ojjinions and feelings of large classes of citizens arc disre- 
garded ; and that other schools, maintained for the same objects and accom- 
plishing the same benevolent results, are arbitrarily excluded from a partici- 
pation of a common fund collected by the joint contribution of all.'' 

General allegations like the aforegoing give no definite conceiJtion of the 
matter of complaint, and present no tangible point for examination. It 
were better always, and particularly in cases afiecting such momentous inter- 
ests as are involved in the school question, that the gi'iefs should be dis- 
tinctly alleged, and specifications offered. It is, however, now generally 
understood, from newspaper publications of essays and speeches, that tlie 



EEPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MONEVS. 745 

violence imputed against conscientious opinions and feelings is to those of 
a part of the Catholic communion, who alone constitute the large classes of 
citizens alluded to ; that the schools attached to their churches, governed 
by trustees of their own appointment, conducted according to their precepts 
of religious faith, and ministering, as may well be inferred, to children only 
of their own denomination, are the schools said to be maintained for the 
same objects, and accomplishing the same benevolent results, as those of 
the Public School Society ; and that the arbitrary exclusion from a partici- 
pation in the common fund collected by the joint contribution of all, which 
is complained of, is the refusal, by the immediate representatives of the peo- 
ple of this city, to devote a portion of the public moneys toward the sup- 
port of schools erected and governed by the Catholic denomination, and 
inculcating their distinguishing forms and creeds. 

That the objects and results of institutions founded and acting upon 
principles so widely different as those which distinguish the schools of the 
sect and of the Society cannot be very similar, is too ajsparent to need illus- 
tration ; and if the disregard of the conscientious opinions and feelings of 
large classes of citizens in the administration of the Society consists, as is 
inferred, in maintaining a perfect impartiality toward the several religious 
denominations in the schools, not giving reasonable offence, nor yielding 
submission to any, the Society has done no more than to be faithful to the 
purposes for which it was created. The motive to its incorporation is 
stated, in the charter, to be the education of all children, whether or not 
they be proper objects of gratuitous education, and without regard to the 
religious sect or denomination to which their parents belong ; and it would 
have been a plain infraction of their duty to fashion the exercises of the 
schools according to the requirements of any particular Church. 

The allegation remains, that the sect is arbitrarily excluded from a par- 
ticipation of a common fun^ collected by the joint contribution of all. 

In adopting a system of general education at the public expense, the 
object of the State was to give to its youth such au education as would fit 
them to discharge the civil obligations of this life, leaving it to their natu- 
ral and ecclesiastical guardians to prepare them, through a parental and 
spiritual ministry, to render their account in another world. There ought 
to be, and there must be, some common platform on which all the children 
may obtain their secular education, who are destined to act as citizens of 
the same republic. To that general training all the children are entitled ; 
but it is the public who arc to determine on its particulars and conditions, 
and not the parents who may claim it for their offspring. That a fund has 
been raised by the taxation of all for general education, creates no right in 
the tax-paying sectarian to demand that any portion of it be appropriated 
to the spread of his particular creed. The tax was imposed on him as a 
citizen, not as the member of a church. Its object was to provide for a 
civil piurpose exclusively ; not to prepare the path to any designated place 
of worship. The erection of a church school announces a sectarian object. 
It has its exclusive rules of system and government ; is superintended by 
trustees and teachers of a iJarticular faith ; religious conformity is indispen- 



746 API'EXDIX. 

sable to a participation in its direction, Tviiicb is not, and cannot be, attained 
by means of a civil qualification tbat any citizen may acquire. It is, in 
truth, a part of the cburcli establishment, and the sectarian of another de- 
nomination justly feels that his privileges are equally violated, whether he 
be taxed for the support of its religious teacher at the school desk, or for 
that of its religious teacher in the pulpit. This State has never yet asserted 
the power to tax its people for ecclesiastical objects ; and if its sovereignty 
comprehends such a power, the rights of conscience reqiiire that the reli- 
gion of the taxpayer be recorded on the assessment-roll, and his contribution 
be dealt to the encouragement of his own communion. 

An obstacle arises, perhaps, out of the provisions of our Constitution, to 
the establishment and conduct of a sectarian school as a part of the public 
system, which would be insuperable to some of the claims which have been 
brought before the public. If the religion of the sect be a necessary part 
of the education of the children, the choice of a teacher adequate to the 
accomplishment of that object would seem to be indispensable. Such a 
teacher would probably be found only in the person of one of the ministers 
of the religion which the school is to inculcate. If the school which is 
committed to his direction be adopted as a part of the public system, his 
office thereafter assumes a civil character ; his salary is paid by the whole 
public out of tlie proceeds of a general tax. The question immediately 
arises, whether this would not be inconsistent with the clause of the Consti- 
tution which declares that " no minister of the gospel, or priest of any de- 
nomination whatsoever, shall at any time, under any pretence or description 
whatever, be eligible to, or capable of holding, any civil or military office 
or place within this State." 

The commissioners would suggest, that any difficulties in regard to the 
religious education of the children, which may be desirable, can be accom- 
plished without a violation of the principles or, a departure from the objects 
of the school system, by an application of the rule said to prevail in Hol- 
land in regard to the schools controlled by the Government. A time is 
there set apart when the children of the respective denominations are 
requested to repair to the appropriate places for their peculiar worship, 
where they are attended by tlie proper ministers to their spiritual wants. 
If the Sabbath and the other day in tlie week on which the public schools 
are closed be insufficient for this purpose, some additional portion of the 
week might be dedicated to it. The arrangement would certainly throw an 
additional burden on the clergy without additional pecuniary recompense, 
but their commendable sense of duty in their sacred office would no doubt 
disregard any considerations of that sort. 

The remaining allegation is, that " a fearfully large portion of the indi- 
gent children are not reached, cr in any way benefited," by the system of 
education that now prevails in this city. Fortvanately, this is a subject that 
can be brought to the test of mathematical calculation, by which the figures 
will show that the system of educirtion in this city reaches and benefits the 
indigent poor far more efficaciously than the system that prevails in the resi- 
due of the State. 



EEPORT OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MOXETS. T47 

In order to prove the destitution of the inhabitants of the city in respect 
to education, the Secretary of State reports to the Legislature that tlie 
whole number of white children in New York in 1840, " the year in which 
the last census of the United States was taken, v.-as 62,952, and that 30,758 
only are returned as attending some school, lea-\-ing 32,194 who were not in 
attendance on any school whatever." Of the accuracy of the number of 
attendances thus returned from the city doubts have been well entertained, 
but we shall assume that the aggregate is correct. The inference that all 
would draw from the manner in which the case is stated and the argument 
deduced by the Secretary, is, that a fraction more than one half of the chil- 
dren of the city are trained up in utter ignorance. " With all the com- 
mendable and vigorous eflorts of the trustees of the Public School Society," 
he says, " it cannot be denied that less than one half the children between 
four and sixteen years of age, in the city of New York, are receiving the 
benefits of any education whatever." A moment's reflection vnll correct this 
error. The schools of the Society receive all children between four and six- 
teen years of age ; let us say, however, in order to make our estimate tally 
with the figures of the Secretary, between five and sixteen years. At any 
time within the portion of their lives embracing eleven years, then, they 
have access to the schools, and in these there is continual change, some 
retiring, and new scholars succeeding. Now, if one half of this class of 
population, rejecting fractions, is, on the average, kept at school, it is evi-' 
dent that, on the average, each child would receive five and a half years of 
tuition, which, in the New York schools, deducting vacations, amounts to 
somewhat more than sixty months, or five full and complete years without 
deduction. In imposing on masters the obligation to teach certain children 
to read and write, the law of the State gives him the alternative of furnish- 
ing two years' education, as being sufficient for the purpose ; and that, too, 
while, by another law, the common schools of the country are not required to 
be open more than four months in the year to entitle them to the benefits of 
the school fund. If eight months', or even twenty-four months' tuition, in 
such schools as the inhabitants are obliged to accejit in some parts of the 
State, be recognized by the State as enough to qualify a child to read and 
write, sixty months' tuition in the schools of tlie New York Public School 
Society would not be likely to consign him to hopeless mental destitution. 
A far less period of education in their youtli, and that, in many cases, of an 
inferior sort, is all that was enjoyed by many of the men who have illus- 
trated the character of our country in the literary and philosophical world. 
Doctor Franklin seems, from his autobiography, to have been finally taken 
from school at the age of ten years, to perform the humblest offices in his 
father's business of a tallow-chandler and soap-boiler, having " failed en- 
tirely in arithmetic," though he had " learned to write a good hand," and 
gained instruction in some other branches. 

" A comparison of the results obtained from statistical returns," says the 
Secretary of State, " between the numbers educated in New York and those 
instructed in other'parts of the State, will exhibit in a more striking man- 
ner the lamentable deficiency of the former. It appears," hs jirocceds, 



748 • APPENDIX. 

" from tbe report of tlie Superintendent before referred to, that, while there 
are 593,000 children out of the city of New York between the ages of five 
and sixteen, there are 549,000 attending the common schools. Tn the city 
of New York," he adds, "the proportions were, as above stated, 62,953 chil- 
dren between the same ages, and 30,758 attending all the schools, public as 
well as private." In another place he states " that, while the Public School 
Society has registered on its books the names of children who have entered 
the schools to the number of 33,955, the average actual attendance of pupils 
amounts only to 13,189." 

It was certainly not the intention of the Secretary of State to do injus- 
tice to the city in the comparison thus drawn. In making it, however, he 
seems tp have forgotten that the returns from the common schools and the 
public schools differ altogether in their ingredients, and furnish no proper 
materials for a comparative estimate in regard to them. In the returns of 
the common schools, all the children who have attended are indiscriminately 
numbered as instructed in the schools, whatever be the duration of their 
attendance, whether for a year, a week, or a day, and whatever be the 
amount of the tuition they receive. But a different mode of return is pre- 
scribed for the city, as distinguished from the rest of the State. From the 
city it is required that there be two columns of returns, neither of which 
shows the whole number of children " registered " on the books of the pub- 
lic schools ; nor has that number accordingly ever been returned until the 
present year, when it is done as the voluntary act of the Commissioners of 
School Money, without requirement by law. It amounts, this year, to nearly 
40,000, and could not have been, in the year referred to by the Secretary, 
less than 38,000. 

The returns demanded by law from the city are, firstly, a return of the 
average quarterly attendance in the schools; the number to be ascertained 
— to follow the words of the statute — " by adding to tlie number of chil- 
dren on register at the commencement of each quarter, the number admit- 
ted during that quarter, and the total to be considered the average of that 
quarter." Secondly, a return of the average number that actually attended 
the school during the wliole year, to be ascertained by the teachers keeping 
an account of the number of scholars present every half day, which, being 
added together and divided by 500, the number of half school-days of 
which the year is arbitrarily declared to consist, is considered the average 
of attending scholars. 

That no just contrast can be drawn from numbers representing, as in the 
country returns, every child as an attending scholar who had visited the 
school but for a day, and the city returns, whose highest numbers represent 
only the average quarterly attendance, would not seem to require illustra- 
tion. As, however, the comparison has been made in a grave public docu- 
ment, let us examine practically its principles, and see how the returns to 
the Superintendent from a public or city school, and from a common or 
country school, having an exactly equal number of scholars and attendances 
throughout the year, would exhibit each to the Legislature in the Superin- 
tendent's report. 



EEPOET OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 749 

Suppose the year to begin with 200 scholars ; that the 200 old scholars 
retire before the end of each quarter ; that they are succeeded during the 
quarter by 200 new scholars, who had never before attended ; and that each 
quarter thus begins with 200 scholars ; — what is the comparison they would 
present in the Superintendent's rej^ort ? 

Let us first take the public or city school. 

The year begins with scholars, ..... 200 
New entries during first quarter, .... 200 

Retirements during first quarter, 200, leaving for second quarter, 200 
New entries during second quarter, .... 200 

Retirements during second quarter, 200, leaving for third quarter, 200 
New entries during thii-d quarter, .... 200 

Retirements during thij-d quarter, 200, leaving for fourth quarter, 200 
New entries during fourth quarter, .... 200 

1600 

This aggregate of IGOO being divided by 4, gives the quotient for the 
quarterly average attendance of 400 ; which is the largest number returned 
for the city school to the Superintendent of Common Schools. 

Take, next, its twin-brother, the country school. What number would 
it, under circumstances precisely similar, return to the Superintendent ? 

The year begins with scholars, ..... 200 

New scholars first quarter, ..... 200 

" second quarter, ..... 200 

" third quarter, . . . . ' . 200 

" fourth quarter, ..... 200 

Number returned, ...... 1,000 

■ Thus two schools, not at all distinguishable in their respective numbers 
of scholars and attendances, would, in the Superintendent's report, exhibit 
an apparent superiority of one school over another its exact equal iu fact, in 
the ratio of five to two. 

Any comparison, therefore, between the quarterly attendances at the city 
school and the attendances as we have explained them at the country school, 
is evidently misplaced. 

That between the average yearly attendances at the former and the 
attendances at the latter is still more objectionable. 

The attendances at the country school, of whatever duration, would 
amount, as we have before seen, to 1,000, at which number they would be 
returned to the Superintendent, and be rejiorted by him. 

The average yearly attendances calculated as prescribed by law for the pub- 
lic, school, would stand, in its return (judging from the comparative returns 
of quarterly and yearly attendances to which the Secretary refers), at twohun- 



750 



APPENDIX. 



dred and forty, or nearly, at which number they would be reported by the 
Superintendent ; thus exhibiting an apparent superiority of one school over 
another its exact equal 'in fact, in the ratio of more than four to one. 

Tlie truth is — and justice to the city, when such comparisons are made, 
requires, perhaps, it be spoken — that the published returns to the Superin- 
tendent give no definite idea of the amount of public education in the State, 
being deficient in all particulare of the average quarterly or annual attend- 
ance of the pupils. They announce the whole number of children returned 
from each school district ; the number that attended the school within the 
time it was open, and the length of the period it was open ; but they aft'ord 
no means of judging whether a majority, or any other deihiite proportion, 
attended for more than a week, or a day. Nor, apparently, is the number 
of children returned as having at some time been attending, to be depended 
upon. Owing to a loose or an erroneous method of making up the returns, 
the number of scholars attending the common schools has been frequently 
exaggerated beyond the number actually residing within' the districts. It 
would be a matter for wonder if the attendance of every child residing 
within the districts could be obtained, even for a day, within the periods 
that the schools are open ; but a more extraordinary phenomenon was pre- 
sented in the returns for a series of years, exhibiting, as they did, the attend- 
ance of a much larger number of pupils between the ages of five and six- 
teen years than there were children in existence between those ages in the 
whole State. We copy from the schedule F of the last annual report of the 
Superintendent of Common Schools, giving a " comparative statement of 
the condition of the common schools from 1815 to 1840," the numbers of 
children between said ages taught, and the number of children between said 
ages residing, in all the districts of the State, for the years 1834 to 1829, 
both inclusive, and have added a column showing the excess of the scholars 
over the residents. 





No. of chil.lren 


No. of children 


Excess of those 


Tear. 


tautrlit in 


residiii!? in 


taupht over those 




the districte. 


the disericts. 


in the districts. 


1S24 


402,910 


ZSS.aOO 


19,440 


1825 


426,586 


;i95,58lj 


S0,000 


1826 


431,(101 


411,2r,6 


20,345 


1827 


441,850 


419,210 


22.IU0 


1S28 


408.205 


449,113 


19,092 


1S29 


480,041 


•(08,257 


11,7S4 



Even from the returns for the year 1839, upon which the disparaging 
comparisons of the Secretary are founded, there appears to be, in twenty- 
seven counties of the State, an excess of more than 25,000 children between 
the specified ages taught in their common schools, over the number of the 
same classes of children residing within those counties, as ascertained by 
the trustees of the school districts. The Superintendent of Common 
Schools supposes, in his last report, that the returns from the schools, which 
give the attendances, are more to be relied upon than the returns from the 
trustees of the number of children within the districts : but this idea derives 
no support from the census taken by the Marshal of the United States in the 



■REPORT OF COMMISSTONERS OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 751 

year after, when an increase of the number of the cbiklren had taken place. 
The marshal, in 1840, finds an excess in those twenty-seyen counties over the 
returns of the trustees, in 1839, of less than 4,000, leaving yet an erroneous 
excess in the returns of scholars attending cf more than 21,000. Other 
errors are detected in the returns to the Superintendent. The returns from 
the Commissioners of Common Schools make the aggregate number of chil- 
dren, in 1839, in all the districts of the State, excluding tlie city of New 
York, to be 592,.564 ; being more, by 14,560, than the whole number of chil- 
dren between five and sixteen years residing in the same parts of the State 
in 1840 ; which, by the raarshp-l's returns, are ascertained 
to be .578,004 



Difference, ...... 14,560 

The returns of the schools, exclusive of those of New York, 

show scholars attending, ..... 549,457 

The marshal's returns, exclusive of New York, . . 477,328 



Difference, ....... 72,134 

This difierence the Superintendent endeavors to reduce to 42,211, mainly 
by deducting 26,869 scholars returned by the marshal in another column, as 
educated at the public charge. The latter number is, however, included in 
the number of 477,823 above mentioned. In the reports both of the Super- 
intendent and of the Secretary, it is so regarded when referring to New 
York, to which 10,218 of the 26,869 belong ; but are not credited, in either 
report, to the amount of education in the city. 

It is unpleasant thus to dispel flattering illusions by which w^e, in com- 
mon with the rest of the State, had been misled, until we were impelled to 
investigate the subject ; but it is manifest that mistakes have existed in the 
piiblic documents relating to the common schools, which the interests and 
perhaps the character of the State require should not hereafter occur. 

Rejecting comjjarisons, then, drawn from returns to the Superintendent 
from the city and the country, having no similitude in their particulars, and 
widely differing in their accuracy, let us seek for better means to determine 
the truth. These will be found in additional returns l)y the marshal, in the 
census before referred to, which state the number of white persons residing 
in the city and State, of and over the age of twenty years, who can neither 
read nor write. The common school system and the public school system 
have respectively been long enough in existence to test the efficacy of each 
upon the persons who, under like circumstances, have actually come within 
the operation of each, and passed to the age last specified. From the cen- 
sus, we find that the whole white population of the State, excluding New 
York City, of the age of twenty years and upward, is 990,792 ; and that the 
like population in the city of New York is 163,920. Thus New York, 
though possessing an aggregate population comparing with that of the rest 
of the State, excluding New York, in the ratio of little more than one to 
seven, has a relative white population, of and over the age of twenty years. 



752 APPEXDIX. 

of about one to six ; or, in other ^ords, it has an excess of more than 
17,400 white persons, of the age of twenty years and upward, over its due 
proportion, as compared with the aggregate popuhition of the other coun- 
ties. The number of whites of tlie age of twenty and upward, in the State, 
who can neither read nor write, is 43,705 ; of whom there are, in New York, 
7,778, and in the rest of the State, 35,927 ; showing an excess of 1,733 indi- 
viduals only, in the city, out of a population of 312,933, over its due pro- 
portion in the comparison with the counties, if all other circumstances were 
exactly equal. 

But it is to be recollected that, in every year, an immense laboring popu- 
lation is arriving from abroad ; many of whom, wholly uninstructed, remain 
in the city by reason of the labor to be obtained therein, and their capacity 
for its performance, whilst the mass of the more fortunate class go to the 
country. The wonder, therefore, is, that the excess before mentioned, of 
1,733 persons, is so small. . The alien population constituted, in 1835, when 
the last State census was taken, somewhat more than one fifth of the whole 
population of the city ; and that of the rest of the counties somewhat less 
than one seventeenth of their whole population. The census taken by the 
marshal, in 1840, does not furnish the alien population for the city or for the 
State. If it has kept pace witli the ratio for 1835, the number of white 
aliens, of and over the age of twenty years, in the city, is about 32,500 ; 
being more than fourfold the number of the whites of the same age who 
cannot read or write ; while the number of aliens in the counties, of and 
over the age of twenty years, is about 53,350 ; being less than one and a 
half times the number of whites of the same age who cannot read or write. 

A large portion of the alien population in the city is poor, or on the 
verge of poverty, and may be presumed to comprise much ignorance, 
brought up, as it has been,' in countries where the blessings of education are 
not diffused as in this. Some idea of the extent of the ignorance among 
adults thus settled among us, may perhaps be gathered from the poverty 
which appears to exist in their families. A report of the former Secretary 
of State (Mr. Dix) shows that, in the year ending the 1st of December, 1838, 
— a year when labor for the poor was very difficult to oljtain — the whole 
number of foreigners relieved or supported by public charity in the State 
was 64,570 ; of whom 59,532 were in the city of New York, and only 5,048 
in the other counties. He adds, " that, in the county of New York, foreign- 
ers appear to constitute more than seventy-three per cent, of the whole num- 
ber of persons relieved or supported ; while, in the other counties, they 
constitute but little more than twenty per cent, of the whole number." 

These explanations fully account for thg entire number of white persons 
in the city, over the age of twenty years, who cannot read nor write — even 
supposing that the "Public School Society and the pay schools had hitherto 
in due time educated every individual between four and sixteen years within 
our boundaries, during that interval, or any part of it. Connected with 
the returns of the marshal, illustrating this matter, ihcy show, contrary to 
the opinion which the Secretary has pronounced, that the Public School 
Society has " accomplished the principal object of its organization — the 



EEPOET OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 



753 



education of the great body of the children of the city." Notwithstanding 
the vei-y disproportionate influx of foreign population into this city, as com- 
pared with the rest of the State, the struggles of the Society have kept 
down ignorance to an extent which no system, less cfBcacious and liberal 
than its own, could have effected ; and has enabled the city to make a posi- 
tive comparison, waiving the consideration of its disadvantages, with many 
of the counties of the State, some of which are embraced among the twenty- 
seven which exhibit, in the Superintendent's report, so flourishing a state of 
education within them. 

Of the white persons, of and over the age of twenty years, who cannot 
read or write, there is, rejecting fractions : 



In the city 


of New York, . 


1 out of every 21 


In the County 


of Montgomery, 


1 •' 21 


" 




Rensselaer, 


. 1 " 21 






Wayne, 


1 ' " 23 






Steuben, 


. 1 " 20 






Delaware, . 


1 " 20 






Columbia, 


. 1 " 20 






Essex, 


1 " 20 






Dutchess, 


. 1 " 15 






Franklin, . 


1 " 14 






Fulton, . 


. 1 " 14 






Monsoe, 


1 " 13 






Chemung, 


. 1 " 13 






Sullivan, 


1 " 13 






Lewis, . 


. 1 " 11 






Putnam, 


1 " 10 






Tioga, . 


. 1 " 9 






Herkimer, . 


1 " 8 






Clinton, . 


. 1 " 5 



We have thus sufficiently disposed of the charge that " a fearfully large 
portion of the indigent children are not reached, or in any way benefited," 
by the system of education that now prevails in the city. The want of sup- 
port for the charge will, however, become still more apparent from the com- 
parisons that follow. 

The number of paupers, " the indigent " emphatically, in the State, in 
1840, as returned by the Secretary of State to the Legislature, is 56,501. Of 
this number, 37,553 were in New York, and the residue — 29,008— in the 
counties. Looking to the proportion which the population, of twenty years 
of age and upward, in the city and in the counties respectively, bears to the 
aggregate population of each, the paupers of the counties would comprise 
13,579, of and over the age of twenty years, and the paupers of the city 
would comprise 14,433 of and over that age ; the larger number in the city 
arising from the fact before mentioned, of its having more than 17,400 per- 
sons, of twenty years and upward, beyond its proportion, as compared with 
48 



764 APPENDIX. 

the aggregate population of the counties. The paupers, then, of the city, 
of and over the age of twenty years, bear the proportion to its inhabitants 
of like age who cannot read or write, of 14,432 to 7,778 ; making the ratio 
of the paapers to the untaught nearly two to one, and showing that almost 
one half of the very indigent (throwing altogether out of view the accession 
of untaught persons from abroad) have been " reached or benefited " by the 
public schools; whilst, in the counties, the proportions would be 13,579 
paupers to 35,927 untaught ; showing that a number of persons equalling all 
the paupers, besides about one and two thirds their number, from among 
those in better circumstances, had not been " reached or benefited " by the 
common schools. In other words, the untaught in the city would be, in 
comparison with its poor, as little more than one to two ; while, in the 
counties, the untaught, in comparison of their poor, would be more than 
five to two ; thus making a difference in favor of the city, as contrasted with 
the counties, upon a comparison of their poor and of their untaught respec- 
tively, in the ratio of about five to one. 

There is no doubt that a commendable anxiety to educate the poor has 
fearfully exaggerated the number of those who, iii this city, obtain no in- 
struction. We had, in some degree, participated of this delusion. It is true 
that idle children are found in various parts of the city, whose own per- 
verseness, or whose unfeeling parents, prevent them, at times, from coming 
to school ; but although they may not attend this month, they find their 
way to school the next ; and, the mode of tuition in all the schools being 
uniform, thus pick up, from month to month, the elements ot learning. An 
illustration of this is derived from the fact that, during the last year, more 
than 21,000 children retired, from time to time, from the public schools, 
their vacant places being refilled by others. In no other way than we have 
suggested can the results we have presented be accounted for. If no en- 
treaties avail in attracting idle children to school, the poverty of their 
parents, or their own vicious course, ensures their destiny to the Poor-House 
or the House of Refuge, whose wholesome discipline imposes the necessity 
of attending to their books. As fast as the foreign jjopulation increases, 
their children are made the objects of our liberal system. Thus we believe 
that the portion of the young who, in our city, grow up without education 
altogether, is very insignificant indeed. 

In presenting the statistics contained in this report, some errors may pos- 
sibly have occurred, drawn, as the materials have in part been, from various 
columns of the marshal's census and the Superintendent's report, and under- 
going, as they necessarily have, after-processes of calculation. We have 
intended them and believe them to be wholly free from error, and therefore 
invite all just criticism. If any mistake has accidentally crept in, sure we 
are that it is not of a character or amount that can affect substantially the 
general tenor of our statements and conclusions. In making the estimates, 
we have used the marshal's returns as printed by order of our State Legisla- 
ture, and have pursued the Superintendent's method of ascertaining there- 
from the number of children between the ages of five and sixteen years. 

Having thus examined the objections which have been advanced against 



EEPOET OF COMMISSIONERS OF SCHOOL MONEYS. 755 

the public school system, it may be proper to look into the bill reported to 
the Senate, proposing a substitute. This bill, we understand, received the 
approbation of the remonstrants (alluded to by the Secretary of State), who 
sent numerous committees from this city to the Legislature to urge its adop- 
tion ; and the effort for its passage will probably bo renewed at the next ses- 
sion. It may be assumed to have been prepared under the direction of the 
memorialists ; nothing being more common than to introduce a bill into the 
Legislature framed by the applicants, so that all their propositions may have 
a fair chance of due legislative discussion and inquiry. We shall therefore 
regard it as the bill of the remonstrants, and speak of its provisions accord- 
ingly. Never, probably, in the history of legislation, were the avowed 
objects of a bill more at variance with its actual tendency than this. 

The remonstrants profess, in substance, a desire that the people shall 
have a more direct control and administration of the public school system 
in this city ; and for this purpose they commence by taking from the Com- 
mon Council the immediate and comparatively numerous representatives of 
the people, and the guardians of their local interests and concerns, all con- 
nection with, or control over, the schools whatsoever. In place of the Cor- 
poration and the Commissioners of School Money chosen by them, the bill 
proposes to place the whole government of the system under seventeen com- 
missioners of common schools, one to be elected by the qualified voters of 
each ward, at the charter election ; thus affording the desirable guarantee 
for a pure and efficacious administration of the system, by connecting its 
destinies with the political contests of the wards, with the cabals, intrigues, 
and bargainings of committees, appointed, not at primary meetings of the 
people, but at partial and interested meetings of partisans, and with the 
fierce strife of party animosity. In a si^irit of hostility to close corporations, 
and of any abatement of the people's rights, the Commissioners of Common 
Schools are erected, immediately upon their election, into a close corpora- 
tion, for their term of service ; filling vacancies, whenever they occur in 
their body, by the votes of the residue ; so that, by possibility, it might 
happen to become a board not one of the members of which had received 
the popular suffrage ; and in no case would the inhabitants of the ward in 
which the vacancy occurred have any voice, directly or indirectly, in the 
choice of its new commissioner. Zealous, as the title of the bill purports, 
" to extend the benefits of common school education in the city of New 
York," it banishes from the schools all the children, forming so numerous 
and interesting a class in the primary departments, between the ages of four 
and five years, by taking away from them all the benefits now enjoyed by 
them from the school moneys ; and it directs the appointment, by the Board 
of Commissioners, of a superintendent and clerk (offices which would inevi- 
tably become political rewards), who are to have the first lien on the scliool 
moneys, for the payment of their annual salaries, amounting to three thou- 
sand dollars : a sum equivalent to the average tuition, in the public schools, 
of one thousand scholars, including the average expenses of teachers, school- 
books, slates, pencils, writing-books and pens, maps, school library, furni- 
ture, and room hire. Deprecating grants of power to any private corpora- 



756 APPENDIX. 

tion to disburse the j^ublic moneys, as wrong in principle and an invasion 
of popular rights, it contains provisions, comijulsory on the commissioners 
and the public, to admit any number of persons who may choose to asso- 
ciate for the purpose, and such others only as they in their pleasure may 
choose to adopt as their associates, to the privileges of a district school, and 
to a participation and expenditure of the school moneys ; upon the condi- 
tions that the associates will stipulate for the continuance of their school 
for at least one year ; -will make it appear that their school will promote the 
interests of education, and will not interfere with any school already estab- 
lished ; aud that the persons applying are able to maintain a respectable 
school for the instruction of children in the branches usually pursued in 
common schools. Ardent to impart the benefits of education to all, it pre- 
scribes no regulation under which all must be admitted, on equal terms, to 
the contemplated schools. Sensitive to the just rights of the taxpayers in 
the eity, whose contributions to the cause of education are comparatively 
nearly threefold those of the taxpayers, for the same object, in the counties, 
the proposed system embraces enactments whose operation would probably 
drive theu- children from the schools, and, at best, would leave them but the 
gleanings, after the harvest had been reaped by those who pay no tax at all. 
Paying homage to the merits of the schools of the Public School Society, it 
adopts them as part of the system, but takes from them the means of sus- 
taining their present character and usefulness, and divests them of two of 
their noblest distinctions — that which forbids the inquiry whether the 
parent can or cannot pay for the education of his child ; and that which, 
with a just regard to the principles regulating our political institutions, 
mingles the children of all, without reference to adventitious circumstances 
of fortune, in a competition for eminence : resembling the struggle in which 
they are destined to engage, upon terms of like equality, in their future 
character of men of the nation. Solicitous for the protection of religion, 
whilst it erects estaljlishments that may be devoted to sectarian ol>jects, it 
also fashions schools in which infidelity may be taught at the public ex- 
pense. Professing to pay respect to the feelings inseparable from a due 
appreciation of the rights of freemen, it humbles the citizen to the proof 
of pecuniary destitution before he can obtain a gratuitous education for his 
child, and demands that the name of the latter be then enrolled as the 
recipient of public relief, on documents open to the inspection of every 
inquirer ; thus carrying down the record of the receipt of public charity as 
the accompaniment for life of the youth who, under the existing system, 
obtains a good education as a right, without disclosing the circumstances 
of the parent to any. Many of our mechanics, and other most useful popu- 
lation, whose struggles enable them to subsist their families, can ill afford 
the cost of the education of their children ; but the just sensibilities be- 
longing to freemen would prompt the indignant refusal of any benefit to 
their offspring, to be obtained only upon such degrading conditions. 

Other objections, not here necessary to enumerate, might be advanced 
against the project in question, or any other at all resembling it. The fact 
that a bill containing clauses so odious might possibly have received legisla- 



EEPOKT OF COMMISSIONEKS OF ECnOOL MONEYS. 757 

tive sanction, -without being duly considered by the community on -n-liom its 
injuries would most immediately fall, admonishes the necessity, before the 
present system of education for the city shall be changed, of a reference to 
that community of any proposed substitute, in order that they may pass 
upon it distinctly by the ballot-box. Of the -vast benefits derived from the 
practical operation of the public schools in this city, there are not, that we 
are aware, any differences of opinion among those who have visited them 
and impartially examined into their effect. Advantages of such magnitude, 
securing, as they do, results of incalculable consequence to the intelligence 
and morals of the city, should not be hazarded for the sake of untried or 
exploded systems, that, after inflicting their evils, will cause us to deplore 
the sacrifice of a healthful state, which, if to be regained at all, will require 
many years for its restoration. Sensible of their duty to the public, the 
commissioners have not felt at liberty to avoid that faithful exposition of 
their views wliich the occasion demands ; and they pray the Corporation of 
the city, and the Superintendent of Common Schools, and, through them, 
the Legislature of the State, to give such a cautious and deliberate consid- 
eration of the whole subject as the immense interests involved, and any con- 
victions herein expressed, may respectively appear to deserve. 

S.^MUEL Gilford," Jr., Chairman. 
George W. Strong, Secretary. 



INDEX. 



Acta Relating to Schools, 5, 12, 24, 25, 26, 

36, 48, V4, 101, 120, 137, 521, 573, 583. 

Act for Relief of Bethel Baptist Church, 49, 

53. 
Address — 

of the P. S. Society to tlie Public, 6. 

of De Witt Clinton, 14. 

to Parents and Guardians, 36. 

by Rev. J. N. MatBt, 43. 

Rev. Thaddeus Osgood, 43. 

of the P. S. Society to the Public, 110. 

Reasons of the P. S. Society, &c., 127. 

of Roman Catholics to Public, 188, 
189, 331. 
Adelphi Society, Philadelphia, 22. 
Administration of the Society, 604. 
African Free School, 48, 87, 92, 93, 94, 
95, 97, 131, 135, 156, 157, 165, 171, 
66.1-679. 
Agent and Visitor, 157, 615. 
Aimwell School, Philadelphia, 22. 
Albany Lancasterian School, 100. 
American Museum, 83. 
Americus, Review of Hon. J. C. Spencer, 

482-488. 
Analysis of Faith, 307. 
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 438. 
Arcularius, Ilenry, 145. 
Arrowsmith, Edward, 61. 
Assembly, House of — 

Report of Committee on Colleges, 
Academies, and Schools, 70. 

Proceedings on School Law, 362, 497, 
521. 
Assistant Teachers, sec Teachers. 
Association, Protestant, 302. 

of Women Friends, 2, 653. 
Augustine, St., 438. 
Authority of the King, 468. 

of the Pope, 247, 303, 305, 468. 

B. 

Bangs, D.D., Rev. Nathan, 201, 273, 313. 
Baptist Tabernacle Church, 43, 69. 
Barnes, Erastus, 140. 



Barry, Commodore, 302. 

Basileopolis, Bishop of, 338. 

Beadle, M.D., Edward L., 581. 

Beekman, Hon. J. W., 697. 

Beggars, 620. 

Bell, Dr., 20. 

Bellevue Hospital School, see Puhlk School 

No. 6. 
Benedict, Hon. Erastus C, 597. 
Bethel Baptist Church, 44, 47, 48-75, 78, 

100, 124, 726. 
Bethune, Mrs. Joanna, 108, 658. 
Betting, 211, 257, 300. 
Bible, Douay, 236, 237, 246, 258. 

Protestant, 213, 246, 250, 289, 467. 

Tyndal's, 467. 

Coverdale's, 467. 

Bishop's, 467. 

James I., 467. 

m Schools, 191, 192, 236, 246, 257, 
275, 388, 635-644. 
Bloomingdale School, 105, 106. 
Board of Education, 521, 526, 528, 634. 

Union of Society with, 576-599. 

and Powers of Public School Society, 
535-575. 
Bolton, Thomas, 101, 381, 721. 
Bond, Rev. Thomas E., 201, 249, 252, 2S3, 

293, 294, 313. 
Bonnet, Peter, 70. 

Books, School-, Expurgation of, 160-163, 
208, 213, 237, 263, 317, 324-349. 

against Catholics, 160-163, 209, 212, 
216, 245, 261, 315, 321, 386, 408, 
4G4, 733. 
Bossuet, 438. 

Boston Schools, 114, 118, 152, 153. 
Bosworth, Hon. Joseph L., 560-672. 
Bourne, Wm. Oland, 714. 
Bradish, Lieut.-Gov. Luther, 426. 
British and Foreign School Society, 31, 

91, 100. 
British Critic, 259, 293, 294, 297. 
Brownlee, D.D., Rev. W. C, 241. 
Brush, Nehemiah, 140, 142. 
Bryant, \\ illiam CuUen, 709. 
Bryson, David, 145. 
Buckingham, Hon. James S., 70-3. 

/ 



7C0 



Bull of the Pope, S06. 
Burlington, N. J., School at, 22. 
Buyce, John, 62, 63. 



Calvin, 287. 

Campbell, Arcliibald, 102. 
Cardinal Pazmann, 492. 
Carrigan, Andreiv, 195. 
Carroll of CarroUton, Charles, 287, 305. 
Carroll Hall, 426, 479. 
Gary, Jeremiah E., 581. 
Catechism, 44, 138. 
Roman, 306. 

of Council of Trent, 306. 
Catholic Faith, Exposition of, 306. 
Church InfalUble, 265, 273, 307. 
Bible, 236. 

Central Executive Committee, 350. 
School Party, 479-482. 
School Ticket, 481. 
Board, Dublin, 297. 
Excommunication, see Excommunica- 
tion, 
Census, 87, 111, 121, 122, 503, 505, 507, 

616. 
See also, Madaifs Report, New York 

Evangelist, and Appendix C. 
Centre Street, Opening, 171. 
Chamberlain, William, 196, 323. 
Charity Schools, 2, 86, 121. 
Chase, Rev. Johnson, 50, 58, 59, 61, 74. 
Chatfield, Hon. Levi S. 497. 
Cheshire Cheese, 443. 
Children untaught, see Cen^ua. 
Cholera Hospitals, Schools for, 155. 
Churcli and State, 728, 730, 746. 
Churches — 

Baptist, 69, 239. 

Baptist Tabernacle, 43, 69. 

Bethel Baptist Church, 44,47, 48-75 

83, 124, 726. 
Canal Street Presbyterian, 659. 
Congregational, 64. 
Dutch Reformed, 64, 70, 138, 239. 
Episcopal, 239, 301. 
Grace, 64. 
Methodist Episcopal, 69, 125, 141- 

148, 198, 239, 249, 252, 253, 274. 

Presbyterian, 70, 276. 

Roman Catholic, 97, 124, 160 187 

239, 253, 324. ' 

Society of Friend.s, 2, 172, 174 207 

239. 
Tiinity, 25, 41, 104. 
Church Schools, 64-67, 69-70, 72, 89 97 

124-148. 
Civil Purposes of School Money, see School 

Fund not Sectarian. 
Classical Schools, 116. 
Close Corporation, 83, 151, 248, 406, 432 
742. . . > , 



Colored Schools, see African Free School. 
Colquhoun on Poor of London, 17. 
Columbia College, 106, 121, 245. 
Commissioners of School Monev, 74, 96, 
130, 185, 186. 
report of, 734. 

Elected from the Society, 586. 
Committees — 

of Common Council on Baptist 

Church, 67. 
of Assembly on Colleges, Academics, 
and Schools, ou Bethel Churcli, 70, 
89, 182. 
on Laws, of Common Council, 96. 98, 

381. 
do.. Report of (Appendix), 715. 
on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, 130, 
141, 147. 
report, 722. 
on Laws, Board of Assistants, 133. 
Arts and Sciences, Board of Alder- 
men, 147. 
to visit Boston Schools, 152. 
to Confer with Bishop Dubois, 162. 
on Reorgauizatiou of System, 156. 
on Schools for Germans, 168, 176. 
on Teacliers and Monitors, 169. 
Special, Board, of Aldermen, 316. 
Catholic Central, on Schools, 350. 
of Assembly, on Colleges, Academies, 

and Schools, 352, 497. 
Report of, 501. 

on Literature (Sen.ite), 353, 373, 402. 
of Transfer, Report, 587. 
Common Schools? What is meant by, 134. 
Common Council, and Corporation, 11, 13, 
21, 25, 30, 46, 51, 56, 57, 64, 67, 74, 
75, 81-85, 89, 96, 122, 125, 154, 171, 
179, 183, 202. 
Compromise, no, 246, 467. 
Confession, Westminster, 439. 
Congregational Church, 64. 
Connecticut School Fund, 89. 

Law of, 620. 
Constitution of New York State on Reli- 
gion, 139, 144, 363, 723, 728, 730, 746. 
Cook, Richard, 70. 
Cooper, Peter, see Personal Index. 
Corlear's Hook, 155. 
Corporal Punishment, 78, 632, 629. 
Corporation of New York, see Common 

Council, 
Council of Trent, 306. 
Court of Errors, 426. 
Cowdrey, Samuel, see Personal Index. 
Crushing Catholic Conscience, 250, 312. 



Danaher, T. L., 351. 

Deaf and Dumb, Institution for, 150. 



761 



Declaration of Independence, 247, 303. 

Depository, 611. 

Deatli of Benjamin D. Perkins, 24. 

Jolin Murray, Jr., 41. 

De Witt Clinton, 109. 

Lloyd D. Windsor, 167. 

Joseph Lancaster, 172. 

Robert C. Cornell, 532. 

Lindley Murray, 573. 
Democratic Party and Schools, 478, 496. 
Dibblee, Tyler, 131, 132, 145, 148. 
Dickinson, Senator A. B., 501. 
Dillon, Gregory, 188, 195, 350. 
Dix, Gen. John A., 497. 
Dissenters, 214, 289. 
Dissolution of the Manumission Society 
679. 

of the Public School Society, 595. 
District and New York City Systems Com- 
pared, see Maclaifs Report, New York 
Evangelist and Appendix C. 
Dominicans, 301. 
Donations to the Society, 8, 10, 11, 13, 

14, 23, 25, 29, 36, 73, 657. 
Doyle, Key. Dr., Bishop of Kildare, 303. 
Drake, Jacob, 60. 
DubHu Review, 297, 469. 
Dublin Catholic Board, 297. 
Dubois, Bishop, 160-163, 324. 
Duffy, Peter, 195. 

Dutch Reformed Church, 64, 70, 138. 
Duty of the State, 88, 113, 240, 242, 354, 
724, 732, 733, 745. 



E. 

Economical School, 48, 87. 
Economy, 605. 
Edict of Nantes, 214. 
Edinburgh High School, 114. 

Review, 16, 18. 
Education of the Poor,3, 6, 10, 15, 17, 55, 
110, 154, 227, 255, 311, 312, 333, 601, 

602, 754, see Vagrancy and Ctnmi. 
Elizabeth, Queen, 292. 
England, 214, SOS. 

Catholics of, 292. 
Engs, Philip W., 61. 
Evangelist, New York, 506-516. 
Evening Schools, 613, 682, 690. 
Exchanges, Scientific, 530. 
Excommunication, Roman Catholic, 485, 
490-495. 

See also Tristram Shcndy. 
Expurgation of School Books, see Books. 



False Issue, 204, 254. 
Farden, Thomas, 63. 



Faith, Rule of, 290, 307. 

Analysis of, 307. 

Catholic, 307. 
Farm School, Manual Labor, 175. 
Fell, M.D., J. Weldon, 597. 
Female Association, 2, 27, 33, 40, 49, 87, 

93, 95, 129, 532, 653-657, 681. 
Field, Charles D., 581. 
Fire Department, 60. 
Fitzsimmons, Thomas, 305. 
Francis, St., 438. 
Freeman's Journal, 187, 202, 326, 831, 

479. 
Free and Pay Systems, see Pay System. 
Freemasons, 31. 
Free School Society, Organized, 2. 

Memorial to Legislature, 3. 

Act of Incorporation, 4. 

First Board of Trustees, 6. 

Address to the Public, 6. 

Funds Raised, 8. 

School Opened, 9. 

Aid from the Legislature, 11, 12, 20. 
" " Corporation, 11, 13, 20. 

Name altered, 12. 

of Philadelphia, 22. 

Law of 1812, 26. 

Memorial to Legislature, 33. 

Name altered to P. S. Society, 98. 
French Language in Schools, 169. 



G. 



Galileo, 441. 

Gaston, Judge, Extract from, 304. 

German Schools, 168, 176. 

Girard, Stephen, 283, 303. 

Glossariuni, Archseologicum (Spelman), 

49-2. 
Goff, A. W., Music in Schools, 634. 
Gordon, Lord George, 302, 313. 
Grace Church, 64. 

Graham, David, 195, 253, 323, 326, 346. 
Greenwich Asylum, 129, 138. 

See also, Orplian Asylum Society, 



H. 

Hamilton Free School, 49, 87, 135. 

Harlem Schools, 105, 135, 160. 

Hawks, Wright, 373. 

Henry VIII., 289. 

Hibbard, M.D., Wm., 579. 

High School, 10, 116, 166, 528, 645. 

Hobart, Bishop, 681. 

Hoffman, Michael, 497. 

Hogan, Rev. William, Excommunication 

of, 485, 490. 
Holbrook, Josiah, 530. 
Death of, 531. 



J62 



HoWen's Analysis of Faith, 307. 

Horne, T. Hartwell, 258. 

Hospitals, Schools Used for, 155. 

House of Lords, Evidence before, 490. 
Refuge, 166, 3y7, 475. 

Howard, William, Donation, 73. 

Ho)t, J. M., 61. 

Hughes, Rt. Rev. John, 187, 189, 196, 
202-224, 249, 252, 253, 254, 277- 
313, 344, 350, 426-478,488,489,514. 

Hungary, Excommunication In, 491. 

Huss, John, 192, 278, 286, 436. 

Hutton, Rev. M., 74. 



Independent circumstances. Men of, 46. 
Index, Expurgatorius, 485. 

Prohibitory, 260. 
Infallibility of the Church, 26.5, 273, 307. 
Infant Schools, 108, 149, 652-664. 
Inman, John, 712. 

InfideUty, 220, 275, 281, 288, 332, 756. 
Inquisition, 441. 

Institution for Deaf and Dumb, 150. 
Institutions entitled to School Fund, 48, 

49, 87, 131, 135, 235, 374,72.5. 
Ireland, 213, 230, 247, 258, 303, 490. 
Irish Heart, The, 251. 

R. C. Excommuuications, 490. 
Italian Schools, 529. 



J. 



James, I., 467. 
Jefferson, Thomas, 246. 
Jesuitry, 251. 
Jesuits, 258, 262, 301, 302. 
Jews, 135, 

Jones, Darius E., Music, 166. 
Journal of Commerce, 431, 439, 478, 482- 
488. 

K. 

Kelly, James, 188, 189, 195. 
Ketchum, Hiram, see Personal Index. 
King, E. W., 101, 381, 721. 
Knox. D.D., Rev. John, 271. 
Koran, 228. 



Ladies as School Visitors, 80. 
La Fayette, General,' 84, 672, 686. 
Lancaster, Joseph, 9, 18, 30, 32, 172, 600, 

687, 693, 697. 
Lancasterian System, 9, 10, 18, 19, 28, 

30, 49, 72, 600. 
Law Committee, see Committees. 



Laws, School, see Scliool Laws, 
Leggett, William, 234. 
Legislature, Visits by, 44, 56. 
Le Rous, Charles, Donation, 26, 
Libraries, 25, 30, 32, 165, 612. 
Lighted Window, The, 310. 
Loclie on Education, 1 5. 
Locliwood, Stephen, 70. 
London Quarterly Review, 490. 
Lotteries, 107, 150, 627. 
Luther, 286, 328. 



M. 

Maclay, D.D., Rev. Archibald, 43, 69, 158. 
Maclay, Hon. Wm. B., 497, 500. 

Report on Schools, 501-506. 

Review of, 507-516. 
Mafiit, Rev. John Newland, 43. 
Maghee, Phelim, 251, 301. 
Magna Charta, 468. 
Man of Fortune, 46. 

Manhattanville Free School, 105, 135, 157 
Manual, 32, 40, 41, 42, 176, 631, 642. 
Manumission Society, 22, 114, 164, 665- 

679. 
Maryland, Catholics of, 278. 
Mason, John L., 535, 548-560. 
Mathews, D.D., Rev. J. M., 64, 73. 
Matthew, Father, 251. 
McAuley, Rev. Thomas, 70. 
McCartee, Rev. Peter, 70. 
McCrea, Mrs. Mary, 29. 
McGregor, John, Jr., .70. 
McKeon, Hon. James W., 188, 189, 350, 

373, 488. 
McLaughlin, John, 188, 195. 
McMurray, William, 70. 
Mechanics' Society, 49, 87, 95, 97, 114, 

131,135, 137. 
Methodist Charity School, 123, 125-148. 
Memorials — 

for Act of Incorporation, 3. 

to Legislature for Aid, 11, 33. 
Relative to Bethel Church, 62. 

to Corporation on Bethel Church, 65. 

of Mayor, &c., to Legislature, 64. 

of the Society to Legislature, 68. 

of Religious Societies, 68. 

Relative to School Fund, 79. ' 

to Legislature for Aid, 119. 

to Common Council on Church 
Schools, 125. 

of Methodist Society, 132. 

to Corporation, on School Fund, 142. 

to the Senate, 1841, 403. 
See also Pitiliovs. 
Milnor, D.D., Rev. James, 73. 
Missal, 238. 

Mohammedans, 135,485. 
Monitors, 29, 31, 164, 609. 



763 



Monk, Maria, 447, 478. 

Montaigne, 15. 

Morals in Schools, see Religious Instruc- 
tion. 

Morning Schools for Apprentices, 32. 

Morton, J., 67, 6S, 82. 

Munchausen, Baron, 472. 

Munsen, Reuben, 70. 

Murphy, AViUiam D., see Personal Index. 

Murrav, Rev. Dr., Archbishop of Dublin, 
305.' 

Museum, American, 83. 

Music in Schools, 166, 632. 



N. 



Name of Society, 5, 12, 101. 
Natural History in Schools, 530. 
New Testament, Rhemish, 258, 291-300. 
New Yorls Evangelist, 506-516. 
Non-attendance of Catholics, 207, 223, 
287, S12, 337, 341, 393, 442, 463,474. 
Normal School, 158, 164, 528, 534, 645. 
Nothingarians, 312, 716. 



0. 



O'Connell, Daniel, 297. 

O'Conner, Joseph, 351. 

O'Connor, B., 188, 195, 350. 

O'Connor, Thomas, 187, 188, 189, 350, 

351, 426. 
Onderdonk, D.D., Rev. Benjamin, 74. 
Orangemen, 247. 
Ordinance on Vagrancy, 154. 
Orphan Asvlum Societv, 21, 48, 87, 95, 

97, 114, 131, 135, 138. 
Osgood, Rev. Thaddeus, 43. 
O'SuUivan, Hon. JohnL., 352, 481, 500. 



Papal Bull, 306. 

Parliament, 214, 261, 294, 303, 490. 

Patton, Rev. William, 70. 

Paulding, William, Mayor, 67, 96. 

Pay Schools, 86, 111, 121. 

Pay System, 82, 90, 100, 107, 150, 622. 

Pazmann, Cardinal, 492. 

Peace, 630. 

Peck, Rev. George, 201. 

Penn, William, 470. 

Pennsylvania School System, 16. 

Petitions, see also Memorials. 

of Society to Legislature, 32. 

of Mayor and Commoa Council, 64, 
67. ' 

R. C. Orphan Asylum, 124. 

of Methodist Church, 133. 

of Roman Catholics, 189, 202, 323, 
383. 
Philadelphia Free School Society, 22. 



Pise, Rev. Constantino D., 189, 253. 

Pius IV., 306. 

Poland, 278, 470. 

Poor, f;ducationof the, 310-312, 754, see 

Vagrancy and Census. 
Pope,' Authority of the, 303, 305, 468. 
Popery and Freedom, 304. 
Population of New York City, 1, 87, 111. 
Poverty of Catholics, 188, SS6, 514. 
Power,' D.D., Rev. John, 187, 189, 253, 

328, 347, 350. 
Primary Schools and Departments, 162, 

156, "l69, 175, 652-664. 
Private Schools, see Pay Schools. 
Prohibitory Index, 260. 
Property of the Society, 78, 594, 596. 
Proposition of Catholics, 320. 

Public School Society, 321, 386. 
Protestant Association, 302. 

Journal, 491. 
Puritans, 289. 
Public Schools — 

No. 1—9, 13, 25,33,42,43,155,171, 

172, 624, 639, 654, 656, 680. 
No. 2—10, 24, 25, 33, 42, 44, 155, 

624, 639, 647, 654, 655, 683. 
No. 3—25, 29, 33, 35, 41, 42, 43, 46, 
58, 60, 81, 84, 624, 625, 639, 654, 
685,711. 
No. 4—28, 30, 33, 40, 42, 155, 624, 

655, 688,711. 
No. 5 — 44, 46, 50, 51, 59, 76, 77, 165, 
160, 187, 532, 624, 647, 656, 657, 
690. 
No. 6— 81, 690, 701. 
No. 7—104, 148, 172, 635, 694. 
No. 8—105, 108, 149, 155, 029, 640, 

660, 662, 663, 698. 
No. 9—105, 106, 699. 
No. 10—106, 155, 661, 662, 663, 701. 
No. 11—106, 155,703. 
No. 12—122, 123, 704,711. 
No. 13—122, 155, 706. 
No. 14—155, 158,707. 
No. 15—122, 158, 708. 
No. 16—158, 166. 170, 709. 
No. 17—170, 530, 711. 
No. 18—530, 534, 712. 
Public-School-Society -Religion, 478. 



Qunkers, 470, 652. See also Society of 
Friends, 

R. 

Real Estate of the Society, see Property. 
Reasons against Sectarian Use of School 

Money, 127. 
Reese, M.D., David M., 268. 



764 



Reformation, School of, 153. 
Religion tlie foundation of morals,241, 287 . 
Religious Instruction, 26, SI, 38, 44, 88, 
89, 108, 160-163, 175, 191, 221, 229, 
237, 241, 281, 311, 334, 448, 472-474, 
636-644, 716, 718, 719, 733. 
Religious Societies, see Church Schools. 
Remonstrance 

against Roman Catholic and Metho- 
dist Applications, 125. 

Reasons for the Remonstrance, 127. 

against Roman Catholic Petition, ISO, 
181, 196. 

of Methodist Church, 198. 

to the Senate by the Society, 403. 

of Churches and Citizens, 323, 722. 
Reorganization, 46, 92, 98-103, 156. 
Reply of Trustees to R. C. Address, 338. 
Reports 

of Committee of Common Council, 67. 
of Assembly, 70, 89, 182. 

of Committee of Society, 85. 

of Committee on Laws, 96, 715. 

do. on Reorganization, 98. 

do. on Laws, 133. 

on Arts, Sciences, and Schools, 142, 
147, 323,722. 

Special, Board of Aldermen, 316. 

Hon. John C. Spencer, 356-373. 

Committee on Literature, Senate, 402. 

Hon. Wm. B. Maclay, 501. 

Committee of Transfer, 687-595. 

Commissioners of School Money, 734. 
Resolutions 

of Common Council to Society, 82. 

of the Society on Union, 381. 
Review, Dublin, see Dublin. 

of Hon. J. C. Spencer, 482, 747. 

of the School Question, 489. 

of Mr. Maclay's Report, 607-516. 

London Quarterly, 490. 
Revised Statutes, 233. 
Rewards, 29, 612. 

Rhemish New Testament, 258, 292-308. 
Rhine, 230. 
Rogers, John, 145. 
Roman Catholic Benevolent Society, 49. 

Orphan Asylum, 123, 124-148. 

Petition, 179, 189. 

Excommunication, 485, 490^95. 

Religion and Freedom, 304, 440. 

School Ticket, 479-482. 
Rule of Faith, 290, 301. 
Rutgers, Col. Henry, see Personal Index. 



S. 



Sailor's Snug Harbor, 155. 

Salaries, 32, 33, 62, 63, 606, 608. See also 

Teacher.1. 
Salvation out of the Church, 437-439. 



School Books, Expurgation of, 160-164, 
191, see Books. 
Entitled to School Money, see Institu- 

ilons. 
for Germans, 168, 176. 
for Italians, 629. 

Party, Roman Catholic, 479^82." 
Commissioners, see Commissioners, 
Fund, see Monet/. 
Money, 16, 45, 75, 79, 88, 95, 98, 124, 

125, 171. 
Law (see Acts), 74, 83, 101, 131. 
Bill of 1841, postponed, 426. 
Census (see Census), 111, 121. 
of Reformation, 153. 
for the Poor, 601, 602. 
for Colored Cliildren, see African 
Free School. 
School Fund not Sectarian, 88, 89, 125, 
139, 140, 143, 180, 181, 182, 194,219 
227, 230, 232, 240, 266, 270, 275, 276, 
319, 389, 421, 432. 
Scientific Studies and Exchanges, 530. 
Scriptures, Holy, in Schools, see Bible, 

and Religious Instruction. 
Scripture Lessons, 44, 213, 328, 640. 
Scudder, John, 681. 
Scuddcr, Mrs. John, 83. 
Sections of Trustees Organized, 77, 80. 
Secular education, 113, 135, 219,220, 225, 

229, 236, 243, 247, 286, 362, 410. 
Sedgwick, Theodore, Speech, 224, 496. 
Senate (1841), 353, 366, 373, 426. 
Servetus, 287. 

Seton, Samuel W., see Personal Index. 
Seward, Gov. Wm. H., 178, 353, 373, 430, 

497, 498. 
Shandv, Tristram, 431, 439, 443, 477, 478, 

482,' 489-495. 
Shorthill, Edward, 188, 350. 
Smith, Charles H., 681. 
Smith, Joseph, 69, 133. 
Smithfield, 214. 
Snodgrass, Rev. W. D., 70. 
Society of Friends, 2, 172, 174, 207, 246, 

254, 262, 287,291, 313, 652. 
Speeches. 

De Witt Clinton at No. 1, 14. 
Bishop Hughes, 202, 249, 277 426, 

480. 
Theodore Sedgwicic, 224. 
Hiram Ketchum, 239, 313, 373, 536. 
Rev. Thomtis E. Bond, D.D., 253. 
David M. Reese, M.D., 268. 
Rev. John Knox, D.D., 271. 
Rev. Nathan Bangs, D.D., 274. 
Rev. Gardiner Spring, D.D., 276. 
Hon. John L. Mason, 548. 
Hon. Joseph L. Bosworth, B60. 
Peter Cooper, 595. 
William D. Murphy, 597. 
Spelman, Sir Henry, 492-495. 



PERSONAL INDEX. 



765 



Spencer, Hon. Jolin C, 356. 

review of, 482, 747. 
Spring, D.D., Rev. Gardiner, 70., 276. 
St. Bartliolomew's Day, 214. 
St. Micliael's Churcli, 106. 
Stafford, Rev. Ward, 70. 
State, Duty of the, see Dutij of the Stale. 
Sterne, Laurence, see Tristram Shandy. 
Suffern, Tliomas, 70. 
Summerfield, Rev. George, 43. 
Sunday Schools, 27, 40, 108, 111, 248. 
Superintendent of Repairs, 167. 
Surplus Revenue, 171. 
Sweeney, M.D., Hugh, 187, 188, 189, 350. 



T. 



Tabernacle Baptist Church, 43, 69. 
Targee, John, 60, 73. 

Tavlor, Jacob B., 60. 

Taxes for School Money, 45, 116, 117,183. 

Teachers, 29, 30, 32, 33, 62, 158, 606. 

Temperance Tales, 252. 

Test and Corporation Act, England, 214. 

Thompson, Samuel, 70. 

Transfer of Property to Corporation, 151, 

165, 398. 

to Board of Education, 676-599. 

of Colored Schools to the Society, 674. 
Tribute to Joseph Lancaster, 173. 
Trinity Church, 25, 41. 
Troy, Rev. Dr. K. C, "Archbishop, 258, 

297. 
Truancy, see Vagrancy. 
Trustees, Classification of, 77, 80. 

Hall, 172, 177, 528, 647. 

to be Ward Trustees, 586. 
Tuthill, James M., 61. 

U. 

Union of the Public School Society and 
Board of Education, 574, 676. 



Universal Catechism, 44. 
Untaught Children, see Census and Va- 
grancii. 



Vagrancv, 17, 87, 88, 111, 119, 122, 153, 

175, 193, 413, 601, 602, 615. 
Van Blarconi, John, Donation, 29. 
Van Wyck, William, 140. 
Varela, Rev. Felix, 187, 325, 337, 346. 
Venice, Republic of, 304. 
Veiplanck, Hon. Gulian C, see Personal 

Index. 
Visit of General La Fayette, 84. 
Visit of Common Council to Schools, 82. 

Legislature do., 44, 56. 
Visitor Appointed, 119, 167, 615. 
Vulte, Charles, 597. 



W. 

Wainwright. Rev. J. M., DD., 64. 

Waldenses, 215. 

Washington, George, Address, 288, 436. 

Hall, 350. 
Webster, Charles R., 100. 
Webster, Daniel, 246. 
Wesley, John, 301, 313. 
Wheeler, S., 70. 

Whig P.arty, and Schools, 478, 496. 
White, James W., 188, 189, 361. 
Williams, Rev. John, 69. 
Williams, Roger, 470. 
Window, the Lighted, 310. 
Workshop, 167, 612. 



Yorkville School, 135. 



OFFICERS AND TRUSTEES OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SOCIETY. 

PERSONAL INDEX. 



Adams, John, 39, 46. 

Adams, John T., 425, 534, 580, 586, 651, 

697. 
Allen, Stephen, 60, 75, 86, 104, 105, 179, 

425, 618,695,699, 700, 701. 
Aspinwall, Gilbert, 5, 6, 8. 
Atterbury, Benjamin B., 686. 
Averill, Augustin, 426, 587, 664. 
Averill, Heman, 118, 153, 692, 694. 



B. 

Baldwin, Micah, 425, 708. 
Barrow, H. H., 680, 586. 
Bartlett, Caleb, 425. 
Benedict, H. S., 533. 
Benjamin, Meigs D., 425, 710. 
Belts, George W., 425. 
Birdsall, William, 425. 
Blackstone, WyUis, 586. 
Blaisdell, James U., 425, 710. 



PERSONAL INDEX. 



Bleeckor, Leonard, 2, 6, 6, 8, 39, 40, 43, 

55, 69, 73, 81, 639, 640, 685, 688, 690, 

695. 
Bowne, John L., 51, 81, 690. 
Bowae, Robert, 5, 665, 668. 
Boyd, Samuel, 39, 42, 56, 58, 81, 83, 663, 

685, 686, 690, 698. 
Boyd, William, 5. 
Brinsmade, James B., 119, 146, 152, 153, 

425, 681, 586, 629, 664, 704, 707. 
Britton, Stephen P., 686. 
Brown, Adam, 688. 
Brown, Ebenezer H., 586. 
Brown, Noah, 28, 688. 
Burtis, Arthur, 692. 
Bussing, Thomas, 165, 425, 677. 

C. 

Cairns, William, 39. 

Chester, W. W., 425, 628, 662, 706. 

Childs, Samuel R., 146, 167, 175, 425, 

633, 651, 706,708. 
Chrystie, Albert, 425. 
Clapp, Isaac H., 648. 
Clark, Benjamin, 39, 41, 44,46, 58, 75, 

78, 79, 81, 83, 85, 101. 103, 146, 172, 

262, 
Clarkson, Matthew, 2, 5, 8. 
Cleaveland, Edward W., 425. 
Clinton De Witt, 4, 6, 8, 14, 32, 39, 74, 

109, 039, 649, 659, 6S0. 
Cobb, James W., 534. 
Cobb, Lyman, 168,425. 
Cock, George E., 586. 
Coit, William, 5. 

Collins, Benjamin S., 158, 707, 708, 709. 
Collins, Isaac, 39, 51, 56, 57, 68, 75, 81, 

82, 8.5, 96, 101, 103, 105, 640, 686, 

690, 691, 692, 695, 698. 
Collins, James, 47. 
Collins, Joseph B., 166, 168, 175, 325, 

327, 344, 347, 425, 496, 628, 534, 535, 

574, 579, 580, 586, 587, 618, 625, 651, 

678, 710. 
Collins, Thomas, 683. 
Comstock, Nathan, 39, 613. 
Constant, Joseph, 2, 5. 
Cooledge, William P., 680, 686, 593. 
Cooper, Francis, S9. 

Cooper, Peter, 179, 425, 533, 534, 574, 

679, 580, 683, 586, 595, 693, 708. 
Cornell, Robert C, 46, 68, 75, 78, 79, 81, 

82, 85, 96, 101, 103, 104, 105, 122, 141, 
16.5, 158, 167, 179, 186, 198,344, 345, 
432, 434, 440, 532, 618, 626, 662, 663, 
695, 698, 701, 703, 704, 706, 708. 

Cornell, M.D., T. F., 425. 

Corse, Israel, 165, 677. 

Crosby, Robert R., 586. 

Curtis, Joseph, 425, 686, 593, 693, 710, 
713. 



D. 



Davenport, John, 580, 586, 593, 608, 693, 

Davies, Henry E., 425. 

Day, Mahlon, 153, 165,425, 664, 677,708, 

Dean, Israel, 57, 81, 691. 

Delamater, John, 146. 

DemUt, Samuel, 153, 156, 165, 425, 648 
662, 664, 674, 677, 694, 708, 710, 713, 

Denman, Asahel A., 425. 

De Peyster, Frederic, 425, 694. 

DePeyster, James F., 104, 105, 146, 1C2 
325, 347, 425, 574, 575, 579, 580, 5:fB, 
651, 678, 691, 695, 699, 700, 701, 70S. 

Doughty, Samuel, 5. 

Downer, F. W., 580, 587. 

Dusenberry, William, 633. 

Dwight, Jr., Theodore, 167, 633. 



E. 



Eckford, Henry, 28, 32, 39, 639, 649, 

688. 
Eddy, Thomas, 2, 5, 6, 8, 28, 39, 41, 43, 

639, 688. 
Edgar, William, 2, 5, 8. 
Egiiert, Benjamin, 5. 
Ellis, Benjamin, 425, 580, 608, 712. 
Ellsworth, Erastus, 119, 662. 
Elv, John, 586. 
Everitt, N. C, 692. 



Farmar, Thomas, 5. 

Ferris, Edward, 425. 

Field, H. W., 710. 

Fish, Hamilton, 106, 707. 

Forbes, Samuel, 6. 

Fox, W. W., 103, 105, 156, 675, 696, 

698, 704, 706, 708, 709. 
Franklin, Matthew, 6, 0, 8. 
Franklin, Thomas, 2, 5, 6, 8. 



Gibbons, Thomas, 67. 

Gracie, Archibald, 5. 

Gray, John, 686. 

Grilling, Samuel, 425. 

Grinneil, Joseph, 76, 79, 81, 85, 624, 692. 

Groshon, J., 425, 701. 

Goodwin, Ely, 686. 

H. 

Haff, S., 706. 

Haines, Charles G., 61, 56, 81. 

Hallock, Lewis, 580. 

Halsey, Anthony P., 107, 168, 179, 186, 

198, 328, 344, 347, 628, 534, 673, 608, 

647, 648, 708. 



PERSONAL INDEX. 



767 



Halsted, Matthias 0.,1(M. 

Harsen, Jacob, 426, 586. 

Hasbrouck, Stephen, 698. 

Havcmeyer, Fiederick, 712. 

Havens, Philetus, 81. 

Havens, Kensselaer, 39, 40, 46, 61, 19, 81, 

118, 152, 639, 690, 692, 703. 
HavUand, Edmund, 165, 425, 677. 
Heard, James, 146, 155, 1 68, 706, 708, 709. 
Hedges, Timothy, 425, 586, 694, 707. 
Hegeman, Adrian, 6, 6, S. 
Hepburn, J. C, 687. 
.Hicks, Oliver H., 686. 
Hicks, Whitehead, 28, 32, 39, 686, 688. 
Hinsdale, Henry, 165, 677. 
Hogan, M.D., Robert, 325, 347, 350, 425. 
Howard, William, 81, 119. 
Howe, John W., 425, 533, 687, 713. 
Hurd, John K., 44, 79, 81, 82, 118, 166, 

167, 425, 633, 534, 681, 633, 651, 663, 

675, 692, 712, 713. 
Hyde, John E., 46, 47, 61, 66, 81, 103, 

640. 

J. 

James, Samuel, 39. 

Jay, Peter Augustus, 167, 627, 682, 707. 

Jav, John, 425. 

Jewett, Thomas L,, 165, 677. 

Johnson, William, 5, 6, 8. 



Kellogg, Joseph W., 686. 

Kennedy, M.D., Samuel L., 707. 
■ Ketchum, Hiram, 67, 58, 74, 78, 81, 82, 
83, 96, 146, 152, 224, 239, 277, 282, 
313, 373, 425,429, 433, 448, 478, 536, 
662, 663, 675. 

Kirby, Edward, 686. 

Knapp, Shepherd, 425. 

L. 

Lawrence, Abraham R., 167, 425, 633, 

650, 651. 
Lawrence, Richard M., 425. 
Lawrence, William Beach, 707. 
Lee, Gideon, 61, 79, 81, 158, 704, 706, 

707, 708. 
Lee, William P., 587. 
Leigh, Ch.irles C, 586. 
Leveridge, John, 146. 
Leveridge, John W. C, 581, 686, 593. 
Livingston, Brockholst, 2, 4. 
Lockwood, Roe, 586. 
Lord, Daniel, 663, 698. 
Lord, Eleazar, 78, 81, 698. 
Lorillard, Jacob, 29, 39, 639. 
Lyon, David, 81. 



Macy, WiUiam H., 425, 697. 



Mandeville, William, 42B, 580, 583, 586. 

Marsh, James, 586. 

Marshall, Benjamin, 32, 39, 613, 685. 

McBrair, James, 425. 

McCarthy, Dennis, 691. 

McClain," Orlando D., 686. 

McElrath, Thomas, 757. 

McVickar, John, 5. 

Mercein, Thouras R., 701. 

Merwin, Almon, 580. 

Miller, Charles, 39. 

Miller, Nehemiah, 586. 

Miller, Sitmuel, 2, 5, 6, 8. 

Mills, Abner, 425, 586. 

Mintum, Benjamin G., 5, 6, 8. 

Mitchill, Dr. Samuel L., 6. 

Morrison, John, 167, 425, 633. 

Morton, Jacob, 6. 

Mott, J.acob, 5. 

Mott, M. H., 687. 

Mott, Robert F., 81, 82. 

Mott, Samuel F., 122, 146, 160, 152, 165, 
166, 168, 165, 167, 172, 179, 252, 325, 
347, 425, 628, 612, 618, 626, 633, 662, 
663, 675, 678, 692, 704, 706, 708. 

Murphy, William D., 425, 581, 697, 699. 

Murray, Hamilton, 712. 

Murray, John, 2, 4, 6, 8, 39, 40, 41, 639, 
654, 666, 666, 667, 669, 688, 689. 

Murray, John R., 29, 39, 41, 613, 685, 689. 

Murray, Lindley, 29, 39, 40, 46, 47, 51, 
55, 58, 69, 75, 81, 83, 85, 96, 101, 103, 
152, 156, 162, 167. 

N. 

Neilson, William H., 575, 680, 586, 608, 
648. 



0. 



Oakley, Charles, 122, 146, 155, 158, 162, 
425, 618, 663, 704, 706, 708, 709, 710. 
Ogden, Thomas L., 39. 
Olmstead, James, 81. 
Osgood, Samuel, 2, 4. 



Paige, Richard, 425. 

Palmer, James, 28, 32, 39, 44, 51, 75, 81, 

85, 205, 425, 688, 689, 690, 695, 698. 
Pardow, George, 425. 
Pardow, Robert, 678. 
Patterson, S. P., 586. 
Pearsall, Thomas, 2, 5. 
Peck, Hiram N., 707, 708. 
Perit, Pelatiah, 426, 586. 
Perkins, Benjamin D., 6, 8, 9, 24. 
Perkins, M.D., Roger G., 580, 587. 
Perry, William, 39. 
Pessinger, George, 425. 



768 



PERSONAL INDEX. 



Phelps, ABSon G., 425, '708. 

Pierson, M.D., Charles E., 425, 674, 579, 

680, 686, 608, 648. 
Plntard, John, 39, 639, 689. 
Piatt, Ebenezer, 586. 
Pond, M.D., James 0., 425. 
Potter, Joseph, 586. 
Price, Thompson, 425, 586, 712. 

R. 

Rathbone, Jr., John, 79, 81. 

Rcdfield, Justus S., 586. 

Reed, Richard, 586. 

Richards, Nathaniel, 146. 

Richmond, Thomas, 586. 

Robertson, Alexander, 5. 

Rockwell, M.D., William, 425, 496, 694. 

Rogers, M.D., J. Smyth, 325, 347, 425, 691. 

Roosevelt, Jr., James I., 101, 103, 104, 
146, 152, 156, 15S, 167, 425, 625, 628, 
633, 663, 682, 695, 701,710.- 

Rosenniiiller, L. A., 687. 

Russell, Israel, 580, 586. 

Russell, Samuel, 2, 5. 

Rutgers, Col., Henry, 10, 23, 24, S9, 109, 
532, 639, 649, 657, 683. 



S. 



Schermerhorn, Peter A., 425. 

Schieffelin, Henry H., 425. 

Schieffelin, Hemy M., 425, 580, 583, 587. 

Seaman, Valentine, 5. 

Seaman, Willet, 425, 586. 

Sedgwick, Robert, 152, 625, 662, 700. 

Servoss, Thomas L. 425. 

Seton, S. W., 82, 119, 152, 153, 393, 425, 

580, 683, 586, 616, 642, 664, 677, 682, 

694, 708, 710, 714. 
Sheldon, P., 662. 
Sherwood, Burritt, 425, 661, 694. 
Skidmore, Joseph R., 686. 
Slidell, John, 81. 
Slocum, William T., 44, 51, 81, 686, 690, 

692. 
Smith, Floyd, 712. 
Smith, William,'425, 710. 
Spalding, Lyman, 89, 685. 
Spencer, Reuben, 425. 
Stevens, Linus W., 425, 675, 580, 586, 

593, 608, 692, 712, 713. 
Stillman, J. D. B., 687. 
Stilbuan, Thomas B., 586. 
Stokes, James, 425, 587. 
Stone, WilHam L., 165, 175, 677, 712. 
Stuart, M.D., Joseph, 425. 
Stuyvesant, Peter, 710. 
Sucklev, George, 39. 
Swan, Benjamin L., 146, 155, 158, 701, 

706, 70S, 709. 



Swan, Caleb, 586. 



Taylor, Jeremiah H., 153, 614, 628, 662, 

663, 664, 682, 701,702. 
Taylor, Knowles, 691. 
Tavlor, Najah, 29, 39, 42, 44, 46, 81, 14], 

146, 425, 624, 639, 640, 685, 686, 690, 

095. 
Taylor, Thomas C, 29, 39, 685, 688, 699. 
Ten Brook, Henry, 5, 6. 
Thompson, Jeremiah, 39. 
Tieman, Daniel F., 586, 708. 
Tompkins, Daniel D., 5. 
Torrev, WiUiam, 41, 42, 81, 685, 686. 
Trimble, George T., 39, 40, 81, 103, 104, 

105, 141, 153,156, 158, 165, 168,179, 

425, 534, 573, 574, 575, 579, 580, 587, 

608, 639, 648, 664, 674, 677, 689, 695, 

697, 698, 699, 701, 703, 710. 
Trimble, M.D., Isaac P., 425. 
Trumbull, Geoi-ge, 5. 

U. 

Underhill, Ira B., 165, 677. 
Underhill James W., 580. 
Underhill, Joshua, 704. 
Underhill, Joshua S., 673, 580. 
Underhill, Walter, 680. 

V. 

Van Schaick, Myndert, 663. 
Van Wagenen, Gerrit H., 683. 
Varnum, Joseph B., 5S0, 586. 
Vcrmilye, Washington R., 681, 586, 608. 
Verplanck, Guhan C, 158, 166, 171, 351, 
356, 425, 426, 618, 649. 

W. 

W.alker, Charles, 165, 677. 
WandeU, B. C, 587. 
Ward, Isaac, 587. 
AVard, Lebbeus B., 580, 587. 
Washburn, Joseph W., 425, 710. 
Weeks, Ezra, 39, 81, 685. 
Wells, James N., 122, 14G, 158, 708, 709. 
Wells, Ovid P., 704. 
Wetmore, David W., 708. 
Wheeler, Solomon, 81. 
Wilkes.tharles, 5. 
Willets, Edmund, 163, 425, 677. 
Willets, Samuel, 425. 
Williams, M.D., Abraham V.,425, 700, 701. 
Winthrop, Benjamin R., 425, 586, 712. 
Withington, John, 5, 32, 39. 
Wood, Samuel, 39, 40, 81, 165, 677, 688, 
692. 



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